Exchanging Euros to Pounds - help please!

vickyhj

Hello,
I have a substantial sum of money I need to exchange from Euros to Pounds - around 7 - 8,000 Euros. I have worked out that by going to my bank in UK I would lose quite a bit of money. I live in Germany but need to come back to UK to buy a car. This will be in about 4 weeks time.
Can anyone advise what is the best way to change Euros to Pounds? I have compared the rate for selling and buying Euros at a few English places, such as post office and banks, and it doesn't go in my favour. Would I be best approaching my bank in Germany? Or a travel agent in Germany? Would they maybe offer a more favourable rate? Or is there a specific company I can use? I know I will lose some money, I just want to make sure I lose as little as possible!
Thanks in advance for your replies x

zagfles

You won't get a good rate changing cash in the UK (not from mainstream places like banks and post office etc anyway).

Do you have to pay for the car in cash? If you're buying from a dealer etc they'll probably accept debit cards, you might be best paying by debit card from your German account, but you'd need to check what your bank charges...

agrinnall

What zagfles suggests may be best, but you would need to check the charges. Certainly bringing cash would be one of the worst alternatives,a better option would be to do a SWIFT/SEPA transfer from your German bank to your UK one as you'll get a much better exchange rate, although there may be a charge for doing this. Another thing to check out is a broker, the one that is mentioned most often is xe.com, although I've never used them myself.

TakeThis

Don't agree that bringing cash is the worst option. Check with LinkFx or Thomas Exchange Global as to the rate they can offer and then compare it with the SWIFT transfer.

catokelly

Shop around, but avoid the Post Office or banks as their rates are amongst the worst on the high street.

You are better off to enquire at independent currency specialists to get the best rates. Perhaps send a few emails to companies in the UK to get some quotes and compare them with what you would get in Germany.

brodev

I would suggest Foreign Currencies Direct or HIFX or something similar

benjus

Have you looked on the "Buy Back" section of the Travel Money Maximiser on this site? That will give you the best rates for exchanging cash (unless you can get to London you'll have to post the Euros via secure delivery, approx £7 per £2500 worth of cash).

Alternatively you could use an FX broker to transfer from your German account to your UK account - something like XETrade or one of these: http://www.fxcompared.com/Content/money-transfer-from-Germany-UK-above-3000-amount-8000 (although ignore VoiceCash on that list as they can only send USD or EUR).