Hsbc Or Santander

[SIRandyraven]

Quick Question;
I’m about to cash out a Swiss pension fund (while GBP is broken against CHF) and will be paying the money into a uk bank account (via IBAN).
I have option of money going into HSBC or Santander account.
Has anyone paid foreign currency into either and what were FX charges?

When I was working in Switzerland company I worked for paid 20% of salary into pillar 2 pension fund.
Unlike uk where cashing in a pension can be heavily taxed (25% tax free if you are over 55) in Switzerland the tax will only be 2.5% :-)
They don’t believe in taxing working people like we do in this country.

[DTCwordfan]

well done you, I'm taking one in from France.

[Buenchico]

As I read it, HSBC charge a fiver, plus any external fees associated with the transaction which are beyond their control:
https://www.hsbc.co.uk/international/money-transfer/

That page isn't easy to follow though and Santander's one seems to be even less transparent. If they charge the same for an inbound transaction as they do for an outbound one, it looks like it's free using the non-urgent SEPA route (if the payment is made in Euros) or £25 otherwise (once again with any external fees to be added on):
https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/current-accounts/making-international-payments

[bobbinwales]

//They don’t believe in taxing working people like we do in this country.//

Am just wondering whether your Swiss one also gave you 20% -40% tax relief on contribution's like UK ones do, just so its a fair comparison

[SIRandyraven]

Thanks.
It looks like it will be HSBC and a cost of £5 that seems very reasonable.

The pension pot is down 6% this year like those in the uk it has taken a hit.
But exchange rate makes up for it at the moment and more.
Just want to get money back in uk so wife doesn’t have to sort it out at a later date when I have expired.
I have blood cancer at 58 and don’t expect to see late 60’s.
Odds of 5 years is 55% and 10 years 30%.

[bobbinwales]

//The pension pot is down 6% this year like those in the uk//
Thats not bad...mine (Uk scheme) is down about 15% and its still heading down

[SIRandyraven]

@bobinwales - I don’t know because I did not contribute to the 20%.
The company I worked for paid that.
But I worked in a tax haven where the highest rate of tax was 22% and that was on a huge income …massive…
After that you could do a flat tax rate deal with canton.

Personally and yes working in Switzerland was highly paid and so was cost of living ….earning 180,000 CHF a year plus … I was taxed at 15.5%.
This included NI equiv and town tax (council tax equiv).
Oh and I was godless …or you pay church tax lol
The Swiss also gave you loads of tax allowances ..
Married allowance
Allowance for children
Cost of interest on home loans , car loans etc
Allowance for buying food while at work
Cost of travel to work
Cost off keeping a goat lol

[SIRandyraven]

@bobinwales - My uk one is down 17% also. That’s with L&G.
Have another with Royal London but they don’t give online valuations, just a yearly statement.

But I can leave that invested (non crystallised) for a while to recover.
Final salary pensions I’m drawing on already. That’s for the pension trustees to worry about :-)

[AB Editor]

Moved to Business & Finance.

[1ozzy]

Guess you're the boss.