Moving Euros to UK

count_von_count

My wife banks with AIB in Ireland and NatWest in the UK. She has around €10k in Ireland that she would like to bring back to the UK in a lump sum. Now would be a good time to do it, given the £/€ exchange rate.

Given that the banks at both ends are likely to charge for a transfer and the exchange rate might not be the most generous, are there any cheap and rate-effective ways of bringing the money back to the UK?

Thanks!

DCFC79

count_von_count wrote: »

My wife banks with AIB in Ireland and NatWest in the UK. She has around €10k in Ireland that she would like to bring back to the UK in a lump sum. Now would be a good time to do it, given the £/€ exchange rate.

Given that the banks at both ends are likely to charge for a transfer and the exchange rate might not be the most generous, are there any cheap and rate-effective ways of bringing the money back to the UK?

Thanks!

Maybe Monzo/Starling might be an option.

Ben8282

I will give the same advice as I did in the $10k from the US thread posted yesterday which asked basically the same question.
Just transfer the money bank account to bank account so that the origin of funds is apparent.
Don't go messing about trying to sane a small amount in charges or get a slightly better exchange rate. Just make the transaction in a manner which will get the money from her Irish to UK account with the minimum chance of anything going wrong and the minimum possibility of accounts being blocked for suspected money laundering or similar eventualities. .

colsten

Ben8282 wrote: »

I will give the same advice as I did in the $10k from the US thread posted yesterday which asked basically the same question.
Just transfer the money bank account to bank account so that the origin of funds is apparent.
Don't go messing about trying to sane a small amount in charges or get a slightly better exchange rate. Just make the transaction in a manner which will get the money from her Irish to UK account with the minimum chance of anything going wrong and the minimum possibility of accounts being blocked for suspected money laundering or similar eventualities. .

You are bound to get a bad exchange rate by using standard banks. Starling would probably be my preferred option now, although Transferwise could be an equally good method to use. Transferring €10k should not be an issue.

trailingspouse

+1 for Transferwise. Simple, and much much cheaper.

I make a regular deposit into an Irish bank account - it used to cost me £25 per deposit, but now it's around £3 with Transferwise. It's only £100s, not £1000s, but you get the idea.

eDicky

Ben8282 wrote: »

Don't go messing about trying to sane a small amount in charges or get a slightly better exchange rate.

It's not really a small amount if a typical 3% margin involved in the bank's exchange rate means a 300€ effective loss.

A transfer using TransferWise will show the sender's identity and other details to the receiving bank, I've never had any issues in using them. Starling Bank, who provide a EUR account as well as GBP, with a 0.4% fee on exchanges at the interbank rate, is also a good option, as would be Fineco Bank UK but with more laborious opening procedure.

PRAISETHESUN

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange/

Also highly recommend Transferwise, Revolut and Starling

System

Transferwise would be my suggestion for a one off EUR > GBP transaction.
There is usually some cashback via TCB / Quidco too.

If not immediate conversion - Starling, Barclays and Revolut can hold Euros as needed in the UK and all allow SEPA transfers without charge.

count_von_count

Thanks all for the feedback. I will have a closer look at Transferwise.

I have a UK Starling account (only used for drawing cash from ATMs overseas by feeding it from my normal sterling bank account), I was impressed at how quickly they set up my account and got a debit card to me; I have only used it a couple of times so no complaints, but interested to read some of the neg comments on these forums. Anyway, I'll have a look at them as well.