BEST WAY TO CONVERT EUROS TO GBP.

zievar

Marchitiello  Thank you for your comments.  I did compare Revolut and Currencies Direct.  We had  used Currecies Direct for a long time and always found it quick and reliable.  Indeed they saved us money in the Spanish bank by advising to send it in £50,000 blocks.

 

 Revolut gives £200 pounds  more, but does seem to be more complicated to me.

Marchitiello

zievar said:

Marchitiello  Thank you for your comments.  I did compare Revolut and Currencies Direct.  We had  used Currecies Direct for a long time and always found it quick and reliable.  Indeed they saved us money in the Spanish bank by advising to send it in £50,000 blocks.

 

 Revolut gives £200 pounds  more, but does seem to be more complicated to me.

The options I recommended are both proper banks with deposit guarantee cover (Fineco by the EU and HSBC UK by the UK). Revolut and CD are not (nor is Wise), so you may want to consider that as well. 

zievar

Marchitiello   That is really, very helpful...Thank you.

cluckvolt

I convert euro to gbp monthly as I get paid in euro. I started off with Wise but then Switched to Revolut and took out a metal plan, and overall this was cheaper than paying the wise fees, plus I get a few benefits with Revolut. 

Sometimes Revolut offer a paid plan free trial so you could see if that’s an option. 

Band7

I have used Fineco regularly for a long time as they have the keenest bottom line exchange rates. However, I will no longer be using them after a terrible experience with a payment that had gone missing. Their rates are not good enough for me to risk a similar experience again and I would recommend people use Wise for EUR to GBP transfers if deposit protection is not an issue, or Starling if they want deposit protection.

Marchitiello

Band7 said:

I have used Fineco regularly for a long time as they have the keenest bottom line exchange rates. However, I will no longer be using them after a terrible experience with a payment that had gone missing. Their rates are not good enough for me to risk a similar experience again and I would recommend people use Wise for EUR to GBP transfers if deposit protection is not an issue, or Starling if they want deposit protection.

We all may despise a specific financial institution for something that goes wrong to ourself but it does not means that that particular scenario is repeatable for everyone and/or was not really specific to that situation. Having said that, I feel for you but as discussed above, HSBC route would then be a better options than both Wise and Starling. It does require to open an HSBC UK account and then two more products (Currency Account and Global Money Account), but all is free to have and run. 

wmb194

Band7 said:

I have used Fineco regularly for a long time as they have the keenest bottom line exchange rates. However, I will no longer be using them after a terrible experience with a payment that had gone missing. Their rates are not good enough for me to risk a similar experience again and I would recommend people use Wise for EUR to GBP transfers if deposit protection is not an issue, or Starling if they want deposit protection.

What would you say the error rate is? From what you've written before it sounded like you have been using Fineco a lot these past few years.

Band7

Marchitiello said:

Band7 said:

I have used Fineco regularly for a long time as they have the keenest bottom line exchange rates. However, I will no longer be using them after a terrible experience with a payment that had gone missing. Their rates are not good enough for me to risk a similar experience again and I would recommend people use Wise for EUR to GBP transfers if deposit protection is not an issue, or Starling if they want deposit protection.

We all may despise a specific financial institution for something that goes wrong to ourself but it does not means that that particular scenario is repeatable for everyone and/or was not really specific to that situation. Having said that, I feel for you but as discussed above, HSBC route would then be a better options than both Wise and Starling. It does require to open an HSBC UK account and then two more products (Currency Account and Global Money Account), but all is free to have and run. 

Not sure what makes you conclude I might despise any financial institution. I have reported in detail in the linked thread what happened and why I will no longer recommend Fineco for Euro to GBP transfers. I will also not use HSBC when I have much simpler alternatives, as much as you might try to discourage the use of such alternatives.

wmb194 said:

Band7 said:

I have used Fineco regularly for a long time as they have the keenest bottom line exchange rates. However, I will no longer be using them after a terrible experience with a payment that had gone missing. Their rates are not good enough for me to risk a similar experience again and I would recommend people use Wise for EUR to GBP transfers if deposit protection is not an issue, or Starling if they want deposit protection.

What would you say the error rate is? From what you've written before it sounded like you have been using Fineco a lot these past few years.

You are right that I had a lot more successful transfers frim Fineco to Santander before the most recent abject failure. The inordinate amount of time I had to spend with 2 organisations, neither of whom ever accepted any responsibility whatsoever, have made me conclude to never use Fineco again as I cannot be sure whether and when how much of my money will arrive in my destination current account. 

Marchitiello

@Band7 I do not try to discourage Wise, but in the context discussed of getting the best net exchanged amount is simply not the best option. HSBC route is very simple, once the money hit HSBC it is all internal transfers, probably one small additional step than your Wise route.  As I said before I do use wise for business transaction as there are not better alternatives for Business users as there are for Personal ones. If I am not in a hurry, I would also still use and recommend Fineco as I never have experienced the issues you are reporting no have I ever had issues with their customer services (especially as I read it that the issue was indeed caused by Santander “rejecting” the payment but you decided to blame unilaterally Fineco.

BTW before the time of fintech solution to international payments, I had similar scenarios with the UK high street banks Barclays and NatWest rejecting payments from the EU (before the Euro) and it was also complicated to gather what had happened for days, as the sending bank had positive transaction messages and the receiving banks insisted that they never received the money. I eventually got my money back and after a while evidence from the sending bank that the receiving bank had in fact put the money in an hold account… they also decided to return the money net fo their fees and exchange % which after many complaint, I managed to get refunded directly into my UK accounts.. it was the UK bank that caused the issue and did not own it for many weeks..

Band7

You might find HSBC very simple - I don't, because I just want to make one transaction and be done with it. As and if HSBC will accept Euro deposits into the Global Money account (which I have held ever since they launched it), I might revisit though my overall experience with HSBC over nearly a decade isn't exactly positive. The only reason I would consider HSBC is FSCS cover but otherwise nothing can tempt me away from Wise which is beautifully simple and fast.

You might continue recommending Fineco in an "I'm alright Jack" manner but I will now warn people based on my experience. 

I am also not blaming Fineco unilaterally, as you accuse me of doing. I have been quite clear that I was also unimpressed  and annoyed with Santander. The point is, whether you understand it or not, that if you send money from Fineco to any UK bank, it always takes longer than with any other method I know, and worst case, your money vanishes for days on end, with nobody knowing where it is, and to add insult to injury, you might get charged for it unless you spend an inordinate amount of time complaining about it. The small difference in exchange rate is not a large enough incentive for me to ever consider or recommend Fineco again. End of story.