Transferring funds from O/S help

JamesSE22

Hi there,

I'm looking for some general advice re the following:
Due to a sudden death in my family recently, I'm in receipt of an inheritance in France. I have a bank account there where this money has been deposited in Euros. I was wondering what my best option was in terms of transferring the funds from the account there to my account in the UK, in terms of best exchange rates.
My UK bank (the Natwest) levies pretty hefty currency buyback charges and all the information on Currency Brokers available online seems to be geared towards sending money abroad, not bringing money into the UK from abroad.
I'm not even sure that a currency broker is the best option in any case.
I was wondering if any members have had recent experience with, for instance, selling a property in France and repatriating those funds back to the UK. Whilst my inheritance wouldn't be on a par with the sale of a house, it's large enough to mean that a standard high street bank currency transfer would be unnecessarily expensive.

Any help in this matter is very gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks to those who take the time to read this post.

James

jennifernil

The currency brokers will transfer in as well as out, we looked into it as my husband has a pension paid out in Norway monthly. We considered letting it build up over there and transferring in a lump, but decided we would rather have it sent over every month to supplement his pension here.

Our main bank, Halifax, started charging us £7 every month for the pleasure, so that is why we started looking at alternatives. The currency brokers gave a good exchange rate, but it did seem a little complicated to arrange. You can however get a quote for what you would get exchanging euros to pounds before deciding to proceed.

In the end, through info gleaned on MSE, we discovered that Nationwide, where we already had an account, do not charge to accept transfers from abroad, these are routed through HSBC. The exchange rate is also good.

No doubt there will be a charge from the bank in France, you should be able to find out what that would be. Then you can either have them convert to pounds, or send the euros. There are some newish rules the banks have to observe on euro transfers, SEPA seems to ring a bell......

http://www.ukpayments.org.uk/payment_options/cross_border_payments/single_euro_payments_area_%28sepa%29/


The link gives an error for some reason, but you can use it to go to the correct page. Scroll well down the list.

You may find some info there that will be useful, but for a large sum the brokers are usually best.

ryantcb

I am trying to get money (euros) from Slovakia and I am thinking of using the post office as they do international tranfers with no fees. sory i cant give any specifics but i googled 'telegraphic transfer'

ahll

I am soon to be in the same position from France in Euro's to mu UK bank (Lloyds TSB).

It a few months since this was posted so does anyone have any other suggestions..I have not done this before so open to suggestions.

catokelly

Avoid transferring the Euros directly to a UK bank as you will be subject to the banks unfavourable exchange rates. If you use an international money transfer specialist such as Thomas Exchange, you will maximise your money as they base the rates on the live market Euro rate not the 'tourist rate' that the banks use.
They hold a Euro account, along with accounts in all major currencies. Therefore, Euros can be transferred directly into their Euro account. Once they see the funds in the account, they would contact you to confirm receipt of funds and to let you know the rate, which would be based on the live market rate (you could then choose to book the rate or wait).
Once you have agreed a rate, they would then transfer the Sterling equivalent to the chosen UK bank account as an urgent same day payment.
They offer even better rates for large transactions.

inmypocketnottheirs

I would want to check that any transactions by currency brokers have some kind of financial protection scheme. You just never know.

I move relatively modest amounts of € and $ around and find that the best bet is https://www.citibank.co.uk with an account in each currency. A debit card that can be linked to either £,€,$ account and free switching between accounts - at the banks exchange rate of course.

ahll

catokelly wrote: »

Avoid transferring the Euros directly to a UK bank as you will be subject to the banks unfavourable exchange rates. If you use an international money transfer specialist such as Thomas Exchange, you will maximise your money as they base the rates on the live market Euro rate not the 'tourist rate' that the banks use.
They hold a Euro account, along with accounts in all major currencies. Therefore, Euros can be transferred directly into their Euro account. Once they see the funds in the account, they would contact you to confirm receipt of funds and to let you know the rate, which would be based on the live market rate (you could then choose to book the rate or wait).
Once you have agreed a rate, they would then transfer the Sterling equivalent to the chosen UK bank account as an urgent same day payment.
They offer even better rates for large transactions.

Ok just to clarify are you saying that my money would ('Euros can be transferred directly into their Euro account') sit in the Thomas bank account until the rate I wanted was achieved ? So could be there for quite a while.

ahll

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

I would want to check that any transactions by currency brokers have some kind of financial protection scheme. You just never know.

I move relatively modest amounts of € and $ around and find that the best bet is https://www.citibank.co.uk with an account in each currency. A debit card that can be linked to either £,€,$ account and free switching between accounts - at the banks exchange rate of course.

I have a French bank account(Cr!dit Agricole (CA)) with a cash card(never used it in the uk) but I didnt think using a cash point card was the best way of getting money out as wouldnt that mean you get charges and not such a good exchange rate ? !

Does any one know if after using one of these currency brokers if Lloyds TSB will then charge a fee for receiving the money ?

benjus

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

I move relatively modest amounts of € and $ around and find that the best bet is www.citibank.co.uk with an account in each currency. A debit card that can be linked to either £,€,$ account and free switching between accounts - at the banks exchange rate of course.

Could you tell us what that exchange rate is (compared with the spot rate at the same time)? I haven't been able to work out what rate Citi applies to internal cross-currency transfers; for small transfers the priority is to get the fixed fees as low as possible, but as the size of the transfer increases the exchange rate becomes much more important than any fixed fees.