Send Money To Turkey

Ways to Send Money to Turkey

Whether you are sending money to your family, relatives or business associates in Turkey, there are a couple of formal channels you can use. You can make bank-to-bank transfers, use online money transfer services or walk into a store and do cash transfers to the recipient.

Bank-to-Bank Transfers

You can transfer money from your local bank to the recipient bank in Turkey. This method is reliable when transferring large sums of money. However, for small amounts, transfer fees can be significantly high. The time banks take to deliver transfers is typically about 3 to 5 days.

For instance, if you transfer 1000 EUR from Germany to Turkey through Deutsche Bank, it can take anywhere from 3-5 business days. The cost of the transfer is approximately €41.55, combining both the exchange rate margin and transfer fees.

For faster bank-to-bank transfers look for banks in the host country that have branches in Turkey. If you are making a transfer through Deutsche Bank, you could link up with Deutsche Bank Istanbul.

If you are transferring money from France, you could use BNP Paribas as it has a branch in Turkey, BNP Paribas Turkey. This ensures that your transfers get to the recipient a little faster and in a more cost-effective way.

Online Money Transfers

Money transfer service providers such as Ria, TransferWise, WorldRemit, Xpress Money, Remitly, and Smallworld are some of the most popular operators on the various remittance corridors to Turkey. Compared to banks, these providers give you faster transfer times, simpler platforms to make your transfer, cost-effective in fees and exchange rate margins.

To make a transfer, you have to sign up for an account, give your information for verification and once approved, you can pay for your transfer. It takes a few minutes to do all this save for the one-time verification that could take a couple of hours depending on the provider.

When paying for your transfer, the provider you go for will determine whether you will use debit cards, credit cards, or bank transfers. Some providers like Xoom are flexible on payment options. As for the payout options, some providers have both cash pickups and direct-to-bank transfers while others only have one of the two.

The most important factors to look at when choosing money transfer service providers are the transfer fee, the exchange rate margin, and the speed of delivery. Some providers choose not to charge transfer fees, others do not charge exchange rate margins, while others charge both.

TransferWise is a good example of providers that don’t charge exchange rate margins. All transfers are processed at the mid-market rate. For instance, sending 1000 EUR to Turkey through TransferWise will cost you from 8.32 to 12.37 EUR depending on the transfer payment option you choose. WorldRemit charges you 17.99 EUR for a similar transfer.

In addition to cash pickups and bank deposits, some providers such as WorldRemit allow direct to mobile phone recharge. The airtime top-up is instant and the recipient receives an SMS notification. WorldRemit can recharge Vodafone and Turk Telekom prepaid mobile phones.

In-Store Cash Transfers

Cash transfer service providers like Western Union, MoneyGram, and Ria, use agents as access points in making transfers. You deposit money at an agent and they process the transfer on your behalf.

When sending money from the United Kingdom to Turkey, the maximum you can transfer through Western Union is 8,000 GBP. The receiver can get the money either in cash or as a deposit into their bank account. Direct-to-bank deposits take about 1 business day to be delivered.

The maximum amount you can transfer through MoneyGram from the United Kingdom to Turkey is 4068.00 GBP. All transfers are directed to cash pickup points and can be paid for via debit/credit card, Sofort or cash at location. Cash pickups are delivered in minutes.

What is Needed to Send Money to Turkey

Before you begin the process of transferring money to Turkey, there is some information you’ll need. Providers have varying requirements but the following is a generalised list of what is typically required.

• A government-issued photo ID document. Depending on the country you are sending from, you can use a passport, social security card or driver’s license.
• The recipient’s name as it appears on their legal documents
• The recipient’s physical address and phone number
• If you are sending directly to a bank account, the recipient bank details (bank name, branch and the account number)
• The amount of money you want to send, the transfer payment option and payout methods

The bulk of this information is only required when opening the account. Going forward only the recipient information will be asked for. In the case of repeat transfers, no extra information is needed, the systems can recall al the details of the previous transfer.