Moving money from abroad

aquadicko

My fiancee has sold her house in the Ukraine and is coming to live with me in the UK after we are married. Does anyone know the cheapest way to transfer the money here without paying large amounts to third parties in commision. Thanks

jonesMUFCforever

Dunno about how much it costs to send from Ukraine to UK but expect your british bank to levy a charge of about £12 to accept a foreign bank.

THRIFTY1_3

It's not so much the charge levied by the bank for receiving the funds, but the exchange rate they apply in converting to sterling that you want to look out for. I tend to recommend the online money transfer companies (yes justeuros.co.uk is my personal preference as I use them regulary and am yet to be let down, also commission free, onlinefx are also pretty good, as are currencies direct) they offer much more competitive rates of exchange compared to the banks. Many don't charge an admin fee when recieving foreign currency for conversion and usually credit your sterling account with no cost (a domestic streling credit to your/your fiance's uk account should incur no bank charge). Of course the bank in Ukraine may well charge for transferring abroad, but they are likely to do so whether it be in pounds sterling (having converted their end) or in Ukraine Hryvnya. It's always worth comparing domestic exchange rates against those which might be acheived this end.

malaita

I'd like to be able to receive euros or dollars from outside of UK onto a prepaid card (eg Caxton), to that I can then spend them abroad. Has anyone tried this?

The alternative seems to be to convert them into GBP to go into my UK account, and that convert again into euros to spend, which sounds crazy, though good for the banks.

jonesMUFCforever

I don't know of any prepaid card that would have a high enough limit to accomodate what you are trying to do.
IMO it is a non starter.

malaita

Thanks. I think I misled you by asking my question following the one about money from a house sale. 1000 euros would probably be the upper limit for my needs. Do you think that a prepaid card would work for this amount?

jonesMUFCforever

Do you mean money coming from abroad?
If so no it won't - how will they get the money onto the card.
Even the pre paid cards have to have an audit trail for money laundering regulations.
I think you have to register a debit card in order to top up.

malaita

Ah yes, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.