Friends selling in France, best way to transfer Euros to GBP on completion?

wockawocka

Hi,

Friends are selling their gite in France and that looks to complete in July. The sale is in Euros and I was asked today what the best way to transfer this to a UK bank account would be in order to get the most favourable exchange rate?

Frankly, I've no idea. I was thinking along the lines of a Euro bank account in the UK to transfer to, then to source a currency broker to transfer that to their GBP one.

I thought I'd ask on here in case anyone has a shared experience.

aoleks

for that sort of amounts, bank. losing £1-200 on fees or a non-optimal exchange rate is nothing relatively speaking.

PRAISETHESUN

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

I'd avoid the high street banks as their exchange rates are typically horrible compared to specialist currency conversion services. I've used Wise in the past, admittedly not for the sums you're talking about, but I've not been disappointed so far.

In any case, make sure they fully verify themselves with whatever service they decide to use, as well as retain documentation for the source of the funds, to avoid any delays if the transfer gets questioned.

Scotbot

I use Wise, much better rates than banks. The limit per transaction used to be £1 million.

user1977

PRAISETHESUN said:

In any case, make sure they fully verify themselves with whatever service they decide to use, as well as retain documentation for the source of the funds, to avoid any delays if the transfer gets questioned.

That's a good point, especially if they are planning to use the funds for, say, another property purchase in the near future. The solicitors may query whether it's a convincing enough paper trail.

Exodi

Another vote for Wise, been using them for years.

My parents sold their house in France last year and used wise to transfer €160,000 to sterling, no issues.

aoleks said:

for that sort of amounts, bank. losing £1-200 on fees or a non-optimal exchange rate is nothing relatively speaking.

I completely disagree with this point of view. For larger amounts it's more important to consider the fees institutions charge -we're likely talking thousands of pounds difference here.

Wise is not a fly by night outfit - it's probably the biggest name in FX.

I would just advise the OP to test with €100 first to ensure they set up the transfer correctly. If OP is worried about transferring a large sum, there's no reason they couldn't process the transfer in smaller transactions that they are comfortable with.

eddddy

wockawocka said:

Friends are selling their gite in France and that looks to complete in July. The sale is in Euros and I was asked today what the best way to transfer this to a UK bank account would be in order to get the most favourable exchange rate?

Based on my very limited experience of selling property in France...

The buyer transferred funds to the Notaire. Then, when everything is signed etc, the Notaire transferred funds to the seller.

Do your friends have a bank account in France?

If not, double-check with the Notaire what their requirements are for transferring the money to the seller. I imagine the Notaire will be happy to transfer to a UK (Euro) account, if your friends provide IBAN numbers etc. (I don't know if they'll ask for evidence that the account really belongs to the sellers, etc. e.g. If the property is jointly owned, then the account must be a joint account, etc.)

Although in my experience, things like that are generally more lax in France compared to the UK. 


And according to this article, a French Notaire fell for an email scam as recently as 2020. I think UK solicitors have been wise to that scam for many years: https://www.french-property.com/news/french_property/sale_proceeds_pirated_notaire

(So maybe tell your friends to be extra cautious!)
 

HRH_MUngo

When we sold our house in Spain, the solicitor transferred the money straight from his client account into our  sterling bank account in the UK.

Perhaps this wasn't the most cost-effective way of doing it, but it was quick and easy.

knightstyle

When we sold our French house the money was sent by the Notaire to our French bank account. We then sent it in several chunks to our UK bank. Not sending the next till the previous one had arrived safely. No problems using Currenciesdirect.com
If you want an absolutely safe way use bank transfer but it will cost more.

Marky4040

wockawocka said:

Hi,

Friends are selling their gite in France and that looks to complete in July. The sale is in Euros and I was asked today what the best way to transfer this to a UK bank account would be in order to get the most favourable exchange rate?

Frankly, I've no idea. I was thinking along the lines of a Euro bank account in the UK to transfer to, then to source a currency broker to transfer that to their GBP one.

I thought I'd ask on here in case anyone has a shared experience.

Another vote for using a specialist currency transfer like Wise, you'll get the best rate at minimum fee.  Don't listen to anyone telling you to do it any other way.

Exodi

knightstyle said:

When we sold our French house the money was sent by the Notaire to our French bank account. We then sent it in several chunks to our UK bank. Not sending the next till the previous one had arrived safely. No problems using Currenciesdirect.com
If you want an absolutely safe way use bank transfer but it will cost more.

While I agree with all of our points, I just wanted to mention that I sought quotes from currenciesdirect (if my memory serves correct you have to register for an account before they'll show you the rates? I remember having to speak on the phone to them). When they did eventually tell me the rates, they were not competitive with Wise. I told them it was was more cost effective to Wise, told them the Wise rate (their rates are publicy available anyway) and suprisingly they didn't even try to match it.

I think Wise is the most competitive on the market, at least from my experience.