Arm and a leg, part II

[pne]

I mentioned recently that I had to pay a fortune in fees to transfer money to Switzerland.

Today, I sent a message to the bank (I was going to say “sent an email” but I used the web form on the online banking site instead) asking for the details of the charges.

And just now, I received an answer. Not only did they explain how the charges are split up but also how two of them were calculated (“x ‰ of the amount, minimum of y euros”).

So, the charges are still annoyingly high for small transfers, but at least now I know more.

However, that’s not all: the lady answering my request also said she’d refund me the charges (€39.05) this time but that I should be aware of those charges in the future. (She even volunteered the fact that, since Switzerland is not part of the EU, there is no cheaper alternative I could have used.)

So, that’s decent service, I think!

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For the curious, the costs split up like this:

€ 8.89	amount sent, at an exchange rate of 1.4629
€ 10.00	charge for “voucherless” (? beleglos; maybe “paperless”?) orders (1.5 ‰, at least 10 euros)
€ 1.55	SWIFT charges
€ 2.50	commission for currency sales/purchases (0.25 ‰, at least 2.50 euros)
€ 25.00	flat-rate charge for foreign bank fees
€ 47.94	TOTAL

So the biggie was the charge for foreign bank fees—I had chosen “sender pays all fees” but had assumed that I’d only pay actual costs incurred rather than a lump sum.

Comments

[schnurble]

They charge for voucherless order? Robbers! A bank should give discount for voucherless, or take fees for non-voucherless instead, because no real person needs to be involved, everything's done by the computer, so it should be easier and cheaper for the bank...

Anyway, nice that they refunded you :o)

[pne]

They charge for voucherless order?

Not usually—at least, bank transfers in Germany are “free” (covered by the basic account charge). So I was rather o.O that they levied a charge in this case. I shudder to think what they would have charged if I had done it in one of their branches, on paper….

A bank should give discount for voucherless, or take fees for non-voucherless instead

*nod*

The only explanation I can think of is that they charge even more for “beleghafte” orders (LEO forum suggests: “non-electronic; manual transaction”). Otherwise that charge would make absolutely no sense to me, for the reasons you mentioned.

Anyway, nice that they refunded you :o)

Indeed! I hadn’t expected that; I just wanted to know the break-down of the charges. But it was a really nice touch.

(And I’m still resolved to pay them by bank transfer in euros to their German account if I ever start a subscription again. Or, failing that, get my father-in-law (who lives in Switzerland) to pay them and then pay him back when he visits us… or by sending him CHF banknotes through the mail. Still cheaper than that extortion.)