Foreign Exchange for Property Purchase Abroad

Leodogger

Is it better to go directly to a Currency Exchange House, or go through a specialist Company who arranges large currency transfers for you, e.g. Smart Currency or A Place in the Sun?    We are selling our property in the UK and will be buying a house in Spain but need to know which currency exchange places offer the best service and exchange rate, also I believe some charge commissions too, any suggestions for the best route to take ?

chanz4

get a santander account

eddddy

Before going ahead, you should probably ask your Spanish legal rep what's acceptable/best from an 'Anti Money Laundering' perspective.

Will you be transferring the money to your own Spanish bank account, or to the lawyers escrow account?


For example,

• your Spanish lawyer might say the money must come from an account in the name of "Leodogger" in a transfer with the reference "DOG/01"

• But if you use "ABC currency transfers ltd", and your transaction ref is "ABC99". The money will arrive from an account in the name of "ABC Currency", probably with the reference "ABC99".

But maybe that will be acceptable, if you can provide paperwork to prove the money is really from you. Check with your lawyer.



But even if it's going via your Spanish bank account, maybe still check with your lawyer what kind of a paper trail they need to see for AML checking.

Again, if you use a currency transfer service, your UK bank statement will show a transfer to "ABC Currency" and your Spanish bank statement will show a transfer from "ABC Currency" (or maybe the name of a local partner company).

If you transfer direct from your UK bank to Spanish bank, there won't be that added complication. (You should just see transfers from Leodogger's UK account number to Leodogger's Spanish account number.)

Leodogger

eddddy said:

Before going ahead, you should probably ask your Spanish legal rep what's acceptable/best from an 'Anti Money Laundering' perspective.

Will you be transferring the money to your own Spanish bank account, or to the lawyers escrow account?


For example,

• your Spanish lawyer might say the money must come from an account in the name of "Leodogger" in a transfer with the reference "DOG/01"

• But if you use "ABC currency transfers ltd", and your transaction ref is "ABC99". The money will arrive from an account in the name of "ABC Currency", probably with the reference "ABC99".

But maybe that will be acceptable, if you can provide paperwork to prove the money is really from you. Check with your lawyer.



But even if it's going via your Spanish bank account, maybe still check with your lawyer what kind of a paper trail they need to see for AML checking.

Again, if you use a currency transfer service, your UK bank statement will show a transfer to "ABC Currency" and your Spanish bank statement will show a transfer from "ABC Currency" (or maybe the name of a local partner company).

If you transfer direct from your UK bank to Spanish bank, there won't be that added complication. (You should just see transfers from Leodogger's UK account number to Leodogger's Spanish account number.)

The money will be going from my UK bank account to the Spanish Lawyer's Escrow Account who will be handling the purchase of the property we buy.   I just need to know which currency house/company I need to use to convert the currency.    I did an Equity Release on our property for my daughter in Spain to buy a village house and in that situation I transferred the sum to her UK bank account and she transferred it via Wise I believe but that was for about a third the size of the sum we will be transferring and I want to ensure that we get the best possible exchange rate.

Leodogger

chanz4 said:

get a santander account

We already have a Santander account but only a current account in the UK.

Schwarzwald

Leodogger said:

eddddy said:

Before going ahead, you should probably ask your Spanish legal rep what's acceptable/best from an 'Anti Money Laundering' perspective.

Will you be transferring the money to your own Spanish bank account, or to the lawyers escrow account?


For example,

• your Spanish lawyer might say the money must come from an account in the name of "Leodogger" in a transfer with the reference "DOG/01"

• But if you use "ABC currency transfers ltd", and your transaction ref is "ABC99". The money will arrive from an account in the name of "ABC Currency", probably with the reference "ABC99".

But maybe that will be acceptable, if you can provide paperwork to prove the money is really from you. Check with your lawyer.



But even if it's going via your Spanish bank account, maybe still check with your lawyer what kind of a paper trail they need to see for AML checking.

Again, if you use a currency transfer service, your UK bank statement will show a transfer to "ABC Currency" and your Spanish bank statement will show a transfer from "ABC Currency" (or maybe the name of a local partner company).

If you transfer direct from your UK bank to Spanish bank, there won't be that added complication. (You should just see transfers from Leodogger's UK account number to Leodogger's Spanish account number.)

The money will be going from my UK bank account to the Spanish Lawyer's Escrow Account who will be handling the purchase of the property we buy

1- so you have a EUR account with your UK bank? if not, they wont be able to receive EUR into GBP acocunts.

2- i just looked up the Smart Currency website. they only display live interbank rates but dont give you the effective rates. ideally you want to be as close to interbank as possible, the spread is ultimately the money your exchange house it making. compare the effetive rates (fx rate plus commission) across a number of providers. This is a v lucrative business for any bank but also platfrom like Smart Currency so dont be surprised if they screw you over as many people dont understand FX well ....

Leodogger

Schwarzwald said:

Leodogger said:

eddddy said:

Before going ahead, you should probably ask your Spanish legal rep what's acceptable/best from an 'Anti Money Laundering' perspective.

Will you be transferring the money to your own Spanish bank account, or to the lawyers escrow account?


For example,

• your Spanish lawyer might say the money must come from an account in the name of "Leodogger" in a transfer with the reference "DOG/01"

• But if you use "ABC currency transfers ltd", and your transaction ref is "ABC99". The money will arrive from an account in the name of "ABC Currency", probably with the reference "ABC99".

But maybe that will be acceptable, if you can provide paperwork to prove the money is really from you. Check with your lawyer.



But even if it's going via your Spanish bank account, maybe still check