Converting US dollars to Euros and where to bank them

Big_W

Hello all,

My girlfriend's adult daughter has been given a gift of $7000 (US dollars) - lucky girl!

She wants to keep the money as savings, but in Euros, rather than dollars or sterling - entirely because she considers the Euro is a safer bet in the current economic climate. I have looked around MSE for this, but most advice and discussion is around holiday money and/or conversions involving sterling.

So a few questions

1) Where best to go to get the conversion from US dollars to Euros? From experience a few years ago of converting dollars to sterling I found it impossible to find a broker for larger sums who would tell me their exchange rates at all, so couldn't compare them.

2) Where best to go to bank the Euros? This would need to be done in the UK - no trips out to the Euro-zone, except maybe to Ireland if there's a real benefit.

3) Any comments on the viability of doing this? I myself have no experience of currency markets.

Cheers,
Rob