Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Hi all.
Does anyone know of any TRNC banks that hold a domestic account in the UK?
Iktisat used to have one but now they only have an international account, which incurs extra charges.
A couple of days ago I was going to move some money across, but Barclays wanted £75 for the privilege!
Thanks in advance

Use Transfer Wise...we have several times, much cheaper than the banks.

https://transferwise.com/

Hi carrierbag,

transferwise do look pretty cheap if you want to transfer £1,000 - they say that they will only charge about £10.

However, if you want to transfer £20,000, then they will charge you almost £200! - NOT such a good deal...

n.b edited - I understated the charge for transferring £1,000

Türk Bank Ltd have branches in England

http://www.turkishbank.co.uk/

We used to transfer money( not huge amounts, never more than £ 5000 - £10000 in the early days and it took ages and it seemed to go half way round the world. We then went to the Borough, London Branch of Turkish Bank and made an arrangement, I send the money to Turkish bank as a normal UK bank transfer they gave me the sending details and in the reference option I gave my name and account no. for their Famagusta Branch. They did then charge me £35 for a foreign cash transfer, but it worked and was quick. Haven't done it for a year or so.

We transfer from HSBC UK to CreditWest. 4.00 GBP to HSBC and 5.00 GBP to Recording Bank in Turkey. No charge by CreditWest. Total of 9.00 GBP per transfer.

Bowman wrote:We transfer from HSBC UK to CreditWest. 4.00 GBP to HSBC and 5.00 GBP to Recording Bank in Turkey. No charge by CreditWest. Total of 9.00 GBP per transfer.

That's interesting.

The last time that I transfered any GBP from a UK Bank to Creditwest, the UK Bank charge was capped at £25, and Creditwest said that they would charge 1.5% if I left the GBP in a current account, or make no charge if I allowed them to convert the GBP to TL and transfer the TL into a savings account. The downside was that the conversion was done at THEIR rate, which, as I mentioned earlier, is less favourable than you can get at the exchange shops...

On one transfer we forgot to tell HSBS that we would pay the Recording Banks cost (You pay both anyway). When we checked the bank statement, we found that HSBC had sent the money from England to France and then from France to Turkey (with addition costs). When I complained the answer from HSBC was "So What".

When moving money from Germany to Cyprus I use a German Bank VISA Card (no cost) at a ATM that delivers Euros. I then pay into our CreditWest current Euro account with no costs.

So if you have access to a GBP card that allows free cash withdrawals then use this and pay the cash into your GBP Current Account.

Regards Mike T

Bowman wrote:...So if you have access to a GBP card that allows free cash withdrawals then use this and pay the cash into your GBP Current Account...

I agree that if you can withdraw Euros or Sterling from a TRNC ATM at no charge, then it's definitely the way to go.

This method is entirely suitable for funding living expenses in TRNC, & allows you to choose where and when to convert to TL.

It gets trickier if you're wanting to fund a house purchase however, because a daily cash withdrawal limit (of between £250 and £500) means that it takes a long time to actually get your hands on £50,000...

Sorry about the split infinitive!

Thanks for all your advice.
Certainly some food for thought.

Keithcaley wrote: "to actually get"

Sorry about the split infinitive!

Don't be sorry Keith - it's so much fun!