Bankers Draft in Euros - best way to convert to £££'s??

Floss26

We are in the process of selling a property in Spain for which we will be paid in the form of a Bankers Draft in euros. What is the most economical way for us to pay it into a UK sterling account? We've already explored options such as Moneycorps, HiFX etc and although they seem to be very efficient at the UK end they are sadly let down by their Iberian colleagues. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

mgdavid

open a Euro account in UK with a UK bank.
Pay the draft in.
Transfer it to your sterling UK account using somebody like CurrencyFair.com (other exchange brokers are available).

Floss26

Thanks for the reply, our concern is however that it might take a number of weeks for the Bankers Draft to clear as it will be drawn from a Spanish bank.

mgdavid

do you know which Spanish bank? Maybe it's Santander in which case one might expect Santander UK to be a good choice? Most banks have partner bank arrangements if they don't have affiliates in other countries.

agrinnall

Floss26 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, our concern is however that it might take a number of weeks for the Bankers Draft to clear as it will be drawn from a Spanish bank.

I don't see how that impacts the suggestions you've been given, it's going to take as long as it takes to clear whatever method you decide to use to eventually get the money in sterling.

catokelly

Unfortunately Euro bank drafts are very difficult to cash in the UK. You might have no choice except to deposit the draft at your bank. However the bank will usually offer poor rates and charge hefty admin fees and the cheque will take several weeks to clear because the bank has to physically post it to the issuing bank .

To get the best return for the Euros you are better off to encourage the lawyer/issuer of the bank draft to transfer the Euros via bank transfer instead... and if you use an international money transfer specialist, they can convert the Euros to Pounds at much better rates than banks and the whole process can be done in as little as 48 hours compared to several weeks waiting for the cheque to clear.