Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

My understanding was that bank transfers within the Eurozone denominated in euros must attract the same bank charges as domestic transfers.

I have received a notification letter from my bank (Bank of Cyprus) concerning receipt of a transfer in euros from a Eurozone country(France), and they have deducted EUR 1.71 by way of "Cost of Advice" and EUR 4.00 by way of "Processing fees". I am accustomed to receiving the full amount of transfers originating in Cyprus, and thought the same would now apply to transfers from other countries where the euro is used.

Am I misinformed about the way bank transfers work in the Eurozone, or should I be complaining?

[123456]

In this case you are incorrect. A domestic transfer is different. If you wanted to to an electronic transfer domestically it would be a CHAPS payment with the applicable charges. If you want to do a non-domestic transfer it is a SWIFT payment with its own applicable charges.

[coredump]

AFAIK, BoC is the most notorious of Cypriot banks for its dirty tricks of inventing all sort of fees.
I believe your understanding is correct - Euro transfers within eurozone must be considered domestic. I recall I've received a bulletin saying that when Cypriot banks started to implement IBANs. BTW, I think it also said that you have to use IBAN if you want the transfer to be considered domestic.
I've never transfered money from any eurozone countries myself, but I have recently made a transfer in Euros from my bank account in the UK (the acc. is in GBP, I just instructed the UK bank to perform the conversion and send the transfer in Euros) and I have received it to my account in Hellenic Bank exactly as instructed (the bank in the UK of course charged me for the transfer but there were no fees on the receiving end).

[123456]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/moneybox/4279801.stm

There you go. Whilst the method I described is correct (SWIFT versus CHAPS) the Eurozone countries are supposed to charge the same as a domestic transfer, the UK of course not being in the Eurozone, which is why I still get burnt on my transfers.

So, you are perfectly correct, from France to Cyprus should indeed be the same charges as a domestic transfer.