Lloyds International Transfer: Fees and Exchange Rates

Planning to transfer money abroad with Lloyds? This guide tells you all you need to know about Lloyds international transfers including: how much they cost, how long they take, and how to make one.

Despite having over 300 years of experience in banking, Lloyds may not be the best way to send money abroad. Services like Wise, Western Union and OFX can often be cheaper, faster, and more intuitive to use. More on that coming right up.

Lloyds international money transfer comparison

Let’s start with a comparison of Lloyds against a few specialist providers. In this example, we’re sending an online payment to a friend, and we want them to receive 5,000 EUR in the end:

*Fees and rates correct at time of research - 24th November 2021

In our example, Wise is the cheapest when it comes to total costs. You could save 134.66 GBP compared to using Lloyds Bank to make your transfer. Wise uses the mid-market exchange rate and a transparent transfer fee. Lloyds on the other hand adds a 3.55% exchange rate markup. That means that even though Lloyds has no transfer fee for this payment, you’ll still pay a total of 149.54 GBP in markups.

For payments in euros to the EEA, Lloyds is fairly competitive on transfer time, as long as you hit their cut-off. To get your money there on the next working day, you’ll have to arrange your payment no later than 2pm or 3pm on a banking day. Specialist providers can often be more flexible on delivery times because they don’t rely on old school payment processing systems. Many transfers with Wise arrive instantly, for example, and almost all are received within 24 hours, regardless of the time of day they’re processed.

If you decide to use a specialist provider for your international money transfer, you’ll be able to set up your payment entirely online or using an app. As these providers are built for international transfers, the user interface is typically intuitive - making getting started a breeze.

Lloyds international transfer fees

When you make an international transfer with lloyds the total amount you pay could include 3 different charges:

• Lloyds transfer fee
• Exchange rate markup
• Correspondent bank fees

The total amount you’re charged for your transfer will depend on where you’re sending money, and the currencies involved. Traditional banks often use low transfer fees - or even charge no transfer fee at all. However, because there can still be a charge rolled into the exchange rate being used, this doesn’t actually mean you don’t pay for your transfer at all.

We’ll look at the Lloyds international transfer exchange rate in more detail in a moment - first, here are the Lloyds bank international transfer fees you should know about:

Lloyds exchange rate

The Lloyds international transfer exchange rate is calculated by taking the mid-market exchange rate - the one you’ll find on Google - and adding a percentage markup. The markup varies by the value of the payment being made:

This means that the bigger the payment you’re making, the smaller the percentage exchange fee you’ll pay. However, the amounts can ramp up very quickly, so the exchange rate markup costs far more than the transfer fee or any correspondent bank charges.

Here’s what you’ll pay in exchange rate markups for a few different transfer values:

• Sending 1,000 GBP - 35.50 GBP exchange rate markup fee
• Sending 10,000 GBP - 355 GBP exchange rate markup fee
• Sending 50,000 GBP - 1,200 GBP exchange rate markup fee

As you can see, even small changes in the exchange rates can make a big difference to the overall cost of an international transfer. Banks tend to have higher exchange rate markups compared to specialist providers. Here’s a reminder of the total costs - including exchange rate markups - from the providers we looked at earlier. This is what you’ll pay with each if you want your recipient to end up with 5,000 EUR in their account in the end:

• Lloyds: 149.54 GBP
• Wise: 14:88 GBP
• Western Union: 35.52 GBP
• OFX: 46.27 GBP

Lloyds additional fees

One final fee to know about when sending a Lloyds international bank transfer is correspondent bank fees - which are also called agent bank fees. These apply to pretty much all international transfers aside from some payments made in euros within the EEA - and since Brexit, some agent bank charges may creep in even when sending within the EEA.

These correspondent bank charges typically arise when international payments are made using the SWIFT network. SWIFT is a safe and reliable payment processing system favoured by traditional banks. However, it’s not the fastest or cheapest option out there. Under the SWIFT system, up to 3 banks work in partnership to transfer any individual payment, and these intermediaries - the correspondent banks - can charge for their role in the transfer, on top of any fee you pay your own bank.

Depending on the type of payment you’re making you may be able to choose between paying all the additional fees yourself, sharing them with the recipient, or having the recipient cover all additional costs themselves. You’ll see your options for paying correspondent bank charges when you set up your transfer.

