暗网禁区

Hi, as you did this at the weekend most likely nothing happened until Monday morning, so it should arrive today or tomorrow.

Personaly I use a money transfer company, there are several out there, usually a much better exchange rate. I use Wise, although for some reason they cannot transfer to BOC, Hellenic works okay and I receive next day.

Graham

Thanks Graham bur woulda, shoulda, coulda, don't mean jack to me at the moment lol 馃槝

So hopefully by tomorrow it should be in my account 馃檹

Bank charges and poor performance made me leave BoC 5 years ago.聽 Alpha bank better but not by much!聽 However, when transferring money here I always use one of the money transfer companies, NOT the bank!聽 The best at the moment seems to be Wise (Used to be Transfer Wise) Money reaches my account by the next working day, Albeit Alpha charge me 鈧�10 to receive it!聽 On 拢5,000 it is 鈧�335 better than the bank transfer rate.

It will be there in the next 24 hrs

As an aside, when we bought our house here in Paphos, I opened an account with BoC in Guernsey thinking it would be simpler transferring money to our BoC account here.聽 You wouldn鈥檛 believe but they then used an intermediate bank who also charged, so I finished up paying 3 lots of fees plus a lousy exchange rate!聽 (Hadn鈥檛 caught on to transfer companies - not sure they were that obvious in 2005)

Hi as Graham explained it will probably turn up shortly, we transferred 鈧�40.000 from Smart Currency to Hellenic and got held up because apparently it was being checked by their branch in Limassol. They were making sure where the money had come from due to money laundering. x

My experience has been similar though with Hellenic. For large amounts > 5k it normally takes 4 to 5 working dates to be credited to my account. But it has normally arrived at the bank the next working day. I did the same as you checked with both.

My UK account is also with Santander, but I would use a currency exchange firm or a Revolut/Startling account as Santander will punish you with fees and poor exchange rates. I now transfer my large amounts from Santander to Revolut in sterling then do the currency conversion in my Revolut account, you get the interbank exchange rate that way. The saving can be significant with large amounts.

Revolut all day long but don't leave any fund there longer than necessary as you can never be sure given they are still not UK bank approved and a couple of聽 US banks have gone bust!

@phildraper spot on

@MacGeorge8035 just money laundering rules and checks for sources

@alisonrich1958

thank you 馃檹 I have explained the situation to my lovely estate agent and she will also senc some sort of evidence that the funds are for a property purchase 馃槈.

I never ever want to do this again 馃槳

Thank you so much for your advise聽 I just thought using my bank will be safer.

Will keep you all updated.

Thanks again 馃檹

I think we have all been through this聽 anxiety where big money is being transferred .... Its all.part of the journey towards relocating .....聽 But there are other bits of it that are equally frusrating and anxious... This is Cyprus everything works slowly slowly... arga arga聽

@kyrikit聽 wait until they start doing money laundering checks, which they will do. Getting the money credited to your account in 4 to 5 workings days will seem like a dream come true. When I transferred 鈧�70k the money laundering checks took 10 working days because the person doing them went on holiday during the process. But as Toon says "This is Cyprus" and they move at their own pace. You will get used to it, mostly.. don't worry it will be fine.

Thank you so much guys 馃檹鉂わ笍鉂わ笍鉂わ笍鉂わ笍

If buying a house I would still check with the UK bank because they can still offer you a favourable exchange rate.

Revolut all day long but don't leave any fund there longer than necessary as you can never be sure given they are still not UK bank approved and a couple of US banks have gone bust!
-@phildraper

Revolut Bank UAB is licensed and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania within the European Union.

So money is still protected.

@SimCityAT I agree but the more I read its looking unlikely to ever get the approval in UK ...聽 I do use them but only for monthlly currency exchanges and keep only what we need in it for the month ... .聽

@kyrikit

A bit of advice. Have been here 7 yrs. Have a local account which I use sparingly. Speak with Santander and ask them for a multi currency account which I am sure is available. I have one through Natwest. Move sterling to Euro use the multi currency account with a Debit card and on line banking and you money is safe in the UK or ask Santander if you can move to Channel Islands or Manx.

I will not keep large sums here

Regards Charles

Hey

Just an update. My money has now been received.

