Transferring money from UK to Finland

njcronin · Post by **njcronin** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:38 am

Does anyone know the easiest and cheapest way for me to pay money from an english account to a Finnish 1? It's is for a housing deposit and has to be paid before i arrive.

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Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 1:49 am

Well, in Finland one would have the IBAN number of the account and the SWIFT number of the bank and one would do it in their internet bank... However in the UK I think you have to get a carrier pigeon and a personal check... wire transfer it would be, but shop around for the charges as the bank the money is in might want to charge you not only the arm and leg, but the cojones and undrwear as well...

doctorforsh · Post by **doctorforsh** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 10:44 am

and the finnish side will also charge you roughly 20-30 percent!

there is no HSBC,Natwest,Loyds TSB in finland!

and 20-30 percent is a lot of money

and i dont think there is a nordea in UK!

best bring the money with you,,,or keep it in your UK bank and get a Switch/Solo cash card as you can use them in finland ATMs

make sure you can take out a high amount of money as the ATMs here charge you 1.75% ,,,but thats better then wire transfer of 20-30%

and dont worry,,its safe to carry a large amount of money in finland,,never mind people robbing you,,they dont even look at you here lol

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:08 am

If you already have contacts with a bank in Finland (eg if you have planned to take out a housing loan) then call them and ask them the best way to do it. We sold a house in France and transfered the money to Finland and Nordea advised us what to do (can't remember the details though). Within the euro zone, IBAN transfers are free up to a max of - not sure - 18000 euro????? You could ask your UK bank for a written quote on the cost of doing the transaction and then ask the Finland bank the same question - it will depend whether you convert to euros here or in the UK. You will also have to fill in some details about the origins and destination of the cash (we did, this is something to do with tracking money laundering) and the tax authorities here may well ask you to justify the transfer (they contacted us - one year after the transaction - the French tax/banking authorities had obviously done all the nitty-gritty peperwork) but they shouldn't give you any hassle as it is all legit personal money... I assume.

I see no reason why a Finnish bank would charge you 30% for taking your money. In fact if you are taking out a loan through them I would try and negotiate..... I think bank currency conversion rates are reasonably flexible

jpm · Post by **jpm** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:21 am

I did this recently, via LLoyds TSB to a Sampo account. I sent several separate amounts of Euro's under €15,000, using normal overseas IBAN transfer. Each transfer cost me about GBP 10. Sampo charged nothing to receive the money. It took about a week.

Dan · Post by **Dan** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:23 pm

20-30 percent? Have you actually done a transfer or did you transfer £20?

I was able to transfer money from a NatWest account to a Nordea one quite easily. All I needed was the IBAN details for the Nordea account. I think they even print them on statements now. If not then just ask the bank. The downside was I couldn't do it electronically so I had to write a letter but that's standard for everything in the U.K.

You'll save a few pounds if you ask to transfer it in Euros and not British Sterling. Just work out how much you want to transfer, convert it to Euros and let your U.K. bank that's what you want to transfer.

Mook · Post by **Mook** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 1:01 pm

doctorforsh wrote:and the finnish side will also charge you roughly 20-30 percent!

Yeah right....

When I I transferred £50 000 it cost about £30. Maybe you need to try a different bank?

RSH · Post by **RSH** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 1:21 pm

Ditto with dan and mook using Barclays. From overseas I have to write a letter but in branch you can do with ID for about £30, which I think is a standard charge regardless of how much you transfer. Money was received by Nordea who didn't charge.

Cod · Post by **Cod** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 7:13 pm

..if you do a 'structured payment' which is the 'standard' way of moving dosh around europe and uses the IBAN number...its £8 at this end using Smile internet bank and nothing at that end...or so I'm led to believe...maybe Nordea cream off a commssion and keep it quiet...

doctorforsh · Post by **doctorforsh** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 1:42 pm

David & Minna wrote: Nordea cream off a commssion and keep it quiet...

2 right they do! they take as much as they can..charges and bank charges and transcation charges and exchange charges and foriegner charges and hidden charges and Charge charges!

and nordea charge you money to look after your money

bit of a nasty banking system has finland!!

changing currencys is expensive also! 20 percent i got charged at the nordea i use

or maybe its just foreigners they dont like and have a special button they use on the till

Foriegner rates!

lol because if i owned the place i work i would charge foriegners 1 rate and finnish people double that rate!

luoto · Post by **luoto** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 5:40 pm

Odd ... a recent Citibank UK transfer (gbp30 ouch but it was for a large sum so I couldn't use Visa debit for free) sold GBP for EUR and I saw the amount of EUR leave the UK and the same amount of EUR came to my Andelsbank/OP account. Maybe you need to talk to the manager BUT if the funds are not sent in EUR from the sending side then bank fees do mount up.

doctorforsh · Post by **doctorforsh** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 5:53 pm

luoto wrote:BUT if the funds are not sent in EUR from the sending side then bank fees do mount up.

that proberly was my problem,,i sent pounds from england and recieved euros!

well i got pound sent for me! and received euros,,i will dig out the recept i got and post it with all the charges on etc

if i can find it that is!it was a year ago!

jukkak · Post by **jukkak** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 10:46 am

one question guys if you send money from other country to Finland do you need to prove how you got it? whats the origin of it? just though if my wife move her savings to here Finland does she dig up some papers from her job(taxes,income and such)

thanks Jukka

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 10:47 pm

As I said above, the Finnish tax office contacted us about one year after we transfered the proceeds of selling our house in France. My husband chatted to them on the phone and explained what we had done and as far as I remember we didn't need to provide any paperwork. The sending/receiving banks may well ask for some paperwork as they are required, by law, to monitor international money transfers for money laundering.

lmb_scotland · Post by **lmb_scotland** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 10:48 pm

I found that the Finnish banks are very good, but UK banks are very bad. My UK bank said that it would cost something like £20 to do a transfer and could take up to 6 weeks. But from Finland to UK it only costs me 6 euro (with Nordea online banking) for a transfer and takes 3-5 days... easy! It would be free if it was in Euros, but of course it needs changed to GBP which is where the charge comes in. The UK banks seem really behind the times, but maybe if you have an internet bank account it might be easier.

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