Sending money abroad

An international money transfer allows people to send funds from a UK account to another account in different country.

There are many reasons why you might transfer money internationally, for example:

• to send funds to an individual, or
• to make a payment overseas.

People come to us when they’re unhappy with a financial business that deals in sending money abroad. This might be a:

• high street bank
• specialist money transfer and remittance business
• online payment service, or
• foreign exchange specialist.

In many cases, they’re unhappy about:

• charges for the service
• the money not arriving – or being late to arrive
• not being able to cancel or recall the transfer
• the exchange rate used.

When people send money abroad, they are sometimes disappointed to find the exchange rate was not the same as the one they saw online or in newspapers. That's because the rates you see online and in newspapers are just a guide. Each bank sets its own rates. 

We'd expect the financial business to have explained this to you and given you the information you need to decide whether the currency conversion takes place before or after the transfer.

Our service is free and easy to use. 

1. Before bringing your complaint to us, you should make a complaint to the company involved.
2. They must look into things and get back to you within 15 days – either with a response to your complaint, or to explain why they can’t yet give you a response. They then have to send you a response within 35 days. If you’re not happy with this response – or they don’t reply in time – you can bring your complaint to us.
3. Our complaint checker will tell you more about some of the things we need to know upfront and help you make sure you’re ready to send us your complaint.
4. Fill in our online complaint form. Your case will be assigned to a case handler who will get in touch when they start to investigate.
5. To help us consider a complaint fairly, we may ask you for more information later.

Use our complaint checker

When looking at your complaint, we’ll consider:  

• the relevant law, and any regulations and industry codes of conduct that applied at the time 
• any relevant terms and conditions.

We'll assess what happened using evidence from you, the financial business and any relevant third parties, and may ask you for:

• evidence that the money was sent – for example, a screenshot showing when the money left the customer’s account, or details of any other banks who were involved
• any messages used for the international money transfer, such as a Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) or an MT103
• evidence of how the financial business explained what you would be charged for sending or receiving money
• evidence of how the financial business explained exchange rates, including:
  • the exact exchange rate used, and
  • the amount that will be sent to the recipient.

Once we’ve investigated, we'll tell you whether we believe you've been treated unfairly or not. And we’ll explain how we reached our decision. 

If we think you've lost money, we'll tell the financial business to put things right.

We may also tell them to pay you compensation for any distress or inconvenience you have suffered.

What to expect