The High And Often Hidden Costs Of “Wired” Currency Transfers

Money, “you can’t get there without it” when traveling. As it turns out, you can’t even just send money “there” without it costing significantly more money, because we are charged through the nose for the privilege of wiring currency. As it turns out, sometimes, this is often on both ends.

Bank of America and Lloyds Wire Transfer Costs Screenshot

Again, we have stumbled onto those infamous “hidden fees” we’ve mentioned in prior articles. This time, it isn’t high-cost currency exchange services we’re talking about either, but our banks. We all know banks are charging more and higher fees for many things. Included in this, is “wiring” of money, as it is still so quaintly called.

Why are they often charging more fees? Well, I put this question to several repre­senta­tives of Bank of America when I telephoned them; the answer was always amazingly similar: “…as you probably know, the current financial state of the economy is not good.”  There were variations on this theme, of course, such as: “The world financial situation is the cause.” Or, “The current economic conditions force us to have to…” blah, blah, blah!

Always, it seemed the answer was couched in this vague way. You see, it wasn’t the bank’s fault that they had to charge more fees. “It was the “current financial” circumstances that were to blame.  They were just victims in all this, just as we customers were. Harsh times, it seems, call for harsh measures for all.

Or could it just be that banks are now charging us for their own mistakes, the massive numbers of bad loans in real estate they’ve made in the recent past, and/or other imprudent investments on their part? In other words, are we customers paying for their excesses and mistakes of the past decade? The answer, to some real extent, would seem to be yes!

North view of Bank of America Plaza, Lamar Street, Dallas Tx., USA Author, Nathan Slaughter, Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Banks seem to have taken a new tack. The once-valued customer is now the privileged one to be slammed with numerous hidden fees, fees of every type, on checking accounts, saving accounts, paying by phone, and as one article even put it: “There’s even fees in some banks for walking in and talking to a teller.” (See, GAO report: Hidden bank fees rising, Bob Sullivan, [link below].) Hidden fees abound, it seems. And this is at no minor cost to the consumer. This week, CNN repeatedly aired on television an opinion piece on hidden fees, how they were costing the average consumer, and big time! They stated that the average consumer pays close to a thousand dollars a year in hidden costs! Now, this isn’t just banks, but many other businesses as well, from telephone companies, cable companies, airlines, hotels – you name it – they all seem to have jumped on the greed bandwagon. And that juggernaut of a rapacious wagon is racing right at us consumers. We bear the brunt of all these hidden costs.

Google World Currencies Map - United Kingdom - British Isles

However, I’d just like to concentrate on the hidden costs of wiring money by using one’s own bank. This time, I’m speaking from direct and very recent personal experience. I needed to wire money to owners of a cottage in eastern England. Unlike the other cottages I’ve already reserved, this one didn’t take credit cards; the owners being very new to the business just weren’t set up for it yet. They asked me to wire the money to their account. Immediately, I knew that was going to cost extra. How much, I didn’t realize. I suspect, neither did the owners of the cottage.

I went to Bank of America Online. This was on October 29^th. On their website, it said you could either accomplish the transaction online, or at a local branch. Seeing how involved it was, I opted for the local branch. But I was brusquely told there that they no longer handled wire transactions, that now it was strictly online as a “convenience to the customer.” When I pointed out that the website said otherwise, they told me the change had “just” taken place, as of October 31.  Lucky me!

Mind you, my closest branch is miles away from where I live, so this entailed a long and pointless round trip. Incensed, I called Bank of America. They said that if the transaction was of an “urgent,” enough nature, the branch could still do it. Lucky me again! So armed with this information, I went back to my branch. It took well over an hour to accomplish the transaction. The bank officer handling it wasn’t sure what the British currency even was (Great Britain Pound Sterling, GBP Currency), wasn’t sure if England was in Great Britain “or the United Kingdom,” couldn’t obtain the SWIFT Code for the bank I needed. (Main office representative said (according to my bank representative) that they had no SWIFT Code, hadn’t even heard of Lloyds Bank).  What? Lloyds is a major English bank! How could Bank of America not have heard of it?

What’s more, to find what the current currency exchange rate was, I had to assist that officer to go to Currate.com on the Internet. I’m not kidding! Then, I had to tell him to Google for SWIFT Codes, because they are available on the Internet for many banks. Now, I had numbers given to me by the owners of the cottage for their bank, including a SWIFT Code, but here again, we had problems. The bank officer wasn’t sure what or which numbers I had, were the correct ones that made up the SWIFT Code. Again, I helped him figure that out, by pointing to the similarity of the online British SWIFT numbers to the ones I had. I also had to figure out how much to send, based on the exchange rate, to cover the 200 pound cost of the cottage. I ended up sending 202.27 GBP pounds, just to be on the safe side.

Invoice of Bank Of America Wire Transfer Charges

Finally, the transaction was accomplished. The exchange rate that Bank of America charged me was 1.70 USD dollars to the GBP pound. This, as near as I can deduce, was the usual three percent above the current published rate for that date. On top of this, I was charged another $35.00 USD. This, despite my having two accounts at their bank.  So much for being a valued customer!

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