(OT) banking - transferring money abroad

moggy

Well-known member

Oct 15, 2003

5,050

southwick

• Aug 14, 2015

• #1

Question some of you may hopefully be able to answer.
Just bought a place in Spain so will need to transfer money from the UK to a Spanish solicitor, first the deposit then the balance on completion.
The estate agent said they recommend their clients use a currency broker and they advise a company called currencies direct and they say it'll save you roughly 3k on every 100k cause of bank charges,
Currencies direct are FCA authorised and run thru Barclays but I'm still a bit unsure wether to pass all this money thru a third party.
Anyone know anything about this?

 

spence

British and Proud

Oct 15, 2014

9,814

Crawley

• Aug 14, 2015

• #2

Whens the house warming party?

 

Codner pharmaceuticals

Well-known member

Jun 17, 2009

1,342

Border Country

• Aug 14, 2015

• #3

Not another transfer thread - BG has good knowledge of all things transfer related.

 

Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member

NSC Patron

Jul 11, 2003

59,561

The Fatherland

• Aug 14, 2015

• #4

I use a company called CurrencyFair which is a (web based) Peer2Peer company. I use it primarily to transfer my UK salary into Euros every month but like you am also buying an apartment and we've just moved the deposit out of the UK and into euros. When I investigated this 3 years ago it was as good a rate as I could get anywhere, very easy to use and most importantly recommended and used by a trusted friend. I've been very happy with it and never had any issues. Their rate is currently 1.4016 at this precise moment. The only additional cost is €3 for the transfer.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

And good luck with your purchase.

 

KZNSeagull

Well-known member

Nov 26, 2007

19,813

Wolsingham, County Durham

• Aug 14, 2015

• #5

I have used Currencies Direct before. No problems at all, would use them again - they get better rates than you would get via a bank. Highly recommended

 

phoenix

Well-known member

May 18, 2009

2,605

• Aug 14, 2015

• #6

Thanks for this transferring £25 k to Australia on Monday what would I expect to pay in commission?

thanks in lads and lasses.

 

Boroseagull

Well-known member

Aug 23, 2003

2,060

Alhaurin de la Torre

• Aug 14, 2015

• #7

I have used, and still do, HIFX for currency transactions. Used them for 12 years now and rate them 100%.

 

Cadiz Seagull

Grey bearded old man

Jul 7, 2003

5,990

Between Haywards Heath and Trujillo, Extremadura,

• Aug 14, 2015

• #8

We used a guy called Ben Amrany at Currencies Direct and he gave us good rates, but he moved to http://www.fcexchange.co.uk

We still use him and if anything we get better rates than we used to from Currency Direct.

if you contact Ben Amrany and tell him Martyn from Extremacasa recommended him he'll look after you. bma@fcexchange.co.uk or call 0044 207 989 0000. He'll happily give you a quote which you can compare to others.

I'll PM you this just in case I'm not supposed to post the information on here!

 

Last edited: Aug 14, 2015

jgmcdee

New member

Mar 25, 2012

931

• Aug 14, 2015

• #9

Worth checking out Transferwise/. Not your standard way of transferring money but I've moved a fair bit around using it with no problems and very good rates.

 

sully

Dunscouting

Jul 7, 2003

7,833

Worthing

• Aug 14, 2015

• #10

Revolut is a good option to get hold of interbank rates. Not sure if there's a limit on it, but I got 1.4309 on my last transaction.

Oh, and no fees.

 

Igzilla

Well-known member

Sep 27, 2012

1,645

Worthing

• Aug 14, 2015

• #11

Can you not get the bank details of the Spanish solicitor and transfer the money direct from your bank to them? We paid for our holiday in Italy in this way earlier this year. There is an international banking number for each bank, so they provide you with that and you take it into your bank and they do the rest.

 

moggy

Well-known member

Oct 15, 2003

5,050

southwick

• Aug 14, 2015

• Thread starter
• #12

So do you save money because they offer a better rate than the banks or is it because the bank charges you for money transfers abroad?
I paid £3000 GBP (whatever that is in euros) deposit a couple of days ago whilst in Spain and need to pay a further 12,700 euros so I've been given a rate by currencies direct a couple of days ago. Back home now so gone online and the rate has improved so changing my money into euros to reach 12,700 has saved me £120 in just 3 days.
Now bought it at the improved rate and directed transfer to the solicitor over there

 

beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius

Jul 21, 2003

35,310

• Aug 14, 2015

• #13

as i understood it Euro banks arent allow to charge, or its a nominal charge, for bank to bank transfers. you'll have a spanish bank if you live out there right? you would have to watch for currency conversion rates, is that the worry here? i transfered a few K some years ago and it was a £20 fee from the UK bank and they gave as good a exchange rate as one could hope (wasnt probably the best, far better than "tourist rates" for cash or travellers chques).

 

Notters

Well-known member

Oct 20, 2003

24,869

Guiseley

• Aug 14, 2015

• #14

Use bitcoin

 

Boroseagull

Well-known member

Aug 23, 2003

2,060

Alhaurin de la Torre

• Aug 14, 2015

• #15

Igzilla said:

Can you not get the bank details of the Spanish solicitor and transfer the money direct from your bank to them? We paid for our holiday in Italy in this way earlier this year. There is an international banking number for each bank, so they provide you with that and you take it into your bank and they do the rest.

Click to expand...

Transfer from your UK bank to a Spanish Bank/solicitor will leave you at least 3% worse off. On a couple of grand it's fine but when you need to buy property or purchase expensive items the specialist companies save you a great deal of money.

 

moggy

Well-known member

Oct 15, 2003

5,050

southwick

• Aug 14, 2015

• Thread starter
• #16

beorhthelm said:

as i understood it Euro banks arent allow to charge, or its a nominal charge, for bank to bank transfers. you'll have a spanish bank if you live out there right? you would have to watch for currency conversion rates, is that the worry here? i transfered a few K some years ago and it was a £20 fee from the UK bank and they gave as good a exchange rate as one could hope (wasnt probably the best, far better than "tourist rates" for cash or travellers chques).

Click to expand...

Yes, the solicitors are opening a bank account and sorting out the NIE number

 

Cadiz Seagull

Grey bearded old man

Jul 7, 2003

5,990

Between Haywards Heath and Trujillo, Extremadura,

• Aug 14, 2015

• #17

If you are transferring a significant amount of cash say for a house purchase, almost certainly you will get a much better rate through a Currency Transfer broker rather than from your friendly neighbourhood bank.

And any decent broker will give you a quote in advance so you can compare it with others and with your bank.

We sell property here in Spain, probably 60 -70% of our buyers are British and I have never known a client who didn't save a decent amount of money by using a Currency Transfer firm. And not just the odd 50 quid or so. several hundred pounds, maybe even thousands.

PM me if you need any help or contacts, even if you aren't buying in Spain.