Receiving University grant of €5000

Nath4n

Hi,

I'm currently doing a postgraduate course here in the UK. I've just found out I've been successful in being awarded a course bursary from a European organisation. It's €5000 and I need to get in touch with them within the next 2 weeks to organise payment details.

I have a huge range of different UK current accounts (opening offers, savings rates etc etc) but as far as I'm aware none of them offer particularly competitive rates on Euro deposits.

From researching old topics on this board and bit of google research I'm trying to figure out the absolute best way to extract the best rate from this bursary as every penny counts - and it would be stupid to throw £50-100 away on bank charges.

I've decided I want to get the funds cycled into £ as quick as possible rather than gambling on currency fluctuations (altho that is tempting considering the state of €-£ rates at the moment).

At the moment I'm looking at opening a Euro current account with CitiBank UK, deposit the €5000 into this (no charges as far as I can tell) and then transfer it straight out (via SEPA - which is free) into the best rate currency broker I can find in order to convert it into GBP and deposit into my UK current account. Surprisingly http://www.currencyfair.com/ seems to consistently come out on top despite me never hearing of them before.

I would massively welcome any input on this plan of action or any alternative suggestions on more efficient ways or doing this.

Thanks

PhoenixDF

Just out of interest which organisation offered you the grant as I am currently looking as postgraduate study.

Nath4n

PhoenixDF wrote: »

Just out of interest which organisation offered you the grant as I am currently looking as postgraduate study.

PM sent :cool:

NFH

It sounds as if you're already clued up and have identified some optimal organisations to use.

With CurrencyFair, if you're patient you can put in an off-market bid or offer and be filled. All you need is someone who needs to trade urgently or with less patience than you. You therefore end up with a better rate than the wholesale players who are trading tens of millions.