Euro savings in Spain

morefolding

My retired dad has savings in Spain. Spanish by birth, he's been a UK citizen for many years and does not now plan to live in Spain again. Given the state of the Eurozone and Spain right now he's worried that his savings could disappear and that it would be best to bring it back to the UK.

Is this a straightforward thing to do? What sort of charges (exchange etc) would he be likely to incur?

Thanks very much for any help on this.

hermante

morefolding wrote: »

My retired dad has savings in Spain. Spanish by birth, he's been a UK citizen for many years and does not now plan to live in Spain again. Given the state of the Eurozone and Spain right now he's worried that his savings could disappear and that it would be best to bring it back to the UK.

Is this a straightforward thing to do? What sort of charges (exchange etc) would he be likely to incur?

Thanks very much for any help on this.

Use a currency broker or just get his bank to send it. You need the IBAN (international bank account number) which should appear on his statements.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange

Alternatively, withdraw it in cash and exchange it at bureaux de change.

No taxes are due, but if he is living in the UK, he is meant to pay UK tax on any interest earned in Spain minus the personal allowance.

morefolding

Thank you Hermante, for your advice and link.

Yes, HMRC are fully aware of my dad's Spanish savings!

He's now thinking of going over there to close down the accounts in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks again.

missile

I am in the process of moving euros from my spanish bank. It is possible to do from the UK.

He can ask the bank to convert and transfer = expensive. He can ask bank to transfer to a currency exchange broker e.g. MoneyCorp. For me the cheapest option is to open a euro account with LTSB transferring euros there then converting to GBP and transferring to my UK LTSB account.