Sending money outside the UK or in a foreign currency

You can make payments up to the following amounts:

Please note - The minimum payment amount is £1.01, whether made online, in branch including Mobile Branches or through Telephone Banking.

The table below gives you information about the time the payment will take to reach the recipient's bank provided you have given us the instruction on a working day before the cut off time:

Cut off times for making a payment request

What is an IBAN?

IBAN stands for ‘International Bank Account Number.’ IBANs identify banks according to international agreement. IBANs are mandatory for the UK and EEA (European Economic Area) countries. Each country has a different number of characters in their IBANs.

This is an example of an IBAN for the United Kingdom:

GB29NWBK60161331926819.

An IBAN has four components and is a mixture of alpha and numeric characters:

• an ISO country code
• bank and branch identifier
• beneficiary account number
• two check digits.

The two check digits in the IBAN help banks verify that your payment details are correct.

Why you need to give us your recipient’s BIC and IBAN

When you make a payment to a recipient in the UK or EEA (European Economic Area), you need to provide us with the BIC and IBAN to allow us to process the transaction.

Which countries do I need a BIC/SWIFT and an IBAN for?

We need you to quote a BIC/SWIFT and IBAN when sending payments to the following countries:

The UK and all EU and EEA countries: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden

and also the following countries: Andorra, Bahrain, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Gibraltar, Greenland, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Monaco, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.

If you share the payment charges with the recipient, you will only pay our £9.50 fee where applicable and the recipient will pay their bank’s fee and any agent bank charges that apply.

Since leaving the EU, agent bank charges may also now apply to the following payments:

• to EEA countries (in pounds or EEA currencies), and
• within the UK in an EEA currency

For the full amount to be received by the recipient’s bank, you may be able to choose to pay both our fee and all agent bank charges. As we explain below you can only request do this for some types of payments made through our branches and telephone banking.

You will share payment charges with the recipient when the payment is made:

• in any currency using Internet Banking; or
• in any currency to a bank account in the UK or EEA; or
• in any EEA currency or pounds to a bank account in Switzerland, Monaco or San Marino.

If you make any other payment, you can choose either:

a) to share charges; or

b) to pay both our fee and the Correspondent Bank Fee (that replaces all agent bank charges). The recipient bank may charge its customer a fee but we cannot provide information about this. This payment type can only be made through one of our branches or Telephone Banking.

**This fee will not apply to payments sent in pounds from our Basic Account.

You can use the online payment calculator to see our standard exchange rate, which may change depending on how much you send.

If you key in an amount without selecting or keying in a new recipient, you will only receive a payment illustration and not the actual exchange rate the payment will be sent at.

If you select or key in a new recipient first, you can continue your payment with the exchange rate displayed.

Before your payment is confirmed online though, the final payment details and exchange rate will always be shown.

Our standard exchange rate includes a margin. The table below provides an indication of the margin which is the difference between our standard exchange rate and the rate at which we buy and sell currency in the foreign exchange markets (the wholesale rate).