Co Operative Bank Money Transfer Review

I am a little bit adverse to Co-Op as a bank. Sure, they do good work. However I find that there are many other banks out there which operate far more effectively than Co-Op does. This is especially true of their international money transfer service.

First and foremost; you can only transfer money via Co-Op over the telephone or via the post. There is no way to transfer it online. This is a huge negative in my books. They should at least build it into their online banking system, but they have not done so. Straight away, I can tell you that dealing with Co-Op is going to be dreadfully difficult. If you can avoid working with them, I suggest you do. It takes far too long. Whilst their staff are helpful, you can make many transfers online in the time it takes to make one via the telephone.

Another limiting factor of Co-Op is the fact that you can only transfer in a few different currencies. Sure, most of the major ones are represented (all European currencies, dollar etc.). However, in some cases you may wish to send money in a currency which does not have representation (very few Asian countries are covered by Co-Op). This means that you will not be able to work with Co-Op unless you make the payment in Sterling. This will then be transferred to the local currency on arrival at the bank in the foreign country, but you will need to pay additional fees for this, and they can be rather hefty. This is not a problem with most other companies out there, so I really do suggest you deal with them as opposed to Co-Op.

That being said, Co-Op does have a few things going for it. The main being the number of different ways in which you can send payments via their system. This includes:

- W.I.F.T. which is, of course, the most popular way of sending money overseas. The payment can take anywhere from one to four days depending on where the money is being sent to. This is a great way to pay bills.
- SEPA is the best way to send money if you are sending within the Euro zone and there is no real priority. These payments will take two days to process. It is cheaper to use SEPA than S.W.I.F.T. so do so whenever you can.
- US Structured Payment. This service is, of course, ideal for those who are looking to send money to America in dollars. It is highly affordable.
- Real Time Euro Payment: This is an expensive option, but the money will land in the account the same day.

The fees for using money transfer services through Co-Op are not high, particularly in comparison to a few other banks out there. However, they are still much higher than dedicated money transfer services. I really suggest that you only use Co-Op if you really love their whole way of doing banking. If you wish to save money, you need to look elsewhere.