QRP - Paying fees from UK

@belizeman I had the same issue with my property purchase but it's actually easier than it looks. You may need to go to your own bank and bring those papers along to make such payment the right way. Belize requires such steps to avoid money laundry scams for which it was known for in the 1980's.

Your bank then will handle the transfers within their system, you can't have access to those platforms on your computer. I tried to send my money directly to a Belize Bank and it was rejected by a "screening" bank and sent back to me. It all goes smooth when you follow these steps. Good luck.

Thanks very much for the response.

I did actually phone my bank (and other ones) on the issue and was told that they could only use one third-party bank or that they couldn't specify them.

Maybe I'll get a different response if, as you suggest, I go to bank in person.

Yes, each bank information you have they need to add in steps to the actual transfer documents, so your money goes first the Receiver's Correspondent Bank, then to The Intermediate Bank to make clear it's not short cutted and finally that bank will transfer the funds to the Beneficiary bank. Like that it should only take a few days.

What about if I move to Belize and open a Belize bank account and then need to move money from my UK account to the Belize account. Is it the same in-bank only process for all such transfers?

I have now been to my (and several other) UK banks in person to ask about complying with the BTB instructions for paying fees, utilizing the three banks specified, and they were all baffled. They stated that they don't specify other banks in the process as the BTB are instructing. Most suggested that the BTB's instructions may be out of date and that payments can now be made direct to the beneficiary, without need to specify intermediary banks. Is that now the case?

I believe @travelbeat, who kindly responded, is Canadian. Maybe things are different for UK banks? Is there anybody reading who has made the fee payments successfully from the UK? If so, how?

This is now a big concern for me. I've put together nearly all the QRP application (just awaiting a medical) but making the required fee payment looks like it could be problematic.

(I've suggest making a small test payment to the BTB but got no response yet.)

Can anyone help, please?

@belizeman

Without seeing the instructions you were given, I can share that having an intermediary bank is still done in some of the smaller community banks in the US. When we've dealt with wires involving that type of transaction, your bank information is the sending institution (bank #1). The intermediary bank is the bank you are actually wiring to (bank #2), for further credit to the final receiving bank (bank #3 - usually there is no SWIFT code for this bank, just their account number). Bank #3 is not receiving the wire directly, but the money is being credited to their account at bank #2 (as an intermediary bank). 

Not sure if it would help here, but I've heard that some folks in the UK use Wise (wise.com) for international payments and transfers.