I finally have a question that's nowhere near as complicated as trying to figure out French taxes.
I'm leaving in 6 weeks and have to transfer all of my money from UBS to Bank of Scotland. Does anyone know how long this takes and what kind of fee is involved?
I tried to transfer money from my Novartis (Company) account to Bank of Scotland, just to make sure my IBAN number was indeed correct and after 24 h, the money doesn't seem to have been transferred yet. Does it take a couple of days?
A part of me is tempted just to play it safe and take it all out as cash. :/
Provided it's a standard SEPA transfer, it should take about 48 hours maximum. If you're transferring from a Novartis account, remember that transactions made after mid-afternoon are not processed until the following day, so that's when the clock starts ticking.
I managed to receive my money thanks and there seems to be no charge. Could be because I transferred straight from Novartis.
It did indeed take almost 48 hours exactly.
Now I'm transferring the rest of my money. Also it's nice to know my IBAN is correct (Bank of Scotland doesn't provide you it online which is a hassle.)
They're probably doing an international GBP transfer, which takes longer.
From a Novartis account, money is transferred internationally in Euros, using a standard SEPA transfer. This is very quick, usually credited in under 48 hours. When you get your payment advice, you'll see that the money was received in the UK as Euros.
From my PostFinance account, I can choose the currency in which to send a payment. It's always quicker to send a SEPA payment in Euros, although you'll lose out on the exchange rate due to the two conversions (CHF -> EUR, EUR -> GBP)
SEPA are only for euro currency... I'm assuming the OP would do: CHF-GBP...
In a more generic responses, it can take a few days/week and there will be a bank fee, or more.
Last time I sent money to a German account, the "intermediate banks" charged some extra fees. In other words: sending from Bank A to Bank B is a wonderful secret path, only known from the banks.
It could be Bank A- Bank C- Bank D- Bank B.*
That's also when "fees" will occur.
*don't ask why, I don't know. Beside the obvious thing of charging extras when they can.
Anyway apparently its done, so you just have to wait and see how much they reduced.
PS: last time I have took money from GBP to CH, they limited the max amount of transfer and they charged me approx 50GBP total (2 times 25GBP).
That is correct, when I phoned my UK bank I was advised it is shown on printed statements posted to you, not on the on-line statements. If you get your statements on-line, the only way* to get your IBAN/BIC is to phone them and pass the security questions, *apart from visiting a branch in UK.
The reason for the detour is the way "clearance" is organised.
Obviously, if someone sends money from bank A to bank B, the money has to be transferred between the banks in one way or another. Banks do not transfer individual amounts between them, they "clear" balances at the end of certain periods, usually every day.
Example: Bank A and Bank B do have direct clearance between them:
In one day:
100 customers transfer a total of 1million from A to B.
90 customers transfer a total of 900k from B to A.
At the end of the day Bank A owes Bank B 100k, as this is the total difference.
Now if bank A and B do not have direct clearance between them, they work with their "correspondence banks" to enable the same clearance indirectly. For this, they charge the (IMHO inappropriate) fee.