Bank double charging for international payments

[essayer]

Here's Something Blooming Crazy -

I have a customer who pays in USD, so I set up a USD bank account here in the UK. Occasionally I clear it and send it through Hifx who then pay in GBP. Great.

The last two transfers have arrived short by $25, so I've quizzed my bank about it.
Apparently, since this year it's going via an intermediary.

And guess who the intermediary is? My bank's US subsidiary!

So I'm double charged for fees, but apparently this is normal, because 'intermediary banks set the pricing and we have no control over their fees'. Obviously handling USD to USD payments is too much for my bank, supposedly one of the biggest in the world.

FOS complaint inbound. Anyone else had this?

Any recommendations for a bank who'll let me open a USD bank account from the UK?

[Saleen836]

I have an account with Wells Fargo, never had any problems with them and account comes with a Visa debit card, if I use it here to pay for anything I just pay a small fee for the currency exchange.

[wibble cb]

essayer said:

Here's Something Blooming Crazy -

I have a customer who pays in USD, so I set up a USD bank account here in the UK. Occasionally I clear it and send it through Hifx who then pay in GBP. Great.

The last two transfers have arrived short by $25, so I've quizzed my bank about it.
Apparently, since this year it's going via an intermediary.

And guess who the intermediary is? My bank's US subsidiary!

So I'm double charged for fees, but apparently this is normal, because 'intermediary banks set the pricing and we have no control over their fees'. Obviously handling USD to USD payments is too much for my bank, supposedly one of the biggest in the world.

FOS complaint inbound. Anyone else had this?

Any recommendations for a bank who'll let me open a USD bank account from the UK?

The funds were always going via an intermediary, USD transfers all go via a US based bank, The remitter has a choice with regard to charges, they can tick the box saying the BEN (you) pays the charges, or that they will pick up the charges (OUR), sometimes its SHA, for shared, guess which box they ticked..... its Field 71 of a swift MT103 (a non bank transfer).

$25 sounds about right for lifting charges if it was flagged as BEN

[essayer]

I'm sending the payment, so I'm paying MyBank £25 for setting up the transfer .. then MyBank's US subsidiary charges me an additional $25. For it to go to Barclay's USD subsidiary, then back to Barclays UK..
This is a new thing, only started happening since 29th January apparently. Before then the intermediary bank was supposedly 'waiving their handling fee'.

[wibble cb]

essayer said:

I'm sending the payment, so I'm paying MyBank £25 for setting up the transfer .. then MyBank's US subsidiary charges me an additional $25. For it to go to Barclay's USD subsidiary, then back to Barclays UK..
This is a new thing, only started happening since 29th January apparently. Before then the intermediary bank was supposedly 'waiving their handling fee'.

Barclays Bank use Barclays Bank in NY (BARCUS33), so am amazed you are being double charged

[essayer]

wibble cb said:

Barclays Bank use Barclays Bank in NY (BARCUS33), so am amazed you are being double charged

Yep, it's going HSBC UK->HSBC NY->BB NY->BB UK

[wibble cb]

essayer said:

wibble cb said:

Barclays Bank use Barclays Bank in NY (BARCUS33), so am amazed you are being double charged

Yep, it's going HSBC UK->HSBC NY->BB NY->BB UK

So you're being charged by HSBC to process the payt, and then Barclays are also charging to handle it, thats pretty normal I'm afraid (banks don't work for free), and as you are the remitter and the recipient, you pick up all the charges, you can't pass them onto anyone else, there is no way round it. I sent GBP from Canada to my acct in the UK last year and Barclays charged me for crediting my own account, they said it was in the terms, yet couldn't produce a copy for me, so refunded it.

[jeff m2]

US Banks typically charge between $15 to $35 for incoming transfers.
It adds up if you get incomings often, I opened a premier account which waves these charges. (and a few others like atm fees, even those charged by other banks and private atms)