paying deposit in GBP to Turkish bank

[jondawn157]

Hi can anyone help us? we are trying to send our villa deposit to a Turkish bank account but all the sites we have been on want to convert the money into Lira & he wants £ is there a way to do this easily & cheap. Thanks

[Rami Off Work]

If the bank account details you are given belong to a GBP account of that Turkish bank, then the money sent in GBP will get deposited as GBP.

If it is your bank not allowing you to transfer funds in original currency then you need to call them and get support. They are simply and probably trying to exchange your money to make further profit from the sounds of it..

[heather1961]

To do this we had to go to our bank and fill in a form. The bank had a charge of £50 for this needless to say we didnt transfer the money. Our daughter has an account with a different bank and they charged £20 so sent it from her account. You have to write on the form that it has to be paid in English pounds. Hope this helps

[Elayne]

hi. I did this a few weeks back, i used my bank which is lloyds and they charged me £20 to do it but i found out later that i could have done it myself with online banking for £10.

[Rami Off Work]

I do it online and it only costs £10 for international transfers. Someone who works for Yorkshire bank says it costs £24 with them. It costs about £17 with HSBC as well.

[jondawn157]

Hi Rami who do you use online

[Rami Off Work]

I use both HSBC and Turkish Bank UK - Turkish Bank UK is a London based bank with offices in England, Turkey and Cyprus...highly recommend them if they have a branch near your town.
http://www.turkishbank.co.uk

[jondawn157]

Thanks for that we have just phoned Yorkshire bank & it is £24 so if we cant find another way it looks like we will have to pay the robdogs

[blondie]

How long does it normally take for the bank transfer to reach the account in Turkey? I've made a payment as a deposit for an apartment we've booked in May, but I haven't heard anything back to say they've received it - and now I'm starting to worry.

[JT]

A transfer should go within a matter of minutes but maybe your bank is hanging on to it longer for interest reasons

If people do worry about the money they are sending to apartment owners or managers (which I am seeing lots of reports of lately) then ask the managers to maybe set up a secure 3d payment system like ICR Travels or even an online secure booking system like ICR Travels

I will say also that who is to say that the person you made the deal with in 2011 is actually still working at the place or even own the place that people are parting their hard earned money to.

I did see a 2 bedroom apartment advertised on another forum last week with details of how to pay to the Turkish owner, who btw is not the owner but was managing the place and his name and bank details are still on the site after being sacked.

Be carefull who you pay

[JT]

Blondie you have nothing to worry about

I just saw your other post.

They are reputable people and they wont have the same system as ours

[blondie]

Thanks JT - I wasn't really worried about the reputation of the recipient, as I know they do come highly recommended. I was more concerned that something had gone wrong with the actual transfer, banks being what they are...

Anyway, pleased to report that I've had an email from the recipient and the deposit has arrived safely. They had been out of the country for a few days, hence the delay in responding. Looking forward to seeing everyone in icmeler in May! And thanks for the reassurance and the good advice to anyone thinking of making similar transfers.

[jondawn157]

Thanks for all the replies we have done it with our own bank at a cost of £24 but now the villa is booked. Five days in Calis then back to Icmeler roll on aug 27th