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Receive money from outside the UK or in a foreign currency
Get sent money from outside the UK
- Receive pounds or a foreign currency.
- No Halifax fee for payments in euros from within the EEA or UK.
- Find your IBAN and BIC in our Mobile Banking app or Online Banking.
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For your payment to be transferred as quickly as possible, you'll need to give the sender your:
- full name
- address
- IBAN
- BIC.
You can find your IBAN and BIC using Online Banking or our app.
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- Sign in to Online Banking and select an account.
- Choose the View IBAN / BIC link.
- All done. You can now give your IBAN or BIC to your sender.
- Sign in to our app and select the More option from your account.
- Choose Send bank details. Then select Send international details.
- From the list, choose the preferred messaging app you want to use to send your banking details.
- Select who you want to send the details to from your list of contacts.
- All done - you’ve shared your account details.
Get set up online
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If you're not registered for Online Banking, you can call us. We also offer a range of other services in your local area.
Let’s take a closer look
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Type of payment
Fee
Type of payment
Payments in euros received from within the UK, EEA or via SEPA Credit Transfer
Fee
No fee
Type of payment
Receiving a payment up to and including £100
Fee
£2*
Type of payment
Receiving a payment of over £100
Fee
£7*
*This fee won't apply to payments in pounds received from within the EU to our Basic Account.
We’ll convert the payment received into pounds on the day we pay it into your account. We use our standard exchange rate for money received from outside the UK or in a foreign currency.
Other fees
The bank overseas may use an agent bank to send your payment to us. The agent bank may take a fee from the payment amount which means Halifax receives a lower amount which we will then pay into your account.
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Payments are processed using our standard exchange rate and we’ll only change your payment into pounds when we receive it. Until then the exchange rate is indicative, for information only and can change at any time.
To get help or ask questions about the standard exchange rates for foreign cheques, you can visit one of our branches or call us.
Our standard exchange rate includes a margin which you can see by using our margin calculator. The margin changes depending on how much you expect to receive.
The margin is the difference between our standard exchange rate and the wholesale rate at which we buy and sell currency in the foreign exchange markets.
Margin calculator
I am expecting a payment of:
Payment margin:
##marginrec##%For example:
A person in the United States makes a payment of $1,000 to your account. If the current GBP/USD wholesale rate is 1.2600 , the Halifax standard exchange rate applied to the incoming payment would be 1.3047, based on our current margin of 3.55%.
In this example, if we receive $1,000 this means you’ll receive £759.44 in your account after we charge our £7 fee.
Please note: We use a live wholesale rate to calculate the standard exchange rate. Together with the percentages outlined previously, the information is indicative, for information only and can change at any time.
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Payments sent in euros from a bank within the EEA should be in your account by the end of the following working day.
We can't control when we'll receive payments not in euros or from outside of the EEA. This depends on when and how the sending bank sends the payment to us. When we do receive it, we'll convert it into pounds, take our fee and then pay the money into your account as soon as possible.
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Please contact the sender of the money and ask them to contact the bank sending the money as they can trace the payment.
If the sender’s bank asks you to contact us again, we will need them to provide the payment’s unique tracking reference (UETR) and/or the sender's reference to help us try and find the payment.
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If you want to pay in a foreign currency cheque, sign your name on the back of the cheque and call in to branch. We’ll process your cheque either by cheque negotiation or collection. The time it takes to credit your account depends on which method we use.
We may not be able to accept cheques in all foreign currencies.
Cheque negotiation or collection - what's the difference?
Negotiation: We'll usually pay the money into your account by the sixth working day after we receive it. We'll convert it into pounds using our standard exchange rate on the day the cheque is processed.
Collection: We'll pay the money into your account when we receive payment from the paying bank. The time this takes can vary depending on the paying bank or its country. We send the cheque to them and we may use an agent to do this. When we receive payment, we'll convert it to pounds using our standard exchange rate.
On the day we process the cheque, we will use the cheque negotiation method, but if we can’t do that, or if you ask us, we’ll use collection.
Standard exchange rate
We’ll convert your cheque into pounds using our standard exchange rate. The rate we apply is of the day we process your cheque, rather than the day you pay it in at branch. Our standard exchange rate includes a margin. This is the difference between our standard exchange rate and the rate at which we buy and sell currency in the foreign exchange markets.
We can give you an indication of our standard exchange rate either in branch or by calling us so you can understand the pound value of your cheque before you pay it in. Be aware this pound amount will have changed when we process the payment for your cheque.
For more information
To get help or ask questions about the standard exchange rates for foreign cheques, you can visit one of our branches or call us.
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