International payments

We'll send money abroad using the details you provide to us, so it's really important you check they are correct to avoid any unnecessary delays and / or charges.

Before you send the money it's important that you have the following details to hand about your beneficiary and payment:

• Your account details: for the HSBC Account you wish to be debited
• Beneficiary's full name and address
• Beneficiary's bank code: You should obtain this code, normally the Business Identifier Code (BIC), from your beneficiary. For some countries / regions you may need the national bank code rather than the BIC.
• IBAN (International Bank Account number) or account number: The IBAN is a series of alphanumeric characters that helps to identify accounts held anywhere in the world. Some beneficiaries may hold just an account number depending on their bank.
• Country/region of their bank: Your beneficiaries' account holding bank may not always be the same as their home country / region
• Amount of the payment 
• Any reference: Any reference you would like to be included to be sent to the beneficiary, however we cannot guarantee this information will be passed to your beneficiary by their bank
• Reason for making the payment: It is important to provide us with this information if we ask for it

For all international money transfers, the beneficiary's bank, and any foreign bank we may use to send the payment, may also take a charge. 

You have different options to; pay all the charges, share the charges or for you to pay all the charges.

The charge(s) applied to the payment will depend on the charging option selected.

• If you opt to pay all the fees; the charges in the table above will apply together with any intermediary, agency and beneficiary bank charges
• If you opt to share the fees; the charge in the table above will apply together with any intermediary and agency bank charges
• If you opt the beneficiary to pay all fees; no charges will be applied

The above charges will be deducted from the payment before we add them to the beneficiary’s account where applicable. 

• online: up to £50,000 (or currency equivalent)
• branch: unlimited
• telephone: unlimited for Premier, and up to £10,000 (or currency equivalent) for Non-Premier

Payments to accounts in the EEA (European Economic Area) in euro and sterling will normally be credited the next working day*. All other payments normally take up to 4 working days*, but may take longer depending on the country/region the money is being sent to and if the payment falls on a bank holiday.

You’ll be able to see what International Payments have debited your account from viewing your posted transactions on the debiting account.

* subject to currency cut-off time and further checks, as sometimes we need to conduct additional security checks to validate the payment.

Currently this option is only available online when logged into online banking.

The exchange rate applied to your instruction will be the HSBC Exchange Rate applicable at the time your payment is made. This is a live rate which is updated by the second during market hours. We will notify you each time you make a payment from your account and where a currency exchange has been involved, we will confirm the HSBC Exchange Rate that has been applied.

For future dated payments, the exchange rate will be applied on the day that the payment is made.

You can check the actual exchange rate used for the payment by viewing 'Historic payments' within 'Manage payments'.

We will also write to you to advise of the exchange rate applied to the payment where applicable.

If you've asked us to make a payment immediately you will be unable to cancel it.

You can cancel a future dated or recurring international payment set up online by selecting 'Manage payments - future payments' in Send Money Overseas via online banking.

We will need to have received your request to cancel by 23.59 (UK Time) on the day before the payment is due to be made.