Question about SWIFT Payment

[st13phil]

I know there are a few members of the forum who are familiar with the workings of our Banking system, so thought I'd ask for some info.

I've made SWIFT payments to French hotels before and have never had to pay any beneficiary bank charges, but I made a payment to a German company (via Raiffeisenbank) for a repair I'd had carried back in March and since then my bank has passed on two charges to my account. The first was for approx €6 in May, almost two months after the transaction, and I've just received notification of a second charge of approx €10 at the end of last week, almost four months after the initial transaction. My bank tells me that the only info they have is that it is a charge "for the agent / beneficiary bank processing your payment".

As the payment I made for the repairs was for just under €65, these charges represent quite a large proportion and I'm puzzled as to a) what they are for, and b) why I'm receiving a second fee almost 4 months after the initial transaction. I know that I'll only find out the real answer by contacting the beneficiary bank, but does anyone who is familiar with the SWIFT payment system have any clues?

 

[GMK]

Hi Phil

Under the European Payments Directive, your bank is obliged to provide you with a full breakdown of all charges applied to your payment (incl FX rate applied). A quick call to your bank will be all you need and they must write to you with the details

Fees and charges vary greatly from bank to bank, so it would be guesswork to say exactly what the two charges were: hence legal right applied as above

Hope this helps

 

[barryj]

You might have ticked that you were accepting all charges on the form this time, this has caught me out before.