Money transfer from Germany

southgirl

Hello All
I am looking at transferring money (approx 3000 Eoro) from Germany to my UK bank account. Obviously I'd like to get the best deal on currency exchange and pay as little fees as possible.
Any ideas? Has anyone done it already? Do I also need any paperwork to prove where the money is from etc?

benjus

I assume the money is in a German account you have access to?

This service is very easy to use and has excellent rates: http://www.voicecash.com/en/money-transfer/

southgirl

Thanks!
I had a look at this and it would appear that I'd receive the money in Euro? Will I then have to use my bank to exchange?

benjus

I've only used it in the opposite direction (UK to Eurozone) but when I used it, it converted the money to EUR for me. That was the main point of using it in the first place.

Michael_Corleone

How about HiFX?

http://www.hifx.co.uk/Personal/Online-Transfers/How-it-works.aspx#1

benjus

I see what you mean about VoiceCash not converting into GBP - that makes it pretty useless for sending money to the UK! (although it's very good for sending money from the UK)

Other providers to check out are XETrade and Moneybookers/Skrill. I haven't tried XETrade myself but other people report good exchange rates.

jrusso

Probably the best rate would be from just doing a SEPA transfer from your German account to the UK one.

RetiredInThailand

benjus wrote: »

Other providers to check out are XETrade and Moneybookers/Skrill.

Moneybookers apply a very high exchange weighting of nearly 3% which makes it poor value.

benjus

RetiredInThailand wrote: »

Moneybookers apply a very high exchange weighting of nearly 3% which makes it poor value.

Fair point - I sometimes use them for smaller amounts, but you're right, I wouldn't use them for €3k.

Some more options here: http://www.fxcompared.com/Content/money-transfer-from-Germany-UK-below-3000-amount-3000

benjus

jrusso wrote: »

Probably the best rate would be from just doing a SEPA transfer from your German account to the UK one.

What happens when your UK bank receives Euros? What exchange rate do they apply to convert it to Sterling? You'd need to get an answer to this before proceeding down this route.

southgirl

Many thanks for all your replies!
I contacted my bank ( Santander) and apparently they don't charge for international transfer but the originating bank might and it's also them who converts the money into GBP. So back to my German bank for enquiries.