From: Chris Blunt 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: International money transfers
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 21:19:25 +0800

On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 08:14:26 -0400, Ruari Callow 
wrote:

>Hi All,
>
>I'm trying to find the cheapest and easiest way of transferring money 
>abroad (to Norway in my case).
>
>At the moment I do this via a SWIFT payment. I notice that banks charge 
>slightly different amounts to make this payment. Also, they have different 
>rules with regards to how you request the payment. None of the banks I 
>have looked at have an automated system for making a regular payment 
>abroad (like a monthly standing order) and several banks (HSBC, Barclays 
>and Nationwide for example) actually require you to drop into a branch and 
>fill out a form to make the payment. They won't let you do it via their 
>internet or telephone banking.

HSBC's Offshore Banking Centre in Jersey will allow you to initiate
international transfers via their internet banking service if you have
an account there. You can also set up recurring transfers to make
regular payments to the same overseas account. It seems that transfers
go out almost instantaneously. Transfers I make to another account I
hold locally with HSBC in the Philippines usually arrive within a
couple of hours of my requesting them.

Chris