Money transfer from Italy to UK

luke9955

Hi,
i need to transfer into my UK bank account the income from a sale of my house in Italy. Could you advise on the cheapest way to do this? Specifically, My main concern is about how can i get the best exchange rate and reduce the fees (should i get a bank transfer or a cheque on my name?).

I was thinking Transferwise but i'm not sure it works for this kind of transfer.

thanks for your help.

Luca

eddddy

A bank transfer will be relatively expensive. A cheque payment is likely to be even more expensive.

A foreign exchange broker would give you the best rate. (But make sure you understand the risks). There's some info here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange/#larger

Is the money in an Italian bank account in your name? Or is it coming direct from the notary or buyer? If it's coming from the notary or the buyer, a foreign exchange broker may not be an option.

(I don't know the 'protocol' for making property purchase payments in Italy, but obviously make sure that you are suitably protected. For example, you wouldn't want to transfer the property and hand over the keys, in exchange for a cheque which might not be honoured.)

Jamaicanmelaff

You can use Transferwise for large amounts. I’m not sure if it works out as the best option because I’ve only ever transferred around £15,000 with it personally.

I’ve just checked and it seems that sending 250,000 euros, for example, to a GBP bank account would cost 887.28 euros in fees (amount in pounds received would be £225,708.58). That will definitely cost a lot less than a bank transfer but I don’t know how it compares to other options. I know you can transfer up to around £1 million with Transferwise, but you’ll need to check the help pages carefully to see if there are any limits set by your bank, what proof (if any) would be required of what the funds relate to etc as you may be required to show this for a large amount. 

luke9955

yes the money will be transfered direct from the notary. I have lloyds bank. I guess i don't have many options so i will have to give my account details and make the deposit.

yksi

Look into services like Revolut. There are no fees and you pay the current market exchange rate from Monday to Friday. This would probably require that you have a bank account in Italy though and I am not sure what the sending limits might be.

Scotbot

I use Transferwise to move money from overseas, the rates ate better than banks and I  have never had an issue with them. You need to havd a bank account in Italy to transfer the money from. There is also a limit on how much you can trasnsfer but from memory it is at least a million GBP. The way it works is you set up the transaction with your UK bank account details then transfer the money from your Italian bank to Transferwise using your Transferwise ID number as the reference. To set up a Transferwise account you need to scan ID such as a passport.
The only issue I can see is transferring the money from your Italian bank to Transferwise, there is likely to be a limit on online transfers. This could be overcome by multiple transfers but then you pay multiple fees.

silvercar

I use transferwise to send money overseas, the only note of caution I would make is that your money isn't protected. So for the short amount of time that it is with transferwise, there is a risk should transferwise go into administration. Whether you are happy to accept that risk for an amount this size is down to you, one option may be to transfer it in a few chunks.

sugarfree

Hi Luca
I’ve used Transferwise to transfer money from abroad in order to buy a house in the UK. But I did it in smallish amounts (€10 000) over a number of months.  I had no problems with Transferwise. 
I would be nervous about sending a single very large sum, however.  
I recommend you check out the website BritishExpats.com. 
Find the forum entitled “Moving back or to the UK”. Within the list of threads, you’ll find one entitled “Tips for transferring house proceeds”.  
One or two contributors recommend contacting your bank and asking for the “dealing desk rate”. Apparently the banks will do this for large amounts and that way you get a much better rate than what they would normally offer. It might be less nerve wracking than doing the transfer yourself.
 Good luck!

luke9955

thank you for your answers. the problem is that i don't have an italian bank account because i live in uk.

luke9955

And i'm not allowed to have an italian bank account because my residence is in uk now.

eddddy

luke9955 said:

thank you for your answers. the problem is that i don't have an italian bank account because i live in uk.

Yep - double check that the notary is happy to transfer funds to a UK account. I expect they will, but you'll have to pay their bank charges etc.