How would you move money abroad (cheapest way)

the_learner

Hi, I have a Barclays account and I have to send €10,000 to an Italian bank account.
What is the best (and possibly cheapest) way to do so?

I have seen that accounts tgat promise "no fee" have hidden costs in the form of off-market exchange rate.

Do you have any suggestion how to set up the transfer to avoid too high costs?

I don't mind opening an account just for this purpose as long as the opening costs are not so high to offset any benefit I could have in terms of better FX rate.

Thank you.

Browntoa

Www.currenciesdirect.com

Couple of others in the forum guide

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange?_ga=1.217591568.720416319.1402755159

colsten

Google 'currency transfer' - that finds you a few comparison sites that will work out the best deal for you.

Check Quidco/TCB for cashback offers.

grumbler

https://www.fxcompared.com/money-transfer/UK-Italy?amount=8000&ref=filter

http://www.mycurrencytransfer.com/money-transfer-to-Italy/8000-GBP

mgdavid

https://www.currencyfair.com is who I use

the_learner

Browntoa wrote: »

Www.currenciesdirect.com

Couple of others in the forum guide

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange?_ga=1.217591568.720416319.1402755159

Thanks, I have just used https://www.fxcompared.com and I have seen that Currency Direct is one of the best choice.
But with current FX rate at 0.7883 I see that if I send 7,900 GBP I get 9,949.82 EUR. But with the market FX rate I would have 10021 EUR.

There is no cheapest way to convert GBP to EUR?

What about Halifax Clarity Card? Is it possible to get better rate?

the_learner

mgdavid wrote: »

https://www.currencyfair.com is who I use

It looks good. 7,900 GBP buy 9,976.14 EUR, better than Currency Direct.
But is it secure? It says tgey are regulated by Bank of Ireland but I can't see many feedback.

mgdavid

if you want a better rate, on currencyfair you can bid for a rate and wait until the market offers it to you (it may never of course); I don't know if the others do that but I guess they should.

Archi_Bald

the_learner wrote: »

It says tgey are regulated by Bank of Ireland

Regulation is not the same thing as protection for your money. For example, all the UK banks are regulated and authorised by the FCA/PRA, but the protection of your deposits with these banks is through the FSCS.

None of the currency transfer firms offers FSCS (or similar) protection.

vonventure

the non bank providers are usually cheaper as they don't have the same overheads as the old legacy banks. Also use currencyfair and sometimes ozforex if I need to move money out of Australia.

the_learner

mgdavid wrote: »

if you want a better rate, on currencyfair you can bid for a rate and wait until the market offers it to you (it may never of course); I don't know if the others so that but I guess they should.

When I say better rate I mean a rate that is closer to market rate. Eg. now market FX rate is 0.7883 but currency fair changes my 7,900 GBP into 9,976.14 EUR which is like if they used 0.7919 as FX rate. Roughly a 0.46% cost.

It seems that Halifax Clarity Card offers an exchange rate that is more in line with market rate thus giving more EUR for the same amount of GBPs.
But I don't know if it's just for payments/withdraws abroad or if it also allows us to transfer money to an account abroad. Any idea on that too?