How do bank transfers work in the UK?

Help
1

I do not live in the UK so the question might be a bit odd but please bear with me. I will be moving to the UK and would like to have a Monzo account. I will have to open up a separate basic account in another bank (e.g. Barclays) do deposit my cash and from there top-up Monzo when needed.

I am very disappointed that I will not be able to top up from my debit card so I am a bit concerned about bank transfers and would appreciate help on this matter.

  1. When I want to do a bank transfer to top-up, do I have to go to a Barclays branch or it is a standard service that can be done online with a basic account or with a Barclays app?

  2. Do I have to pay to transfer from Barclays to Monzo or it is a free/percentage-based service? If it is paid, what are the fees?

  3. Is it reliable enough to know that a bank transfer will be completed 100% within 12 hours on a Tuesday or Wednesday from when I order it?

Thanks!

2

You can do this through the barclays app

No fees for UK account to UK account transfers

My transfers from barclays to Monzo were always instant

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3

Bank transfers are almost all Faster Payments, and appear in the recipient account instantly (they say up to 2 hours, but you almost always get it instantly).

Most bank accounts won’t charge a fee for bank transfers. Some of the basic accounts may have a limit on the number you can do, but this is not very common. Business accounts are more likely to charge a fee per-transfer.

Definitely reliable. Occasionally there may be a delay, but if it’s on Monzo’s side they’ll alert you, and it’s usually just for an hour or two when it’s happened, not 12 hours.

I make lots of transfers from my business account to my personal one and by the time I’ve closed the Natwest app, I’ve got a Monzo notification saying the money has arrived.

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4

Thank you!

Is this bank transfer feature (for Barclays at least) a basic one or I need to pay additionally to use mobile/online banking in order to fully utilize Monzo?

5

Barclays Mobile app is free and bank transfers are also free. So you wont have to pay anything to transfer money to Monzo from Barclays. Neither will you need to pay anything to fully utilise Monzo. I don’t think there are any UK banks which charge for basic features or transfers

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6

Fantastic, issue(s) resolved! Thank you everyone very much!

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