Money gift from France

sav_606_rebels

Not sure if this is the right place, but I'll try anyway!

My French grandmother has written me a letter to say she'd like to give me some money for a landmark birthday. Its a four figure sum.

She has a French account and I dont.

Whats the best way to get it from her account to mine?

Thanks in advance

bengal-stripe

International bank transfer to your UK account, using IBAN and BIC. The money can be sent either in EUR (then your bank will do the conversion into pounds) or GBP.

Your bank might, or might not, charge for receiving the money.

catokelly

You should use an international money transfer specialist to convert the Euros into Sterling for you, they will hold a Client Euro account so the Euros would be transferred directly to their Euro account, they can then convert the Euros into Sterling at much better rates than all banks.

If you got the bank to convert the Euros, you wouldnt know what rate they apply until after the transaction has been done and the rates are usually pretty bad.

ampersand

Why not open a Bank Account in France? You can do this as a non-resident.
I prefer Credit Agricole.

sav_606_rebels

catokelly wrote: »

You should use an international money transfer specialist to convert the Euros into Sterling for you, they will hold a Client Euro account so the Euros would be transferred directly to their Euro account, they can then convert the Euros into Sterling at much better rates than all banks.

If you got the bank to convert the Euros, you wouldnt know what rate they apply until after the transaction has been done and the rates are usually pretty bad.

Hi Cat - thanks, the exchange rate was what I was worried about.

Ampersand - I had thought about opening a French account, but as I'm currently saving for a house deposit, the money will need to come 'over here' at some point in the relatively near future anyway - so the same problem will arise, wouldn't it?

Thanks for all the advise so far I've trawled through the Barclays site to try and find information on fees using IBAN etc, but it keeps directing me to the Business Pages, which are helpful for outgoing sums, but have very little on incoming.

I'll keep hunting...

agrinnall

I'm not sure that there is any fee for an incoming SWIFT payment, in general charges are paid by the sender rather than the recipient.

guesswho2000

sav_606_rebels wrote: »

Hi Cat - thanks, the exchange rate was what I was worried about.

Ampersand - I had thought about opening a French account, but as I'm currently saving for a house deposit, the money will need to come 'over here' at some point in the relatively near future anyway - so the same problem will arise, wouldn't it?

Thanks for all the advise so far I've trawled through the Barclays site to try and find information on fees using IBAN etc, but it keeps directing me to the Business Pages, which are helpful for outgoing sums, but have very little on incoming.

I'll keep hunting...

Might not be helpful, however, if you got a cheap Ryanair flight to Dublin, you could open an account with Ulster Bank ROI, denominated in Euros. That would be free of charges around euroland denominated in euros.

Here's the benefit over one based in France: no fees or charges to withdraw cash from NatWest or RBS ATMs in the uk denominated in sterling.

Long shot, but thought I'd chip in anyway, its what I did! (Although I'm a dual citizen of ROI and I was there anyway!)

innovate

Much of the sending money abroad article on the main site, even though written for sending money from the UK elsewhere, should offer some ideas for the lowest cost options, because by definition the whole thing will work the other way round, too.

Transferwise looks promising.

grumbler

agrinnall wrote: »

I'm not sure that there is any fee for an incoming SWIFT payment, in general charges are paid by the sender rather than the recipient.

>> Interwetten deposits and withdrawals: your experience
(Interwetten is a German bookmaker).