How do you send money abroad? It can't be that hard.... can it?

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We are lending FIL some money (about £8k) to buy a car..... but he lives in the Irish Republic and has no sterling bank account (and we don't have a Euro one).

How the hell do we get the money to him? Santander (who I bank with) and NatWest (who DH banks with) were seemingly unable to offer a solution. Neither could do a cheque in Euro. NatWest suggested travellers cheques but you can only take out £5k in any 60 day period (and they won't be secure to post).

I can't believe it's that difficult! What am I missing? Help!

We are NatWest too

from santander website:

You can make a CHAPS or international payment in two ways:

• By telephone
• Visiting a branch

Preparation

Before calling or going to a branch, please be prepared with your account details and the account details of the person you wish to pay.
Your account details include:

Your Santander Visa Debit Card or Santander Passbook and;
proof of your ID such as a valid passport or driving licence
You may also be asked some standard security questions regarding your account.

In the UK, the account details for the person you are paying to include:
their full name
their sort code
account number

For overseas payments, the account details for the person you are paying to include:

their full name
the Bank Identifier Code (BIC) of the beneficiary's bank and;
the beneficiary's account number or IBAN (International Bank Account Number). Please note you must supply the beneficiary's IBAN for Euro payments to countries in the European Economic Area.

For further details of other acceptable ID please call 08459 724 724.Lines open 7am to 11pm Monday to Saturday and 8am to 10pm Sundays.

By telephone
Please call 08459 724 724. Lines open 7am-11pm Monday to Saturday and 8am-10pm Sundays.

In branch
Go to your local branch with the bank account details listed above.

I used transferwise too (made by the same team that made Skype).

It's by far the cheapest option. I found that Western union and high street banks are much more expensive.

natwest also do international transfers

the post office also offers a money transfer service that is fee free

OP
Get his Ibann number - it will be on his bank statement
and then go into a branch and demand that they do an ibann transfer

it will cost £8 on top of the amount - it will land in his bank in Euros

if they refuse, write down all of their names and tell them that you will be making a complaint to the ombudsman
then be willing to wait a minute while they phone head office
then wait another minute while they do the transfer

my bank (smile) were able to do the whole thing over the phone once I'd made the relevant threats

Don't refer to it as an IBAAN transfer.

Say that you need to do a telegraphic transfer to Ireland.

The fee was about £20/25 the last time I did it.

fair enough - my one was to the USA and it had to have the acronym

You need the IBAN number to do the transfer. It's just not called an IBAN transfer, that's all. I just didn't want OP to have further difficulties.

Well, armed with the above information we took a trip into town and went into both Santander and NatWest branches, and, guess what? They can easily transfer the money, either online or in branch. Well, whaddya know?

I fail to understand why neither bank could tell DH this on the phone. I can only imagine it's because he started off by asking for a "cheque made out in Euro" and that they couldn't do. But why the hell wouldn't they have the nous to say "well, you can't do A, but how about B as a solution?" DH was quite clear what he wanted to actually achieve, ie a simple and safe transfer of money to FIL.

Anyway, we will get quotes from each bank (NatWest charges £10 for the transfer, versus Santander at £25) and will look at the other money-transfer agents people have suggested, then go for the one with the best deal.

Thank you all, and a big fat raspberry to Santander and NatWest Customer Helplines.

YAY for the power of MN to kick banks into doing what they should do

Hurray!! Why do they make it so difficult?

I use Moneycorp to send money to South Africa. All done online.

You need to check the exchange rate they will give you not just the fees. With that amount to transfer it will make a significant difference to the amount of Euros your FiL will get. The exchange rate is well in his favour at the moment.

Transferwise are the cheapest I've found. It's always been straightforward to use