Andy Robinson wrote:
> 2009/8/24 Paul Boddie <[email protected]>:
>> How is this compatible with the whole single payment zone thing?
> 
> It's not. You don't expect rules to be consistent, do you? ;-)
> 
> The Euro directive in question was about Euro transfers (directive
> 2560/2001) 

This part is correct.

> between Euro countries.

This part isn't.

> We are not bound by it until we
> switch to the Euro, so others can now send us Euros for free, but our
> banks can still overcharge for sending money out. 

That's not correct. If you transfer the money (< 50.000 EUR) in EUR
using IBAN/BIC and select the shared transfer cost option, the directive
applies.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/03/140
"""
If the UK firm makes euro payments to the euro area, the charges to the issuer 
will be the same as
for a euro transfer within the United Kingdom, and costs to the recipient, if 
any, will be the same
as for a domestic transfer.
"""

However, there's a catch... UK banks can charge whatever they want
for EUR transfers within the UK and the same charges then apply to the
EU transfers outside the UK. Since it's rather uncommon to do EUR
transfers within the UK, this works great as loophole and many UK
banks use such a strategy to continue charging for transfers
to other EU countries. See e.g.

http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/info/tariffandinterest/charges.htm

AFAIK, the cheapest way to get money out of the UK is based on the
EuroGiro network. Unfortunately, this only applies to transfers
between member banks:

http://www.eurogiro.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=81

Citibank charges GBP 10, Alliance & Leicester GBP 7.50 per transfer.

That said, for small amounts, PayPal works best.

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