International payments and transfers. How do I send money abroad?
You cannot make payments to non-UK bank accounts in Online Banking. You can make international payments via telephone banking as long as the destination account is in your name. You will need to be registered for telephone banking and have your telephone banking passcode in order to use this service.
You can also do this by using our International Payments Service, visit your local branch for full details.
The service provides a flexible means of sending funds overseas and has been designed to meet your needs in terms of cost and speed. Payments are sent using an electronic bank-to-bank transfer, which is suitable for both urgent and less time-critical payments and enables the secure transfer of funds from the UK to overseas beneficiaries.
- Payments from sterling or currency accounts or against forward contracts.
- Payments in any freely traded currency to virtually any destination (dependent upon Service Level chosen).
- A flexible, reliable, secure and competitive service.
We have two levels of service for payments globally and the additional option of SEPA Credit Transfers for payments within the Single Euro Payments Area (31 EU/EEA countries). The service you choose will depend on how much you want to send and how quickly the payment is needed:
Standard service
For non-urgent payments to virtually any destination world-wide
- No maximum value
- Payments dispatched at the very latest on the working day following receipt of instructions by the bank.
Priority service
For urgent payments to virtually any destination world-wide.
- No maximum value
- Same day dispatch of payments for instructions received by the bank before 2pm
- Payments dispatched with earliest possible Value Date.
SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) Credit Transfer
For non-urgent payments in euros only to any of the 27 European Union countries plus the 3 European Economic Area Countries (EEA - Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway) and Switzerland
- No maximum value
- Euros only
- Payments reach the beneficiary a maximum of 3 working days after processing (e.g. if you submit an instruction to us on Monday, the beneficiary bank will receive the funds on Wednesday and the beneficiary will be credited by Thursday at the latest).
- SWIFTBIC (Bank Identifier Codes) and IBAN (International Bank Account Number) are mandatory
Payment instructions received via Royal Mail are not subject to these dispatch timescales described. These timescales only affect payments received via our branch counters.
Indication of the number of working days for funds to be available to the beneficiary's bank.
Priority: 1-3 days Europe; 1-3 days North America; Up to 7 days rest of the world.
Standard: 4-5 days Europe; 4-5 days North America; Up to 8 days rest of the world.
Our charges
Standard International Payment Service: £25 plus overseas delivery charges* where you've agreed to pay them. †
Priority International Payment Service: £40 plus overseas delivery charges* where you've agreed to pay them. †
Priority International Payments to Europe up to €50,000: £25 (provided IBAN and SWIFTBIC are quoted – otherwise reverts to Priority International Payment at £40)†.
SEPA Credit Transfer: £15 (SWIFTBIC and IBAN are mandatory)
Additional charge for payments to Europe where IBAN and SWIFTBIC have not been provided £7†.
* Overseas delivery charges cover the costs and charges for delivering the payment in the destination country. They may be a flat fee or a percentage fee.
† To find out more about IBAN and SWIFTBIC as well as applicable counties, visit our IBAN site.
Other methods of payment
If you wish to send funds yourself, you can use our paper-based International payment product, International Drafts. Once you've got this item from your branch, you send the payment by post to the beneficiary. They take longer than electronic payments but you don't need to know the beneficiary's account details.
Do you make frequent international payments?
As a Barclays Wealth client, you could make online payments to overseas beneficiaries through the International online service of up to £20,000 per payment. Find out more about international banking services from Barclays Wealth.
