Emigrating to France, Money Advice Needed

Voyager2002

wacken2003vegan wrote: »

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:)

No rush: there's no need to close your UK bank account, and of course you can research currency brokers on-line just as easily from your new home.

I must say, I would not want to keep all my money in Euro at the moment, so a little delay would not do any harm.

TakeThis

Voyager2002 wrote: »

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

Delay? Have you used the service?

I know of people using it to transfer cash to Asia. A speedy transfer. YMMV.
As to the exchange rate, it depends on the receiving bank.

Definitely worth shopping around, just pointing out an alternative.

wacken2003vegan

Hello, thanks again for the information.

I will need to write cheques and make large cash withdrawls, I wont close my Uk account down though as i reallise the euro is very volatile at the moment i will transfer as much as i need as and when (and for when i come back to the UK to visit family). and i thought that you had to have a London or at least a south east address for a Metro Bank account? is it really worth opening an account with them?

Thanks

zagfles

wacken2003vegan wrote: »

Hello, thanks again for the information.

I will need to write cheques and make large cash withdrawls, I wont close my Uk account down though as i reallise the euro is very volatile at the moment i will transfer as much as i need as and when (and for when i come back to the UK to visit family). and i thought that you had to have a London or at least a south east address for a Metro Bank account? is it really worth opening an account with them?

Thanks

Yes, I deleted that post as I realised they'll probably want a UK address, which you won't have if you're emigrating. Might be worth looking into though...

neilbond007

TakeThis wrote: »

Delay? Have you used the service?

I know of people using it to transfer cash to Asia. A speedy transfer. YMMV.
As to the exchange rate, it depends on the receiving bank.

Definitely worth shopping around, just pointing out an alternative.

I haven't used the service either, but the exchange I was offered by Halifax about 2 1/2 years ago was about 10% lower than the best brokers, plus their fees were much larger.

TakeThis

neilbond007 wrote: »

I haven't used the service either, but the exchange I was offered by Halifax about 2 1/2 years ago was about 10% lower than the best brokers, plus their fees were much larger.

The fee is £7.50. You don't let Halifax do the exchange. Are we reading from the same page?

neilbond007

TakeThis wrote: »

The fee is £7.50. You don't let Halifax do the exchange. Are we reading from the same page?

Clearly not. I'm simply talking about my experience.

I moved to the US 2 1/2 years ago and bank with Halifax. I looked at using them to transfer money. Their fee at the time was much higher than £7.50 and the rate offered was abysmal.

Voyager2002

TakeThis wrote: »

The fee is £7.50. You don't let Halifax do the exchange. Are we reading from the same page?

I doubt very much whether a bank in France would give a particularly good rate for an incoming transfer in sterling. Furthermore, I would not be willing to transfer a significant amount without knowing in advance the exchange rate that would be applied.

TakeThis

neilbond007 wrote: »

Clearly not. I'm simply talking about my experience.

I moved to the US 2 1/2 years ago and bank with Halifax. I looked at using them to transfer money. Their fee at the time was much higher than £7.50 and the rate offered was abysmal.

Same service existed two and a half years ago and as I have already written...don't let Halifax Bank do the exchange..... but obviously, you didn't know of either option at the time.

International Payments

They have recently removed the £2 off code.

TakeThis

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I doubt very much whether a bank in France would give a particularly good rate for an incoming transfer in sterling. Furthermore, I would not be willing to transfer a significant amount without knowing in advance the exchange rate that would be applied.

Perhaps you can go back in order to read post #11.