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Post by red_panda on Sept 17, 2015 11:55:40 GMT
SS replied. All's fine! "We will just amend your auto-deposit to what the actual deposit is, which may result in a small negative balance but that is ok as you can either send more to cover or wait until you receive interest on your investment at the end of the month."
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SteveT
Member of DD Central
Posts: 6,875 
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Post by SteveT on Sept 17, 2015 12:14:42 GMT
I do like the fact that SS still treat their investors as individual customers and are happy to tweak things or work around problems for them when asked. I hope it's a long time before they're forced into the uncompromising "Computer says No" approach adopted by their larger, more established competitors ...
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jonah
Member of DD Central
Posts: 2,031
Likes: 1,113
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Post by jonah on Sept 17, 2015 12:33:53 GMT
SS replied. All's fine! "We will just amend your auto-deposit to what the actual deposit is, which may result in a small negative balance but that is ok as you can either send more to cover or wait until you receive interest on your investment at the end of the month." Remarkably good customer approach. Great stuff savingstream
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Post by xyon100 on Sept 17, 2015 13:05:32 GMT
Thanks. SEPA transfers within EU have 0 bank fees. Yes, exchange rate might not be the best. True for transfers in EUR. Unfortunately most receiving banks in the UK charge a fee when receiving non GBP transfers. I have been charged substantial amounts for that (not tried on SS though, but for other transfers Eurozone bank to UK bank). Hate to appear picky, but it is simply not the case that most UK banks will charge to receive Euro. It's actually far more likely if Pounds are sent. I believe this is due to EU regulation on Euro transfer within the EU that also apply to the UK, but as the regulation does not apply the Pound, it's likely that a substantial charge will be made to receive Pounds.
I was once a very keen player on eBay and it drove me mad having to constantly counter advice to make Eurozone buyers send Pounds and pay all fees. All that did was create fees where there need be none. I was CONSTANTLY being called out on this with people often quoting misleading or simply out of date information from the banks websites claiming various fees for currency that simply did not apply to Euro.
In the end(being a hands on kind of guy ;-) I invited the discussion boards to join me on an experiment where I would send Euro to their bank accounts and they could repay me to my UK account. I sent money to something like 8 or 9 UK banks, all made in Euro and "shared charges" selected as costs option. Only one bank made a charge (if I remember, NatWest??) of one Pound and they explained it as a charge to send a letter, which is ridiculous. None of the others made any charge at all and the exchange rate used was always very close to the mid-market rate.
Any other way of sending money to the UK, including sending Pounds or selecting anything other than "shared charges" WILL generate completely unnecessary fees for the sender and MAY well create yet more fees for the recipient. I have seen 20 Pounds worth of fees on an 8 Pound transfer generated by UK folk insisting on Pounds, when a standard Euro transfer at mid-market rates would, at worst, have cost the seller a few pennies.
Sorry to witter on, but I believe it's important. I have seen so many problems caused in the past by UK folk insisting on Pounds from the Euro zone.
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Post by wiseclerk on Sept 17, 2015 15:04:07 GMT
True for transfers in EUR. Unfortunately most receiving banks in the UK charge a fee when receiving non GBP transfers. I have been charged substantial amounts for that (not tried on SS though, but for other transfers Eurozone bank to UK bank). Hate to appear picky, but it is simply not the case that most UK banks will charge to receive Euro. It's actually far more likely if Pounds are sent. I believe this is due to EU regulation on Euro transfer within the EU that also apply to the UK, but as the regulation does not apply the Pound, it's likely that a substantial charge will be made to receive Pounds.
Natwest, the bank used by Ablrate last year in August quoted these charges for receiving transfers in Euro: ""If you were receiving currency our charge would be - Less than £100 or currency equivalent - £1.00. Over £100 or currency equivalent - £7.00." So you'd be charged 7 GBP plus potentially not getting a good exchange rate.
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Post by xyon100 on Sept 17, 2015 16:24:26 GMT
Well, you got me. ;-)
Lloyds also state that they charge 2 Pounds for up to 100 Pounds currency equivalent and 7 Pounds over 100. In fact, nearly all the banks do.
