Best Turkish Bank Erasmus UK

[champair79]

Hi guys,

Me and a group of friends recently moved out to Turkey from the UK to spend a year in Izmir on an Erasmus exchange program. At the moment, we have been getting cash from our UK accounts by using our cards at Turkish ATM's but of course this comes with a bank charge from the UK bank on top of converting the sterling to Turkish Lira. What's the best bank to go with if we want to move relatively large amounts of cash (£1000 to £2000 roughly) from our UK accounts to a Turkish account. I am mainly thinking of minimising the transfer fee to do this but also the number of ATM's dotted around the place and customer service do feature on my list. We went into an HSBC branch today and had difficulty explaining our problem to the bankers even with our Turkish friend. They kept quoting us different figures for the bank charge.

Ic Bank told us they didn't charge to receive the money although they had no control over what the UK banks would charge to send it. That seems fair enough. I'm with Natwest although I have a Barclays account which I could use. The others use Halifax and HSBC. We've heard lots of conflicting information so any information from more experienced expats living in Turkey would be really helpful.

Thanks for your help.

Nick

 

[Number6]

Open a Nationwide Flex account in the UK, you can then withdraw cash from Turkish ATM's free of charge.

 

[champair79]

Thanks Number6 for the reply. As we're in Turkey now, opening one will be hard. We could only do that once we go back home for Xmas I guess. Do they give you the current exchange rate on the transactions or is it a crap one to compensate for not charging you a bank charge?

Any other options greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Nick

 

[JEANNIE]

They give you a good rate, better than some of the banks.
Get it done when your home for xmas, problem sorted.
Good luck,



Jeannie

 

[jcrian]

They give you a good rate, better than some of the banks.
Get it done when your home for xmas, problem sorted.
Good luck,



Jeannie

I second that. We use the flex account and debit card from Nationwide to withdraw money from ATM's abroad. Never had a problem and the exchange rate always good.
You can access your flexaccount from your computer as well.
The only drawback is that you can only withdraw/exchange £300 a day.

 

[Harem]

I was going to say all that, but everybody else beat me to it. Only one thing I will say: Barclays give a c**p exchange rate and make heavy charges on top, so dump them asap.

 

[rosewall1]

If you have a HSBC or First Direct account in the UK then you can transfer as much as you like for £10. You will need an HSBC account here and get your IBAN number from them, give your english HSBC that number and your account number in Turkey. I have done this many times. It will put it into a sterling account and you can transfer it to your turkish account when the exchange rate is good. I have done this within 2 days and on one occasion with 24 hours.

 

[hijo]

.. if you have a bank account in turkey ..they will give you the best rate..a lot better than the dozas.money.exchange places..:27br:

 

[butt007]

All that Rosewall1 say's is correct, a standing order at HSBC to transfer Sterling to a sterling account in Turkey is only £10. BUT to do just occasional transfers of cash from HSBC to HSBC costs £40 per transaction.
Warren

 

[rosewall1]

butt007 not sure what you are talking about, money transferred can be turned into cash but the transfer itself is just computer figures. I have transferred many different times and got the cash out here absolutely no problems and only charged £10. It seems to be a courtesy offered to HSBC customers.

 

[butt007]

Rosewall1, the charges went up on Aug 10th to £40 for a transfer, I received a letter from HSBC UK in June, so it was with some trepidation that I received my regular cash begining of November, but presumably because it is a standing order, it was still only £10so they must mean occasional cash transfers that are £40.
Warren

 

[champair79]

Thanks for the replies guys. I will investigate the Nationwide one and see what transpires. 2 of my mates are going back to the UK for Eid so might use them as Guinea pigs to see if it all goes to plan

Nick

 

[marlkran]

I am Dutch so into euro's, but what I am doing is the following. I take euro's from an ATM here in Turkey (from my Dutch bank account) and exchange it at a bank. Withdrawing euro's is free for us, it might be free to withdraw Pounds for you! As there is a fantastic exchange rate for euro's as well as for pounds the moment, this might be a very cheap option till you opened your Turkish bank account.
Transferring money from my Dutch bank account to my Turkish Lira account, costs me 30 + 10 euro as well.