SEPA Single Euro Payment Area ('free' European banking)

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
Anyone tried the system yet?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

Since I started writing this (believe it or not!) have just been told about my first receipt of Euros via SEPA.

No apparent separate charges, SWIFT code was required, no apparent other boxes about costs allocations (self or recipient).

Looks GOOD

This test is Germany to Switzerland under SEPA.

Princely sum of 20.20 Euro

Fingers crossed that no charges now manifest.

Anthony

2
You'll find that Swiss banks require IBAN to do transfer within Europe. Otherwise you'll see extra charges or refusal to transfer.

Also the cost of sending money from Switzerland is 25 francs and you need to state that the sender should bear the costs.

Sending money to the US requires the BIC (IIRC) and incurs the same cost.

3
thanks for that.

from 18 May as regards UBS , SEPA payments to anywhere in the zone will be no more than a local country transfer.

SWIFT and BIC now seem to be the same code.

(SEPA=Euros only)

I am especially interested to hear about other countries and their banks having activated their SEPA system. In theory it is "here already" - is it in reality?

Anthony

p.s. thanks for shifting my post to this better place.

4
edit: a SEPA payment needs BOTH IBAN and SWIFT as far as I gather from today's test.

5
Yup - am accepting SEPA payments now from EURO countries - on the condition that buyers ensure that their banks are participating. According to UBS, most European banks will be participating as it's in their best interest, but the question is "when".

As already mentioned on the thread, you can accept SEPA payments for minimum charge (CHF 0.30) to a UBS account already, and you will be able to make payments as of mid-May.

The key to the transactions is having IBAN and SWIFT numbers....

6
Excellent, thank you very much, you have identified what was bugging me. It is the "when" issue. We will "make SEPA available" by means of a letter so it can be applied "when" the relevant payer has it available via her bank.

Any caveats gratefully received.

Kind regards

Anthony

7
update:

pleased to report an easily successful SEPA payment from a German online bank account.

All straightforward, no special instructions needed. Sent out a client letter making SEPA "available" if their bank offers them that facility.

Kind regards

Anthony

8
I'm interested to know how you word a client letter making SEPA available, as I need to do this for people to pay into my Swiss account from Euro countries. And is it really IBAN and Swift data that are needed? I was informed it was IBAN and BIC? Your help is appreciated.

9
SWIFT is an organization, BIC is the bank identifier code that handles registration of the codes.

Therefore SWIFT equals BIC.

More entertaining (not) reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9362

10
that's a better reply than I was going to give.

Having now used outgoing SEPA, the system just appeared by magic in my internet banking.

Anthony

11
Sounds good. Thanks.

12
Hi guys.

I am on UBS' ebanking, and I cannot find a specific option for a SEPA payment.

On the help section, it says that as long as it's a transfer of euros within the SEPA area and with shared costs, then I will only get charged 0,40 francs...

Is this the famous SEPA or am I doing something wrong?

13
Here's what they don't tell you:

(1) There is an extra PAYMENT REFERENCE option which is ONLY used if it is a SEPA payment. An entry here for a non SEPA payment is ignored.

(2) The costs and instructions box, enter AUTOMATIC and if you go back to that screen from the previous (i.e. step 2 back to step 1 say) remember to reset this pull down list to "automatic" because it will have set itself to something different.

(3) The date for payment MUST be at least tomorrow, otherwise it won't go SEPA. So set for tomorrow and it will actually be sent the next day. Bank holidays not included. So instruct today for tomorrow actually pays day after that; day 3. Bit sneaky really.

(4) Discovered recently that if you are paying say a French dentist (in France) and they give you their bank's SWIFT/BIC Code, you may find SEPA is not offered. I suspect this catches out a lot of people. What you need is the Bank SWIFT/BIC for the branch, usually head office say in Paris, that accepts incoming SEPA (i.e. international) payments. Said dentist will have no idea about this. You MUST of course use the correct IBAN so the right person receives your money.

If successful in setting up the SEPA payment you will get a green box with a white tick in it and the words:

"Your order has been received as a SEPA order. It will be executed on 09.04.2009, provided sufficient credit is available and the order was transmitted within the UBS acceptance deadline. "

(Before that box you will get a similar box saying it will go via SEPA for 30 cents Euro.)

If you do not get this box you may well get a box telling you what you must do in order to make the payment meet the SEPA requirements. Such as "automatically' allocate charges or change the payment date. It won't tell you the SWIFT/BIC code is inappropriate (it may be a perfectly correct code, just not the right one for a SEPA payment). A clue to this may be that when you do the SWIFT/BIC bank search, the bank details look incomplete, so that's a bit like "spot the ball".

Overall, if you know it is a payment capable of going via SEPA, stick to your guns, keep playing until you get it right.

And good luck - I have discovered that even payment from EUR to UK GBP a/c can seem to go via SEPA. Pleasant surprise.

Of course none of this seems to be documented anywhere.

Anthony

14
Thanks for the whole post, and especially for the part about the green box.

15
welcome. now if I can figure out how to keep my UK driving licence (for travel outside Switzerland) and get a Swiss one.. amongst many other ongoing first year shenanigins.. !

16
I think they will require to get your UK license in order to give you a Swiss one... but who cares? Same thing.

17
The IBAN number already contains the banks identity. I use PostFinance online. Input the IBAN, and the PostFin online software automatically identifies the recipients bank. The software displays the recipients bank's name in plain text along with the pertinent SWIFT code.

18
I am happy to take a Swiss licence, but not happy to excgange my UK one because I have matching UK assets and insurances. I cross many borders and it works better to have documents that match in every respect while remaining legal - in Switzerland only my Swiss licence would be acceptable.

Thinking of doing the Swiss driving test. Would like to do it in any case.

Anthony

19
[[Drivers licence] Conversion and questions](http://www.englishforum.ch/transportation-driving/5770-drivers-licence-conversion-questions-1.html)

In this thread several users report that they got the foreign license back with a "not valid in Switzerland" sticker. It might depend on the nationality but it's worth inquiring at the cantonal traffic office.

20
I just got my first in-payment for an invoice to The Netherlands! they paid me in EURO and it worked with no fee! Thanks UBS!

Seeking more of EU work soon...