Cheapest transfer of euros from France to UK?

head_in_a_spin

Hi All,

We just sold our house in France (dream shattered!!).
We now have a reasonable amount of money sitting in our French account that we wish to transfer back here to the UK.

Can anyone advise as to the cheapest and most reliable way we can do this?
When we used to transfer money from the UK account to the French account (to pay the mortgage) we used to get charged something like £20 per transaction from Halifax but i'm guessing it will be different here.

Thanks!

grumbler

http://transferwise.com/send-money-to-the-uk

I can't vouch that it's the most reliable way, but I wouldn't expect from any company to be the cheapest and the most reliable at the same time.

RetiredInThailand

If you are talking about the entire proceeds from a house sale then personally I would want to send it the most reliable way possible. This means via a proper bank and not a forex dealer. If you really want to use a forex dealer then best to send it in several separate transactions over several days.

The bank charge for transmitting the funds from France to the UK will not be high; maybe 20-30 Euros or so. Easy enough to check with your French bank exactly how much it will be.

But where the big costs lie are with the exchange rate, not the transfer fee. You should contact your UK bank and get them to quote the rate for exchanging EUR to GBP, and also contact your French bank and ask what rate they would use to send GBP rather than EUR, bearing in mind that all the rates are negotiable for large sums. Dont get fobbed off with the tourist rate. Then armed with these two figures you can easily work out which way you want to send it. Of course there is nothing stopping you from asking other banks with which you dont have accounts as they may offer better rates.

But make absolutely sure if you decide to send EUR to the UK for conversion there that your UK bank knows the EUR are coming and that the rate has been agreed in advance as a fixed % spread on the interbank rate. You should be able to negotiate under 1% without any trouble. If you dont arrange it in advance you will just get the tourist rate and that could cost you a lot.

innovate

Some banks also charge a fixed amount for receiving money from abroad, so best to check that out as well.

head_in_a_spin

Hey All,

Thanks for the replies.
Must say that RetiredInThailand has given a fantastic procedure to get the best deal.

Thanks All!!!!!!

catokelly

In order to maximise the value of your Euros, you should ensure that you get a good rate, as the slightest difference in the rate could make the difference of £100s of pounds on a large sum of Euros.

In general, it is hard to negotiate decent rates with banks and you usually wont know what rate they have applied until after the transaction has been done.

If you use an international money transfer specialist, once you are registered with them,the Euros could be sent directly to their client Euro account and they would convert the Euros into Sterling for you at much better rates than the banks. They will also let you know the rate before doing the transaction and you wouldnt have to book a rate straight away, for example you could wait until the rate hits a certain figure. When using a transfer company make sure they are FSA authorised as this will mean your funds are safeguarded.

head_in_a_spin

Hmmm, must say i am nervous about using one of these specialists, its a lot of money to us.
How can you be sure its ok, is FSA registered really a guarantee and even if the name checks out how can i be sure the on-line site/phone number etc is that same company?
I'd need to be more convinced.

Anyway, i popped into Halifax (our bank) today and after a lot of calls (the folks at the branch didn't know off hand) they were told that it is not possible to fix/negotiate an exchange rate, it will simply be whatever it is on the day.
Next thing is to contact the French bank.

So, how can i take advantage of other banks that may permit this when i don't have an account with them?

Has anyone out there actually done this kind of thing before?

Thanks all again!!!

RetiredInThailand

catokelly wrote: »

In general, it is hard to negotiate decent rates with banks and you usually wont know what rate they have applied until after the transaction has been done.

I disagree. As long as you contact the bank before the funds arrive you should have no trouble negotiating and confirming the rate (or at least the % spread which amounts to the same thing). I have done it many times.

When using a transfer company make sure they are FSA authorised as this will mean your funds are safeguarded.

I dont think that it does. As far as I know there is no deposit protection of any type applicable to forex dealers. I would be especially wary of leaving funds on deposit with a forex dealer whilst waiting for a better rate.

RetiredInThailand

head_in_a_spin wrote: »

Anyway, i popped into Halifax (our bank) today and after a lot of calls (the folks at the branch didn't know off hand) they were told that it is not possible to fix/negotiate an exchange rate, it will simply be whatever it is on the day.

Halifax isnt really a bank, in spite of what it calls itself though even so they should know what the % spread of the exchange rate would be on the day, and they should also know that this should be much smaller for large sums than the regular tourist spread. I would be inclined to ask a proper bank. And I would also ask the UK branch of your French bank, if it has one.

I transferred about 600,000 EUR from a house sale a couple of years ago and I certainly negotiated the rate very hard and ended up using a receiving UK bank that I had never had any previous dealings with. They offered the best deal and that was good enough for me.

catokelly

Most financial companies are FSA registered, but in real terms that doesnt offer any proper protection to customers.

However if a company is FSA Authorised, it has to go through stringent financial and security checks before it can get the FSA Authorised status.

For the customer, FSA Authorisation means that their funds are safeguarded and protected, for example if the company went bust, the bank & debtors would not be able to seize the funds as the account is protected.

However, with most customers, they usually will usually do the exchange straight away so the funds would only be in the company account for a small amount of time anyway, therefore any potential risk is extremely small. Other things to consider is if whether the company has been established for long and if it has any high street presence etc... I wouldnt rule out using a forex company if I were you. However, ultimately the choice is yours.

If you are still determined to use a bank, if you are exchanging over €100,000 you should at least expect 80 pips on the live market rate, so use that as a benchmark when negotiating the rate with your bank. Also ask them to confirm the rate with you before doing the transaction (if the xe rate is 1.22, the rate would be 1.2280).

jonesMUFCforever

head_in_a_spin wrote: »

Hmmm, must say i am nervous about using one of these specialists, its a lot of money to us.
How can you be sure its ok, is FSA registered really a guarantee and even if the name checks out how can i be sure the on-line site/phone number etc is that same company?
I'd need to be more convinced.

Anyway, i popped into Halifax (our bank) today and after a lot of calls (the folks at the branch didn't know off hand) they were told that it is not possible to fix/negotiate an exchange rate, it will simply be whatever it is on the day.
Next thing is to contact the French bank.

So, how can i take advantage of other banks that may permit this when i don't have an account with them?

Has anyone out there actually done this kind of thing before?

Thanks all again!!!

Halifax can't fix the rate as the money will be sent from the French bank.
You can ask the french bank to arrange a foreign exchange contract with a fixed rate.