Transferring Money & Fees

I thought that, at this stage, I should write a little addendum on my first experience of transferring funds. (See yesterday's post.)

In trying to transfer $1,000, I was told by my foreign exchange company (OnlineFX) that this would incur a fee of £15, to be paid myself. Fine, no problem.

Except that didn't really seem to be the case. Let me explain.

When the money arrived in my lawyer's account in the U.S., the total figure was $970.01 - i.e. $29.99 short. I called up OnlineFX, and they said that they definitely charged a fee on top of the amount I wanted to send, not as part of it. They explained that it was likely that the receiving bank had taken a slice of the amount as fees.

They agreed to fax me confirmation of my payment as proof. Not having a fax machine, I asked them to post it to me which they said was also possible. Four months later, I'm still waiting!

Speaking to my lawyer in the U.S., she said that there was no way her bank would have taken any fees off, as they were well aware that any funds received always need to be the full amount - any deductions could cause problems for her clients.

I tend to believe my lawyer's side much more! And a "missing" $29.99 is suspiciously close to the £15 I was supposed to be charged with.

The issue here is that this could have been a serious problem. I had agreed, and signed, to make a deposit of exactly $1,000 - not less. It meant I had not properly fulfilled my requirement to pay the deposit. I had no way of quickly "topping up" this amount, given my earlier problems of transferring funds quickly.

Luckily, the vendor agreed to accept my $970.01 as the deposit, seeing as it was an unintentional error on my part. The remaining $29.99 would be added on as part of the closing fees.

Top Tip: Be very careful when making international monetary transfers such as these. If a lesser amount is received than was agreed, it may well delay your property purchase. And always get as much confirmation as possible about your money transfers!