Even outside euro-land a cost-reduced bank transfer is possible, when both ends of the transaction participate in the EuroGiro organisation.
This was originally an organisation of postal banks, but now also has other members.
Examples are:
Deutsche Postbank, Credit Suisse, PostFinance, Thailand Post etc.
Further information here www.eurogiro.com
Unfortunately, the clerks working in your local branch usually don't know about EuroGiro, but at least for a transfer I did earlier this year from "Deutsche Postbank" to "PostFinance" (Switzerland) it worked auto-magically, thus reducing the cost of the transfer to 1.50 EUR (instead of more than 10 EUR).
This was originally an organisation of postal banks, but now also has other members.
Examples are:
Deutsche Postbank, Credit Suisse, PostFinance, Thailand Post etc.
Further information here www.eurogiro.com
Unfortunately, the clerks working in your local branch usually don't know about EuroGiro, but at least for a transfer I did earlier this year from "Deutsche Postbank" to "PostFinance" (Switzerland) it worked auto-magically, thus reducing the cost of the transfer to 1.50 EUR (instead of more than 10 EUR).