Hi JoJo

It may be worth contacting Thomas Cook as I know you can send Moneygrams through their shops that have a bureaux de change. I would have thought that as they are a travel agent they may have more of an idea as to where your mum's nearest collection point would be... failing that they could probably put you in touch with someone who would be able to tell you. Might be worth a phone call at least.

If she has a Turkish bank account I know you could have it sent there.

What a worry! Hope you get it sorted.

Mazz

Have you looked at Western Union? - they have places everywhere

I looked up Western Union yesterday but they don't have an agent in the Altinkum area. TC are probably your best bet. Will the Post Office have a transfer/ Post Restante arrangement?

try world first on 0845 009 0500 they do money transfers world wide

hiya everyone who replied thank you so much for your info, anyways my mum managed to borrow the money off one of her friends in turkey and i went off to her bank with her card took money out then went and put money into the nice friends account so she saved money in the long run had no charges or owt, have to do same thing wednesday then her other friend is going over to turkey in march is gonna take her card over for her good job she dont live far from me thnx anyway everyone all sorted now jojox

Glad you got it sorted for her, sounds like she has good friends as well

i hope if she has a bank account she is taking afvantage of the 18% interest savings account on sterling they give you in turkey.

Biggles: Do you know whether you have to have permanent residency for a savings account in Turkey or would (long-term) rental address do?

Thanks

well all i know is you have to have a tax number to open a bank acc to get the interest rate, and you have to own a property to get a tax num, so so long as there is another way to get a tax num ,thats what you have to find out. i can make enquiries at my turkish bank if you want . but i bought a place so it fell into line. i had to take a copy of my tapu [hose deeds ] to the tax office, then when i got it i went to the bank and the first thing they asked for was the tax num .

To open a Turkish Bank Account,the other posters are correct, you do need a Tax Number.Quite easy to obtain, with no costs involved.you also need an address.Could be a Hotel or Rented Property or your own home.They do not need proof you just write down the address.On Stirling accounts you will only get 4 %. If you convert it to YTL and buy Turkish Goverment Bonds ( guaranteed by State ) then you will get 21% Gross 19 % net.Lots of Ex Pats live here quite easily on the interest.Hope this helps.

Ian

Many thanks Ian - i am going over end April/start of May so i will enquire as to how/where to obtain a tax number from and try and find out more details of the bond.

Tracy

tracy. i put £15000 on an investment acc last may 06 when it matures this may 07 i will have earnt £1700 in interest, i can then take the interest out conbert it to sreling and take it home or leave it as ytl or reinvest it with the £15000, you can take out an investment acc monthly or 2 monthly or as long as you like. i control my acc from uk, but i must phone the turkish bank before 2 pm their time on the exact day the acc is due to end ,on that day i tell them what i want to do, and they e/mail me confirmation, i deal with 2 lady bank employees who both speak perfect english. doing this pays all my apartment running fee,s and leaves me with about £1000 spending money . you can take any amount of money into turkey ,but cannot take more tha £2500 out at a time.long may it continue. go for it. i have for nearly 3 years.

tracy ,sorry to be a bore, but i must add i took £15000 cash out on the plane last may as nat west wanted to charge me some extortinate rate to transfer the money [ sterling transfer charge ] so i said sod it i went with 4 other people , i dont advise this but it was better for me , the turkish bank gave me a higher rate to turn sterling into ytl, the only thing that was funny [ not now i think of it ] is we arrived late sat night, and i wa scared stiff of leaving that money in my apt [ no safe ] so i carried it around in a money belt all the time we were out sunday and walked around turgetreise sunday evening with £15000 round my waist. i was straight down bank in bodrum mon morning. when i told my turkish friends what i did they nearly collapsed with shock . so dont do what i did . at the moment for every £5000 you put in ytl invest acc you will get £100 clear interest after tax , the bank take the tax off. thats my lot ,it took me a lomg time to het into this system so i have told you all i know . john [biggles]

We use HSBC both here and in the UK.The cost to transfer any amount between both Branches is 10 UK.Pounds.You can also transfer any amount back to the UK but you must do it through a Bank.I give signed instrutions by Fax ( which must be set up in the UK.)As long as İt is BEFORE 12-00pm then the cash is in my Bank by 3-00 pm the following day.Can't fault it.

Ian

ian. we started off with hsbc but i was not impressed with them so we changed banks, like you i had to originally sign by fax,but i do it all by phone now [ voip cheap 3 p a min uk to turkey ] and they e/mail me straight back. as we go out there about 4 times a year we pop into the bank as well.nat west wanted about £40 to transfer, but i just take cash out now but only £5000 at a time now as that £15000 was a 1 off. cheers .john

Hi John. I guess it's each to his own.I did bring out some cash on one occasion and got stopped by Customs wanting to know where it had come from.Luckily I had the Bank receipt with me so they let me go through.I have no problems with HSBC and as I said earlier, each to his own.

Ian

ian,thats unusual getting stopped by customs going into turkey, mind you if they had stopped me they would have had to strip me as my money was in a moneybelt tucked inside my underpants in £50 pound notes, i was doing nothing illegal and as you say i had proof with me that it was mine.but i would not do that again. cheers. john