transfer to portugal

mgdavid

colsten wrote: »

AML checks do not merely take place at account opening. All transactions get screened, and you can be almost certain that anything over £10K gets extra scrutiny, especially if it goes abroad. The checks may or may not be transparent to the originator of the transfer.

As I said, not in my experience; a 5-figure sum transferred in Euros overnight and confirmed as received by the recipient the following morning as soon as they opened and checked their account.
YMMV

eDicky

bomber2 wrote: »

i have a portuguese bank account,but the initial question remains the same.

You have the choice of sending directly from your UK bank and suffering the effective loss of 3-4% on their exchange rate (the transfer fee is comparatively irrelevant on a large transfer), or cutting the expense to about a tenth of that by using a service such as TransferWise or CurrencyFair etc.

At least if you send from your bank call them to arrange a more preferable rate for such a sum.

Personally I would expect any holdups for checks etc to be attended to much more quickly by TransferWise than any UK bank, but of course the bank might be the one initiating such checks for the domestic GBP payment to the transfer service, regardless. I would tend to make three or four smaller transfers instead of that amount all at once.

bomber2

cheers,transferwise seem the best option.

colsten

bomber2 wrote: »

cheers,transferwise seem the best option.

I think you are probably right - though it's always worth doing a bit of shopping around.

In a different context, and with much smaller amounts, I concluded just now

Azimo has better Euro rates and lower fees than WorldRemit. Transferwise beats both of them. Starling beats Transferwise if exchanging (onto your Starling Euro account) £155 but not if exchanging £205. Transferwise easily beats Starling when sending GBP to a Euro account at a different bank (but why would you do that if you can exchange it cheaper first to your own Starling Euro account). It's a bit of a minefield!

If you have a need for regular xfers to (and/or from) your Portuguese account, you might want to consider a Starling GBP + Euro account. They have very keen rates, and swapping Euros between your Portuguese and your Starling Euro accounts should be free of charge. Though you can now use the Starling debit card against your Euro account, and I believe they are also now offering Euro SOs and DDs. Obviously you can also make one-off Euro payments from the Starling Euro account. Remember the full FSCS protection you get with Starling.