amputee:

I've heard of terrible delays with Western Union and MoneyGram once almost drove me to despair when I was trying to deal with a family emergency, They added to what was already severe stress.

I'm afraid my transfers have to go outside Europe. The banks charge large amounts and sometimes take a l-o-n-g time. They routinely blame their overseas correspondent banks but when I ask why in that case don't they change their correspondents, I am met with a blank stare. Basically, they don't care. It isn't core business, few private customers do it regularly, so it doesn't matter. They can charge what they want and take as long as they want. Just another example of the way they are.

I transfer money to SE Asia and the USA without any hassles or delays, but as I said the 2 companoes I use have minimums of £5k and £10k in currency equivalents. They do not charge for fast transfers (normally 1 day) and they give far betetr rates than the high street banks, I cannot compare to Western Union as I was put off by their crazy charges for larger transfers. Please post again if you need the details

I was just clarifying a few general rules with forumbrowser re carrying money in person out of the UK. Even for my holiday money, I transfer the currencies before I travel and just keep enough in notes in my wallet for the countries I travel to.

I would think that banks take would take a dim view if you told them "oh, it's not money laundering", a bit like telling check in staff at the airport that you only packed a little bit of explosive in your case.... not very amusing.

The banks and currency transfer frims are only abiding by the rules laid down by the Authorities and I don't see it as a problem if one has nothing to hide.

I have also been to countries where taking the local eqivalent of £20 out of your wallet has more than one nosy local staring into to your wallet, so now keep what I expect to spend on a noteclip, bit safer that way.

"I would think that banks take would take a dim view if you told them "oh, it's not money laundering",

I spoke this only in jest! Yes, they do have to abide by rules but at the same time I believe I have the right to send money to family without it being viewed as a potential threat to national security. And without being ripped off by the banks, who know our options are limited.

I know quite a bit about money laundering systems. I am a programmer and built the fraud detection system for an investment bank about 10 years ago on the Isle of Man. Funnily enough the project was called Paranoid. The systems were sophisticated then so god only knows how good the detection patterns have gotten by now. All these systems do is mine database transactions, look for trends, associations and behaviour patterns. The 1 I developed all that time ago executed a single detection pattern each day. There was 31 patterns in total ( for max of 31 days in the month ).

But back to the question. You really shouldn't have an issue doing a bank transfer to a Middle East country. There will be some exceptions but in the main I'd imagine there is a decent banking infrastructure.

I'd be asking your bank about an IBAN or SWIFT transfer. I'd much rather be dealing with a bank any day over Western Union.

Got me scratching my head now. Going to ask my bank tomorrow about this. Got a small business and have a business account manager. He's pretty good and tends to answer anything I ask him. Let's see if he knows!

Which country is it?

amputee:

"I would think that banks take would take a dim view if you told them "oh, it's not money laundering",

I spoke this only in jest! Yes, they do have to abide by rules but at the same time I believe I have the right to send money to family without it being viewed as a potential threat to national security. And without being ripped off by the banks, who know our options are limited.

The rules imposed on the Banks by the FSA and ultimately the Government are going to affect 100% of transactions and cause any of us a bit of hassle at some time in our lives. If you sell or buy a house you need to prove to your solicitor who you are, then when you come to deposit the cheque, then the bank ask the same old question "Where do these funds originate from". I experienced the same sort of question before a few times when selling up and moving out of the UK.

A small inconvenience to photocopy passport, letter from solicitor confirming house sale etc and send them off to the bank concerned. When doing currency hedging transactions all I state is exactly that "currency hedging" and that is recorded by the FX firm. Yes, I do agree with, it seems like a bit of "Big Brother" to be asked about any money transfer you make but if it stops a few transfers ever reaching the hands of terrorist organisations then it isn't so bad really.

Down to charges, if your transfers are under £5k then you are going to get fleeced at some level. My wife used to send money home to family in Asia and had to pay £7 to send £300. Then we got her sister to open an account in her country, the bank had a small branch in London and we transferred money for no charge that way via the internet.

One last way I know of is Citibank, but as we do not know the country you are sending money to, then cannot advise if Citibank have branches there or do the "FREE GLOBAL TRANSFERS" which you set up on the internet site, make one phone call to confirm and then whenever you want to make a transfer it takes only 30 seconds to initiate, and normally reaches the designated account instantly. Just looked on site and it covers Bahrain and UAE but not any African countries yet http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/international/globtransfer.htm?merchant=citi