Cheapest way to pay £££ into French bank account

angel-fernandez

Hi,

Does anyone know any cheap ways of paying money from an English bank (Lloyds) into Euros in a French account. My (French) partner and I are getting married in France and will need to pay for lots of things in Euros over the next 6 months?

Transfer time is not an issue.

Also could it work out better to change the cash on the high street then physically pay this in next time we visit France?

Any help appreciated

Nick

Debt_Robot

angel-fernandez wrote: »

Hi,

Does anyone know any cheap ways of paying money from an English bank (Lloyds) into Euros in a French account. My (French) partner and I are getting married in France and will need to pay for lots of things in Euros over the next 6 months?

Transfer time is not an issue.

Also could it work out better to change the cash on the high street then physically pay this in next time we visit France?

Any help appreciated

Nick

The latter is probably a better option of physically paying it in but CHAPS transfers are immediate and between £25-£28 fee.

Baldur

LTSB's charges for International Payments from one of their current accounts are shown HERE, under "Overseas payments and deposits", these will be in addition to whatever exchange rate they apply for the conversion of Sterling into Euro as part of the process.

[Deleted User]

HSBC i find very cheap if spending Euros overseas

97trophy

Use a online broker such as XE.com.

They offer free payments and great FX rates. I have been a customer of theirs for 3 years.

benjus

The cheapest way to do it in terms of FX fees would be to open an account that gives free overseas withdrawals (I think the only one currently is Metro Bank), go to France, withdraw the maximum amount every day and pay it into your French account. That way you pay zero fees - although it's obviously very tedious and you have to be in France to do it.

However, does all the money really have to be in a French account? If you had a credit or debit card that charges zero fees to pay for things in Euros, could you pay for most things from the UK? See above for debit cards; for credit cards look at Halifax Clarity, Nationwide, and Santander Zero.

If it really does have to be in a French account and the first method is too much hassle, http://www.sendmoneyhome.org/Content/money-transfer-from-UK-France-below-3000-amount-1850 suggests that The FX Firm (http://www.thefxfirm.com/) is the cheapest on their list, charging approximately 1% in total fees and exchange rate loading. I haven't used this company myself, and I would recommend doing some research before trusting them with your money.