International money transfers??

KH1991

Hi everyone,
I'm moving to France at the end of Summer for a year abroad and I was just wondering if anyone could help answer a few questions I have.
I have to pay for my accommodation with money in my U.K current account, will it be possible to do this? (I'm planning on opening an french bank account but can't do that unless I have a permanent French residence, which is why I need to pay my rent from my U.K bank account) Because I'll be dealing with quite large figures, cash payments won't be an option. I was unsure if I was able to either transfer money/write a cheque internationally? or whether I'll be charged exchange rates if I can?.
Thank you so much for your help

atypical

Open and deposit the money into a Citi Euro account in the UK:
http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/international/eurocurrent.htm?merchant=citi

Then withdraw the money from an ATM in France. No charges. Competitive exchange rate.

edit: You can make international payments from a UK account but this is typically quite expensive. For example, NatWest charges £20 plus the recipient of the money will likely be charged by their bank. You can compare the cost of payments here:
https://www.fxcompared.com

LunaRosa

Are you in university accommodation, i.e. CROUS?
If so then yes it is totally possible, I paid mine direct online and no extra charges were added just obviously you may lose out a bit on the conversion but I always checked what I had been charged against a few online conversion site and the rates were spot on.
Also if you're just there for the year, a bank account is hardly worth the hassle. It took about 2 months to get mine fully working and even then I hardly used it. Unless you are working or wish to apply for CAF. Bonne chance!

bewildered123

Hi,

You can make an international bank transfer. You will need to give your bank the recipient's IBAN and BIC number and sometimes the address of the bank it's to be paid to - there will be a charge but it's the perhaps the easiest way to do it if you are talking about a private landlord. I would be wary to trying to pay in cash - particularly if this includes your deposit, it's safer to have an official paper trail in case of any later disputes. Incidentally, someone I know got caught out badly by a bogus landlord who demanded payment via PayPal and promptly absconded with the cash leaving the guy homeless - it's absolutely the norm to give bank account details for payment in most European countries and anyone unwilling to do so is probably up to no good! If the recipient is something like CROUS you also might be able to pay using a credit or VISA debit card over the phone but you might want to check with your bank whether that would in fact be cheaper than a bank transfer - it might not be.
If you intend to work over there you'll definitely need a French account.You might also find that your landlord will insist on a monthly direct debit arrangement being set up from a french account (and you may as well grab the CAF rebate if your budget is going to be stretched at all) - if you need one I heard la Poste is the most efficient. Or if you bank here with HSBC then I understand that they can open you an account with the French HSBC but there is a fee. It's worth doing your research on what will be the cheapest option as it can be quite galling to work out how much you've paid over the year in bank charges! Oh and one last thing if you haven't already got it, get internet banking on your UK account - you do not want to waste money ringing their customer services lines to do simple things like checking balances, making transfers etc. Hope you have a great year!

KH1991

Thank you for all the very useful advice