What is the quickest way to get money from a UK bank account to a Canadian bank account?

[crokky]

How do you send money abroad, we have never tried before?

DB has a normal UK bank account and his girlfriend has a canadian bank account in canadian dollars.

Ideally he would like her to recieve a specific amount of dollars.

Can anyone tell me the quickest way to do this and how long it will take and how much the fees will be? Thanks for any replies!

I have found it quite simple to make a payment to a visa card held by someone abroad - i.e put credit on their visa card - which they can then withdraw from an atm.

I always arrange to have my bank in one country send the money directly into my bank account in another country via wire transfer.

But, check first to find out how much the wire transfer fee is, and be aware you will also have a charge to convert the money at the 'receiving' bank.

No idea how much is going to be transferred, but there is a threshold for larger amounts that requires more paperwork.

I agree with wire transfer - unless it's a small amount visa's exchange rates will really cost you dear.

Fees depend a lot on the banks, there will usually be a sending and a receiving fee, but you can opt to pay a bit extra at the sending bank to cover the receiving fee (about £10).

You can get the UK bank to buy Canadian dollars and then wire them, that's the best way of making sure the recipient gets the right amount.

In my bank fees are about 20ish pounds I think.

we have had huge problems with moving money from the US to the UK. I have not tried this yet but next time I have to move money I am going to research Western Union. dont know if they are in Canada?

Everyone is right above about wire transfers. The fee is usuallly GBP20-25, then an additional GBP10-15 for any possible fees. Make sure he sends CAD$ as someone else said or she might get stuck with a conversion fee at her end.

What you need to watch out for is giving the correct bank details to the UK bank - Canadian banking system is organised quite differently from the UK and there will be three sets of numbers needed - there will be a transit code (5 digits), an institution code (3 digits) then an account number of name.

It can take up to five days.

You could also try Paypal - if the amount is low then it would be much cheaper.

Good luck!

Sorry - that should say account number AND name.

Western Union is a PITA, well, they charge lots.

Phone your UK bank and see what they do - there are various methods, and they vary quite a bit. I haven't done a transfer in a while.

Ideally, you want an IBAN - international bank account number. But Canadians don't seem to know about these. (Ok, my brother didn't, anyway) They make transfers a lot easier.

Otherwise you want the bank address, all the account codes, and the account holder name.

You can generally say, 'I want X amount in their account in CAD, how much will that cost me', so you swallow all the fees and make sure of the exchange rate. (you can also say, I'm spending £X, and have the fees come out of that)

Western Union charge a % I think.

"Ideally, you want an IBAN - international bank account number. But Canadians don't seem to know about these."

No, they don't seem to exist here. Canadian banking is in the dark ages in many respects. When we paid a bill via wire transfer before we moved here it took THREE WEEKS for the bank to confirm to the other party that the money was there!

Great info, thanks everyone

Hmmm, Americans know about IBANs. I'd bet some Canadian banks must.

There are some good things about Canadian banking - I liked being able to pay bills at ATMs, that was v convenient.