Cheapest way to transfer euros to pounds?

JamesU

silvercar wrote: »

See if your bank will let you do a one off transaction through their foreign exchange department. For big amounts (100k euros +) I would expect you to be only 1% off spot. If you can fix the date in advance you may get a much better rate.

I doubt this very much. 1.5%-2.0% most likley.

If anybody can give me any example where exchange costs on 100K+ Euros to sterling are as low as 1%, please let me know. I am definitely all ears....:)

JamesU

Degenerate

JamesU wrote: »

I doubt this very much. 1.5%-2.0% most likley.

If anybody can give me any example where exchange costs on 100K+ Euros to sterling are as low as 1%, please let me know. I am definitely all ears....:)

JamesU

We already did - xe.com

They don't advertise specific exchange rates or commissions because they work as a currency trading system - buyers are matched up with sellers and the rates are agreed on an individual transaction basis. I've not had cause to use it myself, but I've been reliably informed that the effective exchange rates are usually fractions of a percent over the prevailing interbank rate at the time.

One issue that would probably arise is that a new account would not initially be enabled for a transaction in the €100Ks range, but personally, with the way £/€ has been fluctuating, I'd probably prefer to unit cost average it over a month or so anyway.

Entertainer

Degenerate wrote: »

We already did - xe.com

They don't advertise specific exchange rates or commissions because they work as a currency trading system - buyers are matched up with sellers and the rates are agreed on an individual transaction basis. I've not had cause to use it myself, but I've been reliably informed that the effective exchange rates are usually fractions of a percent over the prevailing interbank rate at the time.

One issue that would probably arise is that a new account would not initially be enabled for a transaction in the €100Ks range, but personally, with the way £/€ has been fluctuating, I'd probably prefer to unit cost average it over a month or so anyway.

When I got a quote from them three years ago they were not the best by a long way, charging 1% on USD conversion. They even boasted in an email "I trust this will be a very competitive rate. We are deeply committed to offering the best rates available, so should you find a more favorable rate we will always work to beat this. I do not, however, expect that you would find a comparable, let alone better, rate elsewhere."

I emailed them and pointed out that I had and they promptly ignored me. In the put up or shut up stakes they were the latter.

LindsayO

citibank has euro and sterling savings accounts and lets you transfer one to the other without commission

silvercar

JamesU wrote: »

I doubt this very much. 1.5%-2.0% most likley.

If anybody can give me any example where exchange costs on 100K+ Euros to sterling are as low as 1%, please let me know. I am definitely all ears....:)

JamesU

You have to get through your banks business teams to the foreign exchange division. You have to have a certain volume before you'll be allowed to do that and make a deposit with them and have a certain credit limit with the bank, but I'm now getting forward exchange contracts that are 0.015 euros off spot!

JamesU

silvercar wrote: »

You have to get through your banks business teams to the foreign exchange division. You have to have a certain volume before you'll be allowed to do that and make a deposit with them and have a certain credit limit with the bank, but I'm now getting forward exchange contracts that are 0.015 euros off spot!

Converting Euros to Sterling: (advn/forex)

£1 = 1.1956 Eur
1Eur = 0.8361 £

Do you mean: Eur-£ at 1.5%? (spot off 1 Eur, unlikely?)

Or: (0.015/0.8361)*100 = 1.7%

Or: different calculation?


JamesU

silvercar

If spot was £1=1.1956EUR I thought I was getting something like £1=1.2106Eur, but just checked with other half, who reckons we are getting better than that, more like £1=1.2. As I say this had to be set up and the bank do hold a certain amount of our funds as security, paying rubbish interest on the security amount.

JamesU

silvercar wrote: »

If spot was £1=1.1956EUR I thought I was getting something like £1=1.2106Eur, but just checked with other half, who reckons we are getting better than that, more like £1=1.2. As I say this had to be set up and the bank do hold a certain amount of our funds as security, paying rubbish interest on the security amount.

Difficult to make an exact comparison without exact spot and the way it is calculated, but the rate you are getting looks good to me.

JamesU