Emigrating to France, Money Advice Needed

wacken2003vegan

Hello

Im not sure if this is in the correct section (please someone move it into the correct one if it's the case), but anyway.

I am leaving the UK (Warwickshire) to move to France in the next few months and i need to bring my savings (roughly just under £30,000) with me. What will be my best bet for transfering my money into Euros? a direct transfer into a French account (once i have set one up) via one of those international transfer company's (although i realise there may be huge fee's involved). or would if be financially better to change my money into Euros and physically bring it to France then pay it into a account?

Please someone help! as im really not sure what to do.

Many Thanks

Also, completely unrelated, but does anyone know any sites like MSE in France?

Voyager2002

The fees for a transfer between bank accounts might seem huge, but will be considerably less than the fees for exchanging cash. Not to mention the various risks of carrying that amount of currency.

macman

No French bank would allow you to deposit 30,000 Euros into a new account in cash anyway without some very heavy questioning and proof of the origins of the funds.
And the markets are very volatile at present-do you really want to put all your savings into Euros in one go-presumably you don't need instant access to all that in Euros?

Bob_the_Saver

Not specifically a money saving site but look at http://www.totalfrance.com/ for lots of info. The crunch is catching up with the French rapidly, supermarkets can be very empty just before pay day this year, but many seem to see money saving as beneath them, in public at least. They seem to think it has to be expensive to be any good.

neilbond007

Same scenario, differenet country from me.

I've moved over the the US 2 1/2 years ago and have transfered reasonably large sums 3 times. The first 2 times I used TorFX and a couple of weeks ago used IFX.
Tor FX (used 2 years ago) were free to use. They give you a rate about 1.5c less than the USD:GBP inter bank rate. I'm therefore guessing 1.3 / 1.2c less than the Euro / GBP rate.
I had a cheque sent to me from my previous pension people in the UK. Was only for about 1500GBP. I looked at paying it in to my US back. They offered me about $1.40 to the pound. The interback rate at the time was about $1.55. So I posted it back to my brother in the UK. He put in my UK bank account and I transferred it with other cash via TorFX.

In short, the exchange people, in my experience, are the way to go.

knightstyle

Having lived in France for many years and being asked this many times my advice is to use someone like Currencies Direct, get the rate from them first and they transfer to your French bank account. Be aware that your money is not protected whilst they have it so if they go bust you loose it. So transfer it in two batches just in case, it is highly unlikely they will go bust but it could happen.
To open your French bank account you will need ID and proof of residence or intended residence, varies from bank to bank so check.
Finally keep a UK bank account, family or friends address if necessary and get a Halifax Clarity credit card before you leave.
I have moved large sums from France to UK and back to France in the lest 5 years and never been asked where it came from. It was from our French house sale, moved to UK for better interest and then back to France in stages to pay builders for our new house build. Used Currencies Direct each time, no problems.

Bob_the_Saver

knightstyle wrote: »

Having lived in France for many years and being asked this many times my advice is to use someone like Currencies Direct, get the rate from them first and they transfer to your French bank account. Be aware that your money is not protected whilst they have it so if they go bust you loose it. So transfer it in two batches just in case, it is highly unlikely they will go bust but it could happen.
To open your French bank account you will need ID and proof of residence or intended residence, varies from bank to bank so check.
Finally keep a UK bank account, family or friends address if necessary and get a Halifax Clarity credit card before you leave.
I have moved large sums from France to UK and back to France in the lest 5 years and never been asked where it came from. It was from our French house sale, moved to UK for better interest and then back to France in stages to pay builders for our new house build. Used Currencies Direct each time, no problems.

Proof of residence must usually be very recent. We had to register a Mobylette with the Prefecture (Eqiv to DVLA in this case) and even the house deeds were no good because we'd been there over 13 weeks. Bank statements with the address on, useless, cheque book with the address printed on every cheque NON - but a phone bill (downloaded off the internet and printed out on an old inkjet with jets that needed cleaning) was OK - go figure! Have they never heard of Le Photoshop, or should that be La Photoshop?

Where is the smilie for a Gallic shrug?

knightstyle

Some banks, CA Britline for one, will accept a letter, in French, from your employer saying you will be moving to France, plus ID of course.
Just found this on their terms:


Opening a bank account in France is easy with CA Britline

No need to come to France to open your French bank account
as this process can all be done by post.

No need to worry about having to speak to your bank in French
as all our staff are English speaking. We appreciate that it is important for you to be able to discuss your financial matters in your own language.

We offer a full range of banking services
which you can apply for from the comfort of your own home.

To open an account, you need to be :

resident in either the UK, Ireland or France
an existing or future French property owner, or regular visitor to France

However I have found CA not to be the most client friendly bank!

wacken2003vegan

Thank you everyone for the information, i am still not 100% sure on what currency broker to use, i shall have to make my mind up soon as im leaving in 4 weeks!

Thanks everyone for your help:)

TakeThis

Only costs £7.50 to send it via Halifax Bank. You can send it in Pounds, but in that case you'll need to enquire with the French bank as to the exchange rate they will offer. Perhaps you can negotiate.

Voyager2002

TakeThis wrote: »

Only costs £7.50 to send it via Halifax Bank. You can send it in Pounds, but in that case you'll need to enquire with the French bank as to the exchange rate they will offer. Perhaps you can negotiate.

You would lose a great deal on the exchange rate doing it like that, not to mention the likelihood of delay.