Best Way to Transfer Euros to Pounds

Toe-Jam

I have a Euro Account in the Republic of Ireland and want to transfer the money to my UK £ account.

At the moment the bank charge £20 a time because the UK is not in the Eurozone.

Just wondering if anyone knows of a cheaper way to transfer money from Abroad to the UK.

roofusb

Try something like XE Trade - http://www.xe.com/fx/ - I've used it to send money abroad from my UK bank account to a European bank account and it has worked perfectly well. Rates are excellent (far better than your bank is giving you, I'd bet), and the fees are low.

Toe-Jam

roofusb wrote: »

Try something like XE Trade - http://www.xe.com/fx/ - I've used it to send money abroad from my UK bank account to a European bank account and it has worked perfectly well. Rates are excellent (far better than your bank is giving you, I'd bet), and the fees are low.

Thanks for the reply, but that doesn't help. There is no problem sending money from UK to Euro, loads of places will do that Caxton, FairFx etc but finding somewhere to do the reverse is the headache.

To buy sterling from those sites you have to wire your payment to their bank account which is in the UK, and therefore its outside Eurozone and a nice £25 charge for the Swifts transfer. so that takes the shine of the great rates.

97trophy

Toe-Jam wrote: »

To buy sterling from those sites you have to wire your payment to their bank account which is in the UK, and therefore its outside Eurozone and a nice £25 charge for the Swifts transfer. so that takes the shine of the great rates.

You can pay XE by the SEPA system. Which should be free for a 3 day transfer.

knightstyle

We use Currencies Direct to transfer money from France. We tell our French bank to transfer money into their French bank, so no charges there and the money is then paid into our UK bank. It also works in reverse. No fees and the rate is agreed in advance.

Toe-Jam

knightstyle wrote: »

We use Currencies Direct to transfer money from France. We tell our French bank to transfer money into their French bank, so no charges there and the money is then paid into our UK bank. It also works in reverse. No fees and the rate is agreed in advance.

Thanks for that. Unfortunately i'm not moving 5000 euro a time so the transfers will be charged according to the site.

I think I will just use the ATM there are no exchange costs for me to use RBS/Natwest.

System

Check that your UK bank acccount can receive a SEPA Credit Transfer. Most can (but, currently, not Nationwide flexaccounts). Your Uk bank has to provide you with your IBAN and their BIC, eg on your statements. Check also, of course, that your UK bank will use a fair(ish) rate to convert the euro to GBP once they reach the UK. Your Irish bank surely charges little or nothing for a SEPA transfer to the UK? They have to charge the same to transfer euro from Cork to London as they do from Cork to Dublin.

Toe-Jam

YoungNick wrote: »

Check that your UK bank acccount can receive a SEPA Credit Transfer. Most can (but, currently, not Nationwide flexaccounts). Your Uk bank has to provide you with your IBAN and their BIC, eg on your statements. Check also, of course, that your UK bank will use a fair(ish) rate to convert the euro to GBP once they reach the UK. Your Irish bank surely charges little or nothing for a SEPA transfer to the UK? They have to charge the same to transfer euro from Cork to London as they do from Cork to Dublin.

A SEPA transfer doesn't apply by my understanding because the destination bank account is not in Euros ?

dazza.mk

As long as the trasnfer is made in Euros (not Pounds), and using your BIC & IBAN (not Sort code) any charges for receiving should be minimal.

Your Irish bank can only charge as much as it would charge for an internal Irish transfer

Similarly your UK bank should not charge to receive it

EU Legislation:
http://www.euractiv.com/en/health/cross-border-euro-transfers-get-cheaper-1-july/article-116308

You can see how this explicitly applies to UK banks with First Direct charges.
http://www2.banking.firstdirect.com/1/2/rates/charges;jsessionid=0000ly4c-jO8xYN37eqbK4UvFgg:11jk8o4v4?clear=true

"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"

System

By the way, Toe-Jam, do you happen to know if your Irish bank offers euro current accounts to non-residents, and, if yes, whether I would have to go to Ireland to open an account? (No real hardship, of course - it's a lovely country and the Guinness is the real stuff!)
Citibank's euro current account is a real pain. It takes a 10 minute telephone call to set up an outgoing SEPA Credit Transfer, and they have the nerve to charge £10 for it.

Mayday

Toe-Jam wrote: »

I have a Euro Account in the Republic of Ireland and want to transfer the money to my UK £ account.

Do you have a debit card with your Euro account? If o, why not use an ATM to draw out Sterling, and then pay cash into your UK £ UK account.

Just a thought