Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

My friends, who are based in UK, have an account with the Iktisatbank. They wish to transfer money to their cleaning company, who have an account with the Turkbank. When they contacted the Iktisatbank they were told the minimum transfer they can make is 7000TL. Does anyone know if there is another way or is it going to be a case of them transferring to me and me paying the company? They are not in the position of opening an account with the Turkbank, which I guess would make things easier.

Hi! - I hope that you're keeping well

I wonder if they're approaching this from the wrong angle...

Rather than 'Transferring funds' from one bank to another - should they be asking about 'Bill Payment' or 'Standing Orders'?

Could the Cleaning Company help in setting up a Direct Debit with your friends' bank?

Does the Cleaning company have a credit / debit card facility?

How about paying by Cheque?

Anyone got any more bright ideas?

p.s. They could always give me the money

It's a crazy system but yes we have been told by various banks that the minimum we can transfer from bank to bank within the TRNC is 7,000TL.

In the end we just went down to the bank and withdrew it manually and walked to the next bank and handed it in!

Hi Keith, thanks for replying - I'm keeping well thanks, melting though in this heat. I had the same thoughts as you and suggested they ask the bank how to do it. I even logged on to Iktisatbank to see if I could transfer some money to another bank and got a message saying that the Central Bank has set a 7000TL minimum transfer limit. I suspect they weren't really thinking about bill payments. As far as I could see, they regard bill payments as utility and phone bills and I'm not sure if you can set up bespoke ones. I thought someone may have been through this already and be able to point us in the right direction. In this day and age it seems ridiculous that you can't do a simple transfer between banks in the same country but it looks like, as Sue suggests, it'll be manual transfers and I guess it might be me who's doing them.

Sue, Hope you are well and thanks for the reply.

I agree with Scoobydoo
withdraw money manually and deposit it the same way, at least you know its been done and deposited into the right account

Come-on-Aylin if your friends have a bank account in UK.....Turkish Bank have branches in Lewisham and other London branches....if the cleaning company give them the bank details like account number etc....can they get their own bank in UK to transfer the funds into Turkish Bank in UK....just a thought.

Thanks for all the replies.
Dalartokat, I have passed your message on as it sounds like that could work.
COA

I was fed up with the constant problem of transferring money just from my English account (Lloyds) to Turkish Bank Famagusta and I went to theTurkish Bank in Borough and after discussing the problems we had (mostly because Lloyds insisted on an IBAN no.), they suggested that when I transfer the money, I use their IBAN no and my name and account no. from Famagusta. This works just fine. Still have to pay £30 for a foreign transfer. You could pay it this way but walking from bank to bank is obviously much cheaper.

As for doing DD's or SO's with a private company, this is possible only if they and or their bank are part of this 'scheme' . I'm not using the right words but I hope you understand.
I wanted to pay Dipkarpaz Belediye this way and got their bank (Feisal Bank) details from them. When I took them to Turk Bank in Famagusta, they told me this bank was not part of this 'scheme' and I could not do it

dippersgirl, thanks a lot for taking the time to let us know all this.

They really don't like parting with money, do they?

No they don't, but also our Belediye are missing out. I don't often pay on time, as I also cannot pay them by card(any card!!)either and if I have run out of money, they just have to wait till I get some more. Nobody minds, yok problem they say...
But then I probably pay more regularly than the locals anyway!!

I also asked last week when at my Turk Bank in Magusa, if I could transfer some money from my account there to my account with KOOP Bank in Yenierenköy and they told me no. The Manager was not there and I will ask again when I see her.

As a little aside and slightly off topic:

I walked into the Turk Bank opposite the Thursday Bazaar in Masgusa. There were no other customers. The bank clerk was on the phone, but told me to take a ticket(system they use so you know when its your turn) and sit down. She then finished her call and said number 23 please, my number, I was still the only customer!!!

Well it amused me!!!

well it proved that they had 22 before you

If you have an online account in the UK it costs less than £10 to transfer money to a business or individual in the TRNC all you need to know is the receiving banks IBAN number then tack on the person you are sending account number on to the end of it.

Never go into a branch they rip you off to transfer.

Also if you do a check online you sometimes find a discount code for your bank which you can use and get your transfer even cheaper.

How about paypal? If both parties open an account paypal will pay it into their bank account in the currency of your choice, there is a small fee though only for the recipient

Another answer is you can open a HSBC account in the UK and a HSBC account here, telephone transfers are free, use it all the time it is brill, but you do need to use IBAN no's, once you have done it once, then you just quote account and it is all done for you, been using it about 3 years, no probs yet (touch wood), good luck to your friends.

Where do you find IBAN numbers in the TRNC?? This has always been a problem. Have they now got them??

HSBC have had them for about 10 years, don't know about other banks, but sure Turk Bank must have, I would check with your manager at your branch as each IBAN is obviously linked direct to your account, and a pain in the a===, as there is lots of numbers, but with HSBC once you have done one telephone transfer they keep it on record, so don't need to keep looking it up, good luck if you need any help with this, I will be happy to assist if I can"

all banks have IBAN numbers call into your branch and they will give you the correct details to transfer into your account

No, Turk Bank do not have individual IBAN numbers, I had this problem with them and had to open another account with HSBC who did supply an individual IBAN. What a headache..... Turk Bank use only one IBAN number for their branch in Cyprus, so give this to all their customers that need it but PayPal will not accept it as it belongs to the bank (IBAN needed with PayPal if you want to open a PayPal business account).

If you speak to your bank to find out if they have a correspondent bank in the UK, you can transfer the money to the UK account (no cost), with instruction for onward transfer to the bank in TRNC with the receivers account no. and name. I don't get charged with Iktisat but do with Faisal! It varies from bank to bank but I've been told it is the Central Bank that say they've got to charge (although the bank manager has told me they can make an application to have the charges waived if you're receiving money regularly!!)