Sending money to Spain

billy2006_2

Can anyone help?

I need to send money to my bank account in Spain on a fairly regular basis. I normally do this by trekking down to my not so local Nationwide branch and asking them to do a CHAPS transfer from my Flex account. It is speedy and I normally receive the money in Spain the following day, but I do incur a £20 transaction fee every time. The exchange rate used is normally quite good - much closer to the published business rate than tourist rate and I don't get any other charges.

I have, out of desperation, sent a payment through Alliance and Leicester before. Whilst I could do this over the phone, it ended up costing me far more because of bank charges.

When I first looked into this I tried to open a Euro bank account in the UK but despite trying e.g. Barclays and Abbey who have banks in Spain, I was told this was not possible as a private customer.

Does anybody know of a bank account in the UK where I could set up a direct debit to send money to Spain, without having to pay a hefty transaction charge each time. I'd love to be able to spend a huge amount in one go, in which case the £20 fee becomes a one off minor cost, but that's just not possible.

My bank account in Spain is with Deutsche bank, which is good as I have on-line banking and can pay bills etc. without having to try and explain myself in very poor Spanish, but it needs topping up with funds all the time.

Thanks:j

jonesMUFCforever

Opening a Euro account in UK would do you no good - the bank would still charge you for a money transfer.

Why not send a large amount say quarterly rather than send small amounts regularly?

gt94sss2

a) If you have a HSBC account in the UK , you can open one with Solbank in Spain which offers free inward/outward transfers.

Also, you can make international transfers via HSBC Internet Banking in the UK from £9/transfer

b) Halifax also own a bank in Spain (http://www.halifax.es/) and advertise free transfers between Halifax accounts in the UK and Spain.

Regards
Sunil

chopperharris

barclays have an account for doing that very thing , suggest changing account to them both here in spain.No fee....but you pay for the current account anyway in spain.

cl2008

citi bank have a Euro account. It might help?

kibblerok

depending on the circumstances we usually recommend moneycorp.

They take an amount from your UK account by direct debit and convert it to Euros and place it in your Spanish account. Decent exchange rate and no charges.

Minarzouki

Hi Billy,

I would suggest using a currency broker whereby you set up a payment plan and the broker debits your account via direct debit every month and credits your beneficiary account with the Euro equivalent.

You would get commercial rates rather than tourist rates with the added benefit of convenience. You can choose to either have a fixed plan whereby you lock into an exchange rate for anything up to 2 years (although the rate is a little poor at the moment!) or a flexible plan which you can change and cancel at any time and the rate changes every month depending on the current rate that day.

You would be saving on the Chaps fee every month and also save on the exchange rate.

Hope this helps!

Mina Rzouki, Quality Services Manager, Moneycorp, https://www.moneycorp.com

97trophy

have a look at xe.com

I use them each month to send US$ to the States. Excellent service and very easy to use.

97trophy

cl2008 wrote: »

citi bank have a Euro account. It might help?

Yes, I think citi will make payments for free.

http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/international/eurocurrent.htm?merchant=citi

Zebra

Minarzouki wrote: »

Hi Billy,

I would suggest using a currency broker whereby you set up a payment plan and the broker debits your account via direct debit every month and credits your beneficiary account with the Euro equivalent.

You would get commercial rates rather than tourist rates with the added benefit of convenience. You can choose to either have a fixed plan whereby you lock into an exchange rate for anything up to 2 years (although the rate is a little poor at the moment!) or a flexible plan which you can change and cancel at any time and the rate changes every month depending on the current rate that day.

You would be saving on the Chaps fee every month and also save on the exchange rate.

Hope this helps!

Mina Rzouki, Quality Services Manager, Moneycorp, www.moneycorp.com

Didn't think adverts like this were allowed on the forum.

Personally I use Currencies Direct for regular payment - a good exchange rate and excellent customer service.

Alternatively, you could use Moneybookers.

Minarzouki

Hi Zebra,

My presence on this website is to give the audience an expert, impartial response to questions that have been raised by forum members, and I do not intend to actively advertise the company I work for. The signature I use simply identifies who I am and where I am from.

Hopefully some forum users will find the comments I provide helpful. I would not advertise to forum users that they should use our company over another FX Broker only the services that are available from brokers in general.

I also think that by mentioning Foreign Exchange brokers, I could encourage users to mention companies they have used before so that other users have different options should they look to sign up.

Regards,

Mina Rzouki, Quality Services Manager, Moneycorp, www.moneycorp.com