Changing 12000 euros into GBP outside England

trigan

My sister lives in Europe (outside England) but I live in England. She is holding 12000 Euros inheritance money for me in a separate HSBC bank account in that country. Since the Euro to GBP exchange is good at the moment, I told her to convert it to GBP. But she told me that HSBC will charge me a staggering £200 to change 12000 Euros into sterling. I have an HSBC bank account in England. How can I change these euros into sterling and still keep this inheritance money in her HSBC bank account without incurring such huge bank charges for changing it into sterling? I have my reasons for not wanting it transferred to my HSBC bank account at the moment. But will transferring this sum into my HSBC bank account in England make for much cheaper conversion charges?
Thank you.

bowlhead99

High street banks are not known for having super-competitive fx rates. Still, a cost of <Eur 240 on Eur 12,000 is only 2%, which is a better conversion rate than if you were over in Paris spending like crazy on a typical UK credit card. The currency markets can move by 2% in a week anyway, so even if you find somewhere with a better rate after a couple of days of researching the absolute best possible place to do it, you might actually end up receiving fewer pounds.

For maximum flexibility you would want her to have a pounds account with HSBC in Europe and you to have a euro account with HSBC in UK and you could then compare each bank's offering on the conversion rate - but it would probably be similar, if not the exact same. As it is, I'm assuming you don't have a Euro account with HSBC here in the UK and they're probably not going to give you one for free for a one time short term currency deal, so the point is moot.

If you want to cut costs versus HSBC applying their own internal rate, you can use a currency broker - factoring in the cost of sending the money to the broker and the broker sending the converted funds to your pounds account or her pounds account (if she has a pounds account) on top of the broker's commission on the sale of euros for pounds.

There will of course be some non-zero level of hassle with setting up a new account with a broker for an amount of that size, and it will take some non-zero amount of time during which the market rate or Euros to pounds may move against you.

You mention it is a staggering amount. Yet 2% is not a massive multiple of the going rate. No reason to expect them to place currency deals for you for free. As an example of one of the better high street bureaus de change in London, Ace-fx.co.uk buys Eur at 1.211 and sells at 1.171. So, whether you are buying or selling you would be losing 2 cents on every 119 cents which is about 1.7%. You would probably expect to get a better rate with a larger amount of money involved though.

Voyager2002

bowlhead99 wrote: »

If you want to cut costs versus HSBC applying their own internal rate, you can use a currency broker - factoring in the cost of sending the money to the broker and the broker sending the converted funds to your pounds account or her pounds account (if she has a pounds account) on top of the broker's commission on the sale of euros for pounds.

There will of course be some non-zero level of hassle with setting up a new account with a broker for an amount of that size, and it will take some non-zero amount of time during which the market rate or Euros to pounds may move against you.

The costs that you mention are mostly zero, at least with the currency broker that I use (https://www.xe.com). For me the hassle amounted to about fifteen minutes filling in an on-line form and they verified my identity electronically, although many people need to send off copies of their passports and so have to go to a little more trouble.

We should also remember that currency brokers offer more favourable exchange rates than do banks. Personally I would not even consider using a bank for something like this.

trigan

Thank you both for your comments.
I tried to create an account this morning with XE but I ran into the following difficulties.
Only people who live in the following European countries can create an XE account: France, Germany, Switzerland and the British Isles.
Since my sister does not live in a European country that is listed in the XE account application, can I open an XE account myself and arrange for the transfer of my 12 thousand Euros from her bank account?
Can XE convert the Euros for me into GBP when I make the transfer ?
I filled the details of the online account and at the last page it said:

In the next 12 months I expect to transfer…..
Drop down menu contains euro, and I am supposed to input an amount. How many euros is it best for me to transfer ?

I will be making roughly this many transfers…… how many shall I input?

I will be usually sending my payments from
Drop down menu contains my sister’s country of residence.

When I decide to create an XE account in order to transfer the 12000 Euros from my sister’s bank account, will she have to create an HSBC bank account in my name before I will be able to transfer this money from my sister’s country of residence?
How much will I be charged for doing this?
Is it better to transfer this money in 6 transfers over 12 months rather than one transfer ?

I have an outdated passport because I hate travelling. How will XE be able to identify me electronically ?
Thank you for your help.

paddyrg

Revolut any help for this?