06-01-12, 05:35 PM
Open a Euro account with your bank in the UK then get your French bank to make a SEPA (Single European Payments Area) payment. SEPA is like BACS in the UK but only takes 1-2 days to transfer the money, BACS used to be 3.
Your French bank might have an online feature so you can do it yourself via internet banking. If not just tell them you want to make a payment.
If you haven't got a Euro account in the UK get the your French bank to make an International Payment (SWIFT) to you UK GBP account. They will have their exchange rates which might be better or worse than others.
I think Barclays charge £15 for SEPA and £25 for SWIFT, but no idea what the French will charge. For SWIFT there may also be a Correspondent charge if your French Bank doesn't deal direct with your UK Bank and the payment has to go via a 3rd party. If your French and UK are major banks they probably will have a direct relationship.
All Cross Border payments are screened under AML laws. If you name is Bin Laden it may be held up, but Joe Bloggs should be ok. Most screening is done automatically by computer software.
As someone else said, give your French bank your UK brances IBAN and SWIFTBIC to make sure it gets paid promptly and incurs no further charges.
Telling your UK branch you are expecting is it probably a good idea too.
Your French bank might have an online feature so you can do it yourself via internet banking. If not just tell them you want to make a payment.
If you haven't got a Euro account in the UK get the your French bank to make an International Payment (SWIFT) to you UK GBP account. They will have their exchange rates which might be better or worse than others.
I think Barclays charge £15 for SEPA and £25 for SWIFT, but no idea what the French will charge. For SWIFT there may also be a Correspondent charge if your French Bank doesn't deal direct with your UK Bank and the payment has to go via a 3rd party. If your French and UK are major banks they probably will have a direct relationship.
All Cross Border payments are screened under AML laws. If you name is Bin Laden it may be held up, but Joe Bloggs should be ok. Most screening is done automatically by computer software.
As someone else said, give your French bank your UK brances IBAN and SWIFTBIC to make sure it gets paid promptly and incurs no further charges.
Telling your UK branch you are expecting is it probably a good idea too.