Thanks again for all your support, I really do appreciate it. 馃檹

Kay

HSBC also have a Global Money Account and their rates are not bad .. nor as good as Revolut or Starling but it means you can keep your account in uk. HSBC are not closing accounts like some other banks

@SimCityAT I agree but the more I read its looking unlikely to ever get the approval in UK ... I do use them but only for monthlly currency exchanges and keep only what we need in it for the month ... .
-@Toon

I use Wise and it is with them for a matter of seconds. Its just to transfer my money. I have the card if I need to travel elsewhere as I can put multi currencies on it.

The point was money in Revolault is protected by EU law regardless of where the money came from.

@SimCityAT yesi i know it is . Ive moved big money with them without any issues and long before any intention of of getting a UK licence. Yes they have to comply with anti money lundering matters etc and have the same protections in place under the umbrella of Lithuania's EU membership and it's DPS. They still have an operational base in Dublin too

I would just like to add that irrespective of the authority who is regulating the bank I would recommend caution as you may feel safe that the company is a member of whatever authority they are but given my experience of how the FSCS FCA Pension ombudsman etc operate you may feel covered in the event of a failure but you just try and get your money from them. If you are lucky they will payout after a very long drawn out process where you will probably be asked for your great great grand mother to write a letter in person lol In the end this is false hope relying on the so called safety nets put in place to safeguard your money :-/ I speak from the experience of losing loads of money in so called protected regulated companies! I have a framed letter from the UK treasury department 3 pages long agreeing with my sentiments and telling me they are glad I brought this to their attention but they cannot do anything lol <Rant off :-)>

So confused in reading all this 馃お

we are moving from the US in October. As part of the residency application we need to put a large sum of money in a Cyprus bank. Which bank do you recommend? We would probably use a transfer service to move it, but don鈥檛 believe we could use Revolut to keep it here for residency requirements as it needs to be a Cyprus Bank?

In my opinion Hellenic Bank... And yes it must be a Cyprus Bank..

Suggest you check to see where the nearest branch is to where you intend to be located.

I used Hellenic to hold my money for the immigration process. Could not say they are any better or worse than other Cypriot banks as I only have experience of them. You will need to visit the branch in person and probably best to call in advance to arrange an appointment. There is a lot of documents I needed to open the account and it might have changed over the last 5 months but you should ask what they need on the phone. If they cannot answer you then the 1st visit will be to discover what is required. Once you have all the docs make another appointment and be prepared to sit with them for 2.5 hours while they go thru them and ask some strange questions that you will need to probably guess answers for. The list I had might not be correct now as all things change all the time in Cyprus. Be prepared for the slow way they work and the charges they will ask for. You will need a bank employee signed and stamped statement showing the funds for immigration. If the bank prints this they charge 5 euro if you print it at home and take it to sign they did not charge me! All in all I made 3 visits to get the bank account open and spent about 4 hours on and off there. If you ask them to enable internet banking make sure you also ask them to authorize you to view your own account! Sounds stupid but I had to do this to get access to see the funds. This also needed to be a visit to the branch. Also get a joint account from day one if you are a couple. If you are required to prove clear police record from your originating country this might be easier to obtain before you leave rather than after you arrive. Check what the bank wants so you are prepared. You will probably need the police records for the immigration as well. It might differ depending on the originating country.

Be prepared for more confusing stuff, trust me it will happen, but do not be put off because it will all be worth it in the end and you can celebrate in the sun by the sea lol Any other things you have questions on just post here as the members have a vast amount of 1st hand experience.

I recommend Hellenic only because I had 6 years experience with them and found them to be very good and their mobile apo is in my

Experience very good.... I did try BoC but found them to be not so helpful and their app wasn't as good..

I no longer use any Cyprus bank as don't need it now as have PR so have been running revolut in a specific and limited way

If you have PR can you apply for citizenship? The have 2 passports 1 UK the other Cyprus/EU?

Yes of course as long as you lived here permanently and can prove it for 5 yrs or 4 yrs with speaking greek along with fitting all the聽 criteria

Note the last year preceding the application you must not have left Cyprus

OK Thanks

Thank you! We are looking forward to our move here in October and really appreciate the help you have given so far. We know it will be a slow process, but worth it.

Good luck and best wishes

@kyrikit for future reference best is to use WISE for transfer of money . Very quick and economical