How to clear/exchange Euro cheque?

snurtTheDog

Hi All,

My wife recently became the lucky recipient of a cheque sent by a relative in Ireland for 10,000 Euros, drawn on an Irish Bank (NIB). Can anyone provide me with the smartest way to clear the cheque and convert it to Sterling while losing the minimum amount on charges/poor exchange rates?

My wife banks with HSBC, Natwest and Alliance & Leicester in the UK but also has an Irish bank account with AIB. (If it helps, I have a current account with Barclays here in the UK.)

Any help gratefully received!

Thanks very much,
Andrew

snurtTheDog

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Andrew

dc110

IIRC your high street bank will charge a flat fee - £10 approx - to clear a foreign currency cheque.

Exchange rate will presumably be the prevailing exchange rate on the day deposited.

May take a few weeks to become available funds.

All from memory so cant guarantee this is correct but Im reasonably sure this is the case

snurtTheDog

Thanks dc110 - do you think we'd be better off paying into an Irish-based Euro account then transferring electronically or would we be just as badly scalped if we paid directly into one of our usual UK sterling bank accounts?

I guess that the first option would at least be quicker?

dc110

The first option would almost certainly be quicker but no ideas about the charges.

If i had to guess I would assume to get it from Irish Bank to UK Bank they will charge you a telegraphic transfer fee whch is typically £20/£25 on UK banks - could be different for Irish banks. No real idea about overseas banks fees. Sorry


Edit :

as i said though Im typing this from memory so could even be wrong about the £10 fee approx a UK bank will charge to cash a foreign cheque. It certainly used to be in that ballaprk but this was a few years back so maybe higher now

digerati

I'd suggest your wife deposit the cheque into her AIB account. If you keep the funds in Euros they make great holiday funds so you aren't always converting £ <-> €.

If you need the money in £s, she can ask her bank to do a BIC + IBAN transfer to one of her UK bank accounts: cost is minimal and usually quite good exchange rate.

97trophy

open a GBP and EUR account with citibank

https://www.citibank.co.uk

Money_Grabber13579

Assuming the AIB bank is in Euros (i.e. in the ROI and not NI) then deposit it there. After clearing, draw out the cash in Euros, take it to a place where they do commission free transfers (Halifax and Post Office might still do this), change it to Sterling and deposit it in your UK account. (Or spend it!!)

Porcupine

To minimise the fees, here's what I'd do:

Open GBP and EUR current accounts at Citibank.

Cash the cheque at AIB, keeping in Euro.

Do a SEPA transfer from AIB to Citibank EUR account (should only cost a couple of quid).

Then you're free to do transfers from EUR to GBP at whatever time you want. Citi don't charge for this - the exchange rate is typically about 2% worse than interbank, which is much better than a high street bureau. The Citi GBP account is a normal current account - BACS transfers are free.


Alternatively, you can sign up with a FX broker (eg Currencies Direct or HiFX) and ask them to give you a quote. Typically the rate is much closer to interbank, so you'll still win with any fees they might charge for handling the cheque. This will probably be up to a hundred quid cheaper than the above route, and a better exchange rate than through your bank.