Transfer money from Spain to UK

Can anyone tell me the cheapest and best way to transfer 50.000 Euros from a Spanish bank (the Cam), to a UK bank. Thank you
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  • lessonlearned
    lessonlearned Posts: 13,337
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    Use one of the special currency exchange companies rather than normal banks. Once the money is in the UK they will simply transfer it to your UK bank for you.

    You will get a much better rate of exchange and (usually) no commission charges. They make their money on the fluctuations on currency exchange rather than charges.

    I've used HIFX in the past and they were very good.
  • Francophile
    Francophile Posts: 765 Forumite
    I've used HIFX and Currencies Direct with no problems.
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  • Savvy_Sue
    Savvy_Sue Posts: 45,936
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  • dazza.mk
    dazza.mk Posts: 1,927
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    Make a transfer from Spain to UK of 50 Euros (don't ask Spanish bank to convert to £)
    transfer using the BIC & IBAN of your UK account as a reference (not acct no. and sort code)
    choose shared charges (rather than buyer or sellers receive all charges).

    As long as you follow all these steps it should be transferred received by the British Bank at the same cost as an in country transfer per EU legislation.

    this is shown best by First Direct in their specified charges:

    "Inward payments received from banks abroadin Sterling above £100£6.00 in currency above £100 equivalent £8.00
    (payments up to 50,000 euros or 500,000 Swedish Krona from a country in the EU will be received free of charge provided the BIC and IBAN numbers are provided with the payment). "


    * Note if the receiving bank is LloydsTSB I have seen some reports that they use a whole in the legislation to charge a small fee by routing the payment via a subsidiary.
  • dazza.mk
    dazza.mk Posts: 1,927
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    http://web.archive.org/web/20060507194712/http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2001/l_344/l_34420011228en00130016.pdf

    "2. With effect from 1 July 2003 at the latest, charges levied
    by an institution in respect of cross-border credit transfers in
    euro up to EUR 12 500 shall be the same as the charges levied
    by the same institution in respect of corresponding credit
    transfers in euro transacted within the Member State in which
    the establishment of that institution executing the cross-border
    transfer is located.

    3. With effect from 1 January 2006 the amount
    EUR 12 500 shall be raised to EUR 50 000"
  • Sorry to resurrect this thread, but may need to transfer proceeds of sale of house to the UK.

    Can anyone please confirm the above post about the cost of doing this directly from my Spanish bank account to a UK account. The receiving account would be Lloyds TSB.

    I have found transferring small amounts online to be both quick and cheap, but obviously the amount involved would need a trip to the bank to complete the forms. From past experience the banks here seem to charge as much as they can for anything.
  • jambosans
    jambosans Posts: 1,493 Forumite
    Lloyds TSB charge £8 for receiving payments from abroad. See charge details on the link below:-
    http://www.lloydstsb.com/rates_and_charges/current_account_charges.asp

    It might be worth enquiring about a Lloyds TSB Spain account, as transfers may be discounted/ free to a Lloyds TSB UK account. This is certainly the case with Banco Halifax Hispania who allow free transfers to a same named Halifax or Bank of Scotland account in the UK. It's obviously a lot of effort for the sake of one transfer, but it may be worth considering in future if you are between the UK and Spain.
    Anything I post is my opinion, so from time to time I may be wrong. I try to provide answers based in fact, however I don't know everything, so (like all posters on MSE), take what I say with a pinch of salt.
  • Take a look at the halifax. We were living out in Spain and I already had a halifax account, if you open an account at Halifax Espana you can transfer money between the two for only a small fee. Things may have changed by now, but its worth taking a look. We closed the account as soon as we got back to the UK.
    :)
  • Thank you.

    Yes I have checked the Lloyds TSB site now and it seems they only charge £7 to receive payments from abroad.

    I also noticed that they charges for sending money abroad have reduced a lot from when we were doing it over 5 years ago.
  • D1zzy
    D1zzy Posts: 1,500 Forumite
    Thank you.

    Yes I have checked the Lloyds TSB site now and it seems they only charge £7 to receive payments from abroad.

    I also noticed that they charges for sending money abroad have reduced a lot from when we were doing it over 5 years ago.
    Its not what they charge its the Xrate the give you that is the issue. In a similar position a couple of years ago we used Currencies Direct, got a much better rate then the banls would give and had no problems.
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