And none of that changes a single word I said. ;-)
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Post by wiseclerk on Sept 17, 2015 16:28:50 GMT
And none of that changes a single word I said. ;-)
How is that? I'd rather avoid being charged 7 GBP for a SEPA EUR share transfer to a Natwest account (e.g. to deposit on Ablrate).
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Post by xyon100 on Sept 17, 2015 16:50:18 GMT
It changes nothing because the information I gave you is correct, there is no 7 Pound fee to receive a Euro SEPA payment. I'm not making this up as I go along here you know. ;-)
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Post by wiseclerk on Sept 17, 2015 17:28:39 GMT
Well several users of the German forum tried last August, and they were charged 7 GBP when they transferred to Natwest in order to deposit at Ablrate.
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Post by xyon100 on Sept 17, 2015 17:55:12 GMT
Well several users of the German forum tried last August, and they were charged 7 GBP when they transferred to Natwest in order to deposit at Ablrate. As I said earlier, the biggest mistake and the most common one is to send Pounds. By doing this the Germans made a fee for themselves to send and they enabled NatWest to charge them 7 Pounds. Had they sent an ordinary SEPA transfer in Euro, shared charges as the selected payment option, they would not have had the 7 Pound fee.
The intention of the EU regulation (was EC 2560 but no doubt superseded ) was that cross border transfer of Euro in the EU cannot cost more than a domestic transfer(they don't have to be free as is often claimed) and that is both to send and receive. This regulation applies to all EU countries. It would appear that UK banks do not make charges to accept incoming domestic transfers in Euro and so they cannot charge to accept a SEPA transfer in Euro.
If you step outside of SEPA, use anything other than the shared charges option, send anything other than Euro or request anything special like an urgent payment, the payment falls outside of the regulations and the banks can and will charge.
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Post by wiseclerk on Sept 17, 2015 19:59:31 GMT
In the end(being a hands on kind of guy ;-) I invited the discussion boards to join me on an experiment where I would send Euro to their bank accounts and they could repay me to my UK account. I sent money to something like 8 or 9 UK banks, all made in Euro and "shared charges" selected as costs option. Only one bank made a charge (if I remember, NatWest??) of one Pound and they explained it as a charge to send a letter, which is ridiculous. None of the others made any charge at all and the exchange rate used was always very close to the mid-market rate.
The transfers by the Germans were in EUR, shared charges. As you said yourself, Natwest charged you one pound for the Euro shared transfer you conducted which is exactly in line with the fee structure I posted. It is debatable whether this is ridiculous, but if it is known, then clearly the wiser route is to look for cheaper alternatives, which my original comment was about.
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Post by xyon100 on Sept 17, 2015 20:42:59 GMT
Well, it's an odd one. Here is me transferring Euro all over Europe for the last 15 years, including many to the UK and somehow I have missed all these fees. Everything I have learned about sending Euro in a decade and a half is all wrong. Remarkable. My own UK bank, Lloyds, also charge £2 for receiving international transfers up to £100 in value and £7 for over £100. Remarkably, I never noticed those fees, either. Not in dozens of transfers. You know why? They are not charged.
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Post by red_panda on Sept 18, 2015 8:01:41 GMT
SS received my SEPA transfer of €504.2. They received £356.96. If I were to send the same over Transferwise today, they would receive £367.64. Hence, the exchange rate would have been better using the latter.
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Post by red_panda on Sept 18, 2015 8:07:20 GMT
SS received my SEPA transfer of €504.2. They received £356.96. If I were to send the same over Transferwise today, they would receive £367.64. Hence, the exchange rate would have been better using the latter. I wonder if there is a threshold value where SEPA is the better option than Transferwise. Anyone knows?
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Post by xyon100 on Sept 18, 2015 9:13:07 GMT
As far as I know (long time since I used them) transferwise charge as little as 1 Euro to send up 200 at mid-market rate, and charge 0.5 above that? That beats the banks hands down. Check that though.
That said, if I was sending a couple of hundred Euro to my UK account I would just take the 20 seconds it would take to send a SEPA from my PC banking. It's not worth messing around with a third party, for me at least. And that is despite the claimed fee of 7 Pounds on Lloyds website, but let's not start that again. ;-)
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