International money transfers

A foreigner who gets a job in Poland is often forced to leave his family behind for some time. He would like to conveniently transfer some of his money to his family abroad. It can be done in a few ways:

Bank money transfer

Upon opening a bank account you should check if your bank makes money transfers to the bank abroad that you or our family have an account in. Not every bank in Poland will transfer money to every bank abroad. International bank transfers differ on the time of realisation and the price. The simplest transfer is a transfer in euros to European Union or EEA countries. It is a so-called SEPA transfer. Those transfers are quite cheap – they cost around 10 PLN, the money is transferred directly to the receiving party’s bank and, in general, are available on the next working day. What is important, the person you are sending money to will receive the full amount because there are no intermediary costs. It is very important to know the SWIFT code of the receiver’s bank, the correct IBAN number (the bank account number in an adequate format – the country’s identification, e.g. PL and 26 digits), you will also have to indicate the SHA costs option (it is usually automatically indicated by the bank).

If you want to make a transfer in other currency or to countries outside EU or EEA, things look a little different. Money is then transferred through so-called intermediary banks, so between a bank in Poland and the bank that you want to transfer the money to there may be even several intermediary banks. If you do not cover transfer fees in advance, the banks will deduct them from the transferred amount.

Transfer fees can be settled in three different ways:

1. OUR – you cover the fees yourself,
2. SHA – the fees collected by a Polish bank you cover yourself and the intermediary banks’ fees are covered by the receiving party (they are collected from the transferred amount),
3. BEN – all costs are covered by the receiving party (also from the transferred amount).

More on conditions of international money transfers in Polish banks.

It is important to check the receiver’s bank account number several times if it is not a European bank, because the number may be in a completely different format than IBAN (there may be more or less numerals than 26). Make sure that you indeed have the correct account number and all data necessary to make the transfer, because if you omit to supply it all, the transfer may not reach the receiver and end up suspended somewhere between banks.

International post transfer

In order to transfer money abroad to a person who does not have a bank account, you can use an international post transfer offered in every branch of the Polish Postal Service (Poczta Polska). An adequate form has to be filled in and the money sent. The time it takes to realise such a transfer is a disadvantage of this method. The Post says that it may take up to six working days.

Where and on what conditions money can be transferred via a post transfer?

To send money, a form has to be filled in on which you indicate the amount in PLN and a post clerk calculates how much it is in a foreign currency. Poczta Polska also offers RIA International Money Transfers (money is transferred online to a foreign receiving party through RIA Financial Services, which is one of the biggest operators on the market of cash transfers). The advantage of this method is that Poczta Polska has a great number of branches in every city and in small towns.

Check the RIA International Money Transfer service fees.

Western Union

International cash transfers can be also made via Western Union which co-operates with many banks in Poland. Western Union services are available in its own branches, as well as in many banks or on its website. You should register on the website and send the cash form a payment or credit card. To send a transfer in one of the branches, you have to fill in a form and present an ID. Together with the proof of the cash transfer you will receive a special control number. To collect the transferred money, the receiver has to go to a Western Union agency with his ID, and - what is important - he has to know the transfer data, such as the amount, the name and the surname of the sender, the reference number. If the receiver does not have any documents, he still can collect the money by providing a password set by the sender. The money may be sent in PLN, euros, dollars and collected in the currency of the country the money was sent to. An advantage is the possibility to monitor the status of the transfer you have sent or are waiting for. To do this, visit the Western Union website where on the home page you will find a Transfer Status tracker.

P2P payment systems

A modern, fast and cheap solution are P2P payment systems such as PayPal or Moneybookers. Both the sender and the receiver have to have accounts in a given service. To make a transfer, all you need to do is know is the receiving party’s email address and determine the amount you want to transfer. You can transfer money here. You should be very cautious and often change your account password in those systems, because the ease with which you can use them is often connected to a lower level of your data security on the Internet.