International bank transfer Euro > Pounds

matthewmoore3

Hello,

I will soon be living and working in France, but is unlikely to be a long term permanent move. I need to have a UK and French bank account, and be able to transfer easily between them from Euro to Pounds

I have an HSBC UK bank account and am planning to open a HSBC French account with them, a service which they offer where they set it all up for you and make it easy and have online banking in English etc.

HSBC offer both 0% percent commission on international bank tranfers, and no charges between the 2 accounts.

What i would like to know is does this mean i will not loose out at all in the transfer? Would the payment be made at that days standard exhange rate, or will the 0% comission be at a poorer exchange rate? I know if you change money for holidays etc that 0% commision just has a worse rate.

Any information on this subject would be much appreciated. Im just trying to understand if it is possible to move money without loosing some of it whether obvious or more hidden.

Thanks

97trophy

HSBC fx rates are usually pretty good. Transfers for Premier Customers are free but all others have to pay £6 ish.

I suggest you also open an account with XE trade. XE offer free transfer and have good fx rates.

https://www.xe.com/fx/demo/

Extant

You won't get the market rate, no. You will get a slightly worse exchange rate which allows HSBC to profit from the transfer, but at what point it becomes beneficial to look elsewhere for the service depends on how much you transfer and how regularly.

zee_2

I use paypal last 3 yeats no trouble ,cost is reasonable , down side takes 5days from euros in to sterling in bank a/c .but safe and no trouble with internet, I bought a domain name .co.uk from 123reg £7 for 2years ,so use it to use googlemail from anywhere to transfer funds , PP details are encripted and secure , also if I change isp for internet ISP still have my own email.