Money transfer from Cyprus to UK

[MacManiac]

We have come across a problem in trying to transfer money from the Hellenic Bank back to our bank in the UK. We have used Currency Fair for years to transfer money from the UK to Cyprus, but it would appear that we cannot do the reverse. We have a Savings Account with the Hellenic and, when we tried to set up a transfer to Currency Fair, a message appeared that said we cannot set up an international transfer from this type of account.

Obviously we cannot go into the bank until Monday but I wondered whether anyone else had encountered this problem, and how they resolved it. Any advice would be appreciated. We need to transfer a small amount of money on a monthly basis back to the UK, and all our pensions are now paid directly into the Hellenic Bank.

[Maverick]

I use Western Union to transfer small amounts from UK bank to Cyprus bank, without any charges. Don't know if it would work in reverse but you could always visit their website and try.

[trevnhil]

We transferred some money recently from the BOC to an account in Bulgaria.
This was done at the counter and cost only a few euros..
So it is worth asking your bank if that is possible and how much it would cost.

[galexinda]

I had to transfer funds from Cyprus to UK and it could have been done account to account from the current account in my bank. However, the cashier advised me to use JCCSmart as it would cost less than the bank charge. This was a one-off payment but may be worth looking at JCC to see if you can set up a monthly transfer.

[PaphosAL]

Thinking outside of the box, here's another idea for you, MacManiac...

Why not consider having your State Pension paid into your UK current account? This also opens up the option to have it paid in weekly, rather than on a 4 or 13 week cycle (in arrears).

Then set up a monthly Standing Order from the UK account for your Currency Fair transfer to your Hellenic savings account at a reduced sum, thereby leaving behind your required small monthly fund in the UK account.

AL

[PW in Polemi]

I suspect the problem is because it is a savings account you have, not a current account. What are the terms for this account vis a vis removing funds? Do you have to give any notice before you can withdraw monies? If so, that is a large part of the problem, if not the whole of it. How long will it take to open a current account and transfer funds to there from your savings account, and maybe set up a regular transfer between the 2 accounts to cover you shipping your regular amount to CurrencyFair and thence to UK.

[Poppy]

If you have a debit card with your account you could perhaps use that with Transferwise?

[PaphosAL]

The problem with most savings /deposit accounts (as I know with my Santander deposit account) is that they don't allow regular DD or SO transfers to be set up. Online, I CAN make a one-off txfr, but who wants to try and remember that workaround every month?

Most deposit accounts don't have cheque book nor debit card facilities either. I still think my plan B idea above is perhaps the best way forward for MacManiac, as it solves the problem at source, rather than trying to deal with the messy reverse after effects!

AL

[MacManiac]

Thank you all for your suggestions. We have our pensions paid into our Hellenic Bank account to ensure we get the best exchange rate and the minimum of fuss. It seems strange that we can transfer money to Cyprus but not transfer money from Cyprus. After all it is our money. We shall go into the Hellenic Bank on Monday to see what the situation is. Currency Fair has been brilliant for us for the last five years, and we would not wish to be blocked by the Hellenic Bank (or any other bank here for that matter). All we require is that we can make a regular payment of c. £140.00 per month into a UK account.

[PaphosAL]

That is what I was trying to allude to, Mac. By having your pensions paid into your UK current account, on whichever frequency suits you.

Say your monthly pensions total is £X - so you would arrange your monthly CF standing order to Hellenic to be £X minus £140 - simples! And CF would probably give you a better forex rate than HMRC do as well, for the GB£ amount transferred, to be converted to € !! Happy days!

AL

[MacManiac]

I suspect the problem is because it is a savings account you have, not a current account. What are the terms for this account vis a vis removing funds? Do you have to give any notice before you can withdraw monies? If so, that is a large part of the problem, if not the whole of it. How long will it take to open a current account and transfer funds to there from your savings account, and maybe set up a regular transfer between the 2 accounts to cover you shipping your regular amount to CurrencyFair and thence to UK.

There is no notice before withdrawing money, which we normally do from their ATM. We'll see what they say tomorrow when we pop in.

[galexinda]

I have a savings account with a card I can use to withdraw cash or pay for goods in shops or on-line but if I want to do any inter bank transactions I would have to transfer the funds to the current account.

[MacManiac]

I have a savings account with a card I can use to withdraw cash or pay for goods in shops or on-line but if I want to do any inter bank transactions I would have to transfer the funds to the current account.

Thank you for that. I suspect we will have to open a current account. When we opened our savings account in 2012, it took about four days. Unfortunately that means that my payment to the UK will be late.

[MacManiac]

Just in case anybody else finds this problem, we went into the Hellenic Bank and explained the situation. There was a transfer to Currency Fair organised across the counter, for a small fee (€5,00). I asked why we could not do this online. Apparently we can from our Savings Account if we have a tiny machine called a "digipass". So problem resolved and they are so pleasant and helpful in the Polis branch.

[Mrblobby]

I have a Hellenic savings account and they gave me a digipin device . But I could not set it up on the Hellenic web site . It accepted the serial number but then wanted an "authorisation pin" which I do not have . I should go in and see them but I have managed 7 years without it so can't be bothered.

[mike strand2]

I have just 'purchased' a DigiPass device from Hellenic for 15 Euro in order to do transfers. I then tried to set it up on their website & hit a problem. I had to enter an authorisation PIN. What the hell was this? Checking the original info I had at the beginning of my transfer from BoC, I could find no authorisation PIN. Phone call to 'Help' who insist I must have had one, otherwise I could not have accessed my savings account on-line. Well, fact was I don't now have it! They insist that I must have it. So, as I don't, told I must go into my branch to receive a new one. Helpful George there, provides one after 20 minutes & lots of forms passing across the desk for signatures plus a charge of 2 Euro.

Don't laugh, but once home & the secure slip is opened giving me a new 8 digit password of various letters/digit,s together with a 6 digit Authorisation PIN, it says, "Please memorise your personal security codes and destroy this slip and envelope." No wonder I don't still have it! Oh & BTW, the DigiPass produces an 8 digit number that stays on the screen for 5 seconds. George says write it down. No kidding!!!

I'm getting to despair at banks overprotection of my money. I can't be doing with all these numbers & instructions such as 'use an uppercase & numbers and/or symbols which must be at least 8 digits long'!! Time for a revolt.

[Mrblobby]

Thanks for that Mike . I must have "ate" my code and failed to memorise it . Lol