How long does a Lloyds international money transfer take?

How long a Lloyds international bank transfer takes to arrive depends on where you’re sending it, and the currency it needs to be received in. If you submit your transfer request before the bank’s cut-off time, on a working day, the payment will start to be processed on the same day - after cut-off times, or out of hours, payments will start to be processed on the next working day only. Cut-off time is between 2pm and 3pm depending on the payment type.

If your transfer is arranged before the relevant cut-off time on a working day you can expect the following delivery times:

Depending on where your money needs to go, Lloyds may not be your quickest option. Let’s see how the Lloyds international transfer delivery times measure up against the other providers we looked at earlier:

• Lloyds: Next day for euro payments to the EEA, 4 days for major currencies, up to 14 days for unusual currencies
• Wise: 80% of payments arrive in 24 hours
• Western Union: Up to 2 days
• OFX: 1 - 2 business days

Pros and cons of transferring money abroad with Lloyds

Pros:

• Familiar and secure payment system
• No upfront transfer fee for euro payments to the EEA
• Competitive delivery times for some transfer types
• Arrange your payment through online and mobile banking for convenience

Cons:

• High exchange rate markups
• Correspondent bank fees of 12 - 20 GBP may apply
• Payments in unusual currencies can take up to 14 working days

Compared to Lloyds, specialist international transfer services typically win on overall costs and delivery time. Specialist providers often have innovative approaches to sending payments, which are just as secure as using banks, but faster and cheaper. They can then pass these savings on to customers in the form of bank beating exchange rates and fees.

How to make an international transfer with Lloyds

You can usually make international bank transfers with Lloyds online or in the bank’s mobile app, in a branch, or over the phone. However, making an online or mobile payment is usually the easiest and cheapest option. Here’s how to send an international transfer with Lloyds using their online banking service:

1. Log into your online banking and select More actions, then Payments and transfers
2. Select Send money outside the UK
3. Click Pay someone new for first time transfers, or Select an international recipient if you’ve paid your recipient before
4. Check over or enter the recipient’s details
5. Enter the value and currency of the payment you want to make
6. Select Continue to review payment details, and Confirm Payment if everything is good to go

Depending on the payment you might also have to complete a security step. This may be entering your password online, or confirming the request through a phone call.

What information do you need to make an international transfer with Lloyds?

If you’re sending a payment to the EEA or UK you’ll need to have:

• Recipient’s full name and address
• Recipient’s IBAN
• Recipient’s SWIFT/BIC code

For transfers anywhere else you’ll need a little more detail:

• Recipient’s full name and address
• Recipient’s IBAN
• Recipient’s SWIFT/BIC code
• Name and address of the recipient’s bank
• Clearing code
• Reason for the payment

Transfer limits and available countries

You can send Lloyds international money transfers in 30+ currencies. Limits may apply to the maximum amount you can send, based on the payment type:

Receiving money from abroad with Lloyds

You can receive an international payment in pounds or other currencies into your Lloyds account. If the payment is not in pounds, Lloyds will convert it to pounds before depositing it into your account. In this case, exchange rate markups - as described above - will apply.

There’s a fee to receive an international transfer:

• Payments under 100 GBP in value - 2 GBP
• Payments over 100 GBP in value - 7 GBP

Lloyds SWIFT code

When you need to receive an international transfer you’ll have to give the sender your IBAN and your SWIFT code. The SWIFT code is a unique identifier assigned to each bank which helps payments be received quickly and securely. The Lloyds Bank SWIFT code is LOYDGB2L.

Conclusion

Sending an international transfer with your regular bank might be an obvious option, but it’s not necessarily the cheapest or fastest. In particular, bank exchange rate markups tend to be high and can push up the overall cost of your payment significantly.

Specialist online and mobile international money transfer services use modern approaches to cross-border payments which can cut down the costs and improve delivery times. Many choose to pass on these savings to customers by providing bank beating exchange rates and low, transparent fees. Check out a few options before you get started with your international payment to make sure you get the best possible deal.

Interested in making international transfers with banks? Read our guides on Barclays, HSBC, Santander, NatWest, RBS, Nationwide, and Halifax.