Euros to Sterling for UK house deposit. HOW? Without massive conversion charges?

JoJoMc

Help! So I have been given 7,000 Euro in cash to put towards our house deposit (thanks mum!). I need to change this to sterling yet don't want to be charged massive conversion rates. Who, where can I go to do this?

Have heard of a UK euro account with Citi Bank that I could transfer funds to a company called HIFX who could do the conversion, seems messy, is there an easier way? Any help/advice would be so appreciated.

abankerbutnotafatcat

I've used hifx several times and they were very good. I dealt with them directly. You're amount won't attract the better rates though. Try to not get hung up in fees and concentrate on the whole picture I.e. how much net sterling will you get for your €7k.

JoJoMc

Thanks for the reply, thought I could save more cash by shopping around for currency conversion rates. Every penny counts when saving for this deposit!

agrinnall

You may need to get your mum to write you a letter explaining where the money came from and that it is a gift not a loan, if you don't want a future mortgage application to be held up by money laundering concerns.

antrobus

agrinnall wrote: »

You may need to get your mum to write you a letter explaining where the money came from and that it is a gift not a loan, if you don't want a future mortgage application to be held up by money laundering concerns.

If the OP's mum has really given them 7,000 Euros in 'cash' (as in the folding stuff) then they may face "money laundering concerns" well before that; i.e. at the point that they turn up at the bank counter, bureau de change, etc, and hand over the readies. I believe it's under the reporting limit, but still, you might expect questions to be asked, and quite possibly providing 'my mum gave it to me' as an answer might not cut it.

Just saying that the OP should be prepared, that's all.

anukis

JoJoMc wrote: »

Help! So I have been given 7,000 Euro in cash to put towards our house deposit (thanks mum!). I need to change this to sterling yet don't want to be charged massive conversion rates. Who, where can I go to do this?

Have heard of a UK euro account with Citi Bank that I could transfer funds to a company called HIFX who could do the conversion, seems messy, is there an easier way? Any help/advice would be so appreciated.

You don't need to open a bank account here in euros if money are overseas.

You open an account with hi-fx or baydonhill fx (currency brokers), transfer the euros to your account with them, then they convert to GBP then send you the money to your UK bank account. They're FSA regulated so no issues there. I deal with baydonhill fx and they have excellent customer service and currency rates. I always deal with the same person.

For 7K I don't think you can negotiate much the conversion rate..

novo_2

I used to use ukforex to transfer money from an overseas account (EU) to my UK account. You send them money, they buy currency with it, with the current conversion rate, and send it to the other bank account. They charge £7 for the transfer. I found that for amount over £1000 they were the cheapest. I used them twice and thought both times they were quick and reliable.

abankerbutnotafatcat

JoJoMc wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, thought I could save more cash by shopping around for currency conversion rates. Every penny counts when saving for this deposit!

Agreed, but I'm saying that a co. that charges you a fee might more than make up for it with a better rate. It does depend on the amount though as another poster said. So shop around but don't discount those with fee, just factor the fees in.

orcocan

i always use oanda, they've always had the best rates for me, although probably not worthwhile for smaller amounts (1-2k)

definitely do not have your bank FX the money across, they'll rip you off big time

ccbrowning

Pretty much any forex service is going to give you a better rate than a bank would. I use xe.com but there are quite a few options.

abankerbutnotafatcat

Actually, you can get a fixed rate from your bank, you just have to request it. The perceived 'rip-off' comes when you don't ask for it and they just send it at the retail spot rate. However, high street banks are generalist financial rather than specific fx institutions so you wouldn't expect their rates, even their fixed rates, to be as attractive. As I said before though, £7k, isn't a huge sum in this context but still worth maximising it.