In a systematic study of nucleon transfer reactions accompanied by Coulomb excitation we have bombarded 152Sm, 16~ and 232Th with 206,208pb beams at incident energies close to the Coulomb barrier. Particle-gamma coincidence techniques were used to identify excited states of reaction products populated through inelastic scattering and in nucleon transfer reactions. One-neutron stripping and pick-up reactions on 152Sm were observed leading to known states of the rotation aligned il 3/2-bands in 1538m and 15 l Sm" In the 16~ + 2o6,208pb systems no significant population of low lying states of product nuclei was found in the nucleon-transfer channels. Large cross sections were observed for one-and two-neutron pick-up from 232Th at an incident energy of 6.4 MeV/u. Around the grazing angle they are of the same order of magnitude as the cross section measured for inelastic scattering. The results are analyzed in the framework of semiclassical models. PACS: 25.70