Transfer fees using SEPA / local transfer from GBP local currency account. Why?

New-Black-Goose-2017851375

I have a GBP local currency account, and would like to pay someone else in the UK. As recipient I say I want to provide an IBAN (UK is still part of SEPA). I enter the IBAN, and then on the next screen get asked for the account number and sort code (why? Those are part of the IBAN I just filled in), and whether I want to use Swift or 'Local Bank Account' . (Didn't I just specify I wanted to use SEPA?)

Filling in the details and Local Bank Account, on the next screen Bunq tells me this transfer will incur costs.

SEPA, FPS and a local transfer (the local currency account is even a UK account) should all be free. I've transferred the money into that account originally without any fees.

So why, when providing an IBAN does Bunq then ignore that? And why then choose something with a fee instead of a local transfer as an alternative?

New-Black-Goose-2017851375

Support is claiming a SWIFT transfer will be performed at the cost of EUR 10. That's not just ridiculous as completely unneeded, but also deceptive as the UI has you select SWIFT or 'Local Bank Account'.

Can someone from Bunq clarify this? I assume the support person is wrong about this?

Maya-Maya

Hey Bartosz 👋 Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Upon checking, I see that you currently only have active Bank Accounts with NL IBANs in EUR.

We currently support making Faster Payments (FPS) in GBP, which costs €0,70 for personal transactions. You can check them out on Page 10 of our pricing sheet here.

To benefit from this option, you need to open a Local Currency account first, and make the transfer from your GB IBAN. You can find out how to do so in this article: Local Currencies 💸

Since you made the transfer from your NL IBAN, the transfer was processed as a SWIFT payment by our partner Currency Cloud. The transfer fees for Local Currency payments are based on the receiving party's country, you can check them out here: What are the Local Currencies Accounts Fees? 📚

If you need any further clarification, we'll be happy to offer personalized assistance via our in-app Support Center 📩

New-Black-Goose-2017851375

Hi Maya 🇺🇸 ,

Thank you for responding.

I do have a GBP sub-account with GB IBAN, not sure why you think I don't.
I also haven't made any transfer yet, as it was showing that fees would apply, I first wanted to figure out what fees, as IMO there shouldn't be any with the UK being in SEPA. Or otherwise with a local transfer in GBP between to GB accounts.

But I'm pleased to hear that the information support gave is wrong. (I expected as much)

And good that you support FPS, although strange that you charge for it, normally that's free. But so should be a local and SEPA transfer. Why aren't those supported? Especially SEPA, as you use that for transfers between NL IBANs if I'm not mistaken.

The personalised assistance you referred to I tried, but claimed that it would always use SWIFT between GB accounts, even when something else was selected. Sorry to say, but I feel I get better support here.

New-Black-Goose-2017851375

So as was pointed out in my suggestion thread by Johannes . SEPA wouldn't work here as it only works for payments in EUR.