Job Discussion Forums

[sollmeeya]

Simple question really, is it possible to get money paid into a bank account in the UK from a school in Spain?
I have no idea how I am going to get paid yet, but am fairly certain that I will be.....
Can I get the money posted to a UK acct by a similar method to BACS, is it easy, not easy, I am not sure about this.
I am not really willing to open a new bank account since I am very happy with the bank I am with and the position they take on issues that are important to me. How difficult is this going to be?
Muchas gracias
Sollmeeya

[IanN]

It is easy to get money transferred into a UK bank account. All you need is their IBAN number. This is a number that works in the same way as BACS but internationally.

That is the good news. The bad news is that there will be a charge (which are sometimes quite high here) and I doubt a school would be willing to pay it. There may also be handling changes made by intermediary banks and by your bank at the end.

Another thing to consider is the time factor. It will take at least a week (possibly two) for each transfer to go through. The final consideration is that when you withdraw money from your account there will be more charges for this plus a poor exchange rate to take into account.

Bearing all this in mind having a bank account here would be the best option. I'm guessing that your account is with the Co-operative bank in the UK as you mention issues important to you. I'm sure you could find a similar bank here which doesn't invest in such companies as arms manufacturers etc. although those that don't invest in tobacco companies I think would be a rarity here.

I hope all this has helped and you haven't fallen asleep by this point.

Ian.

P.S. In case you didn't guess I worked in banking before becoming a teacher.

[sollmeeya]

Ian, thanks for the advice, will see how it goes with a transfer to begin with but if the costs are too high I may change...we will see, good guess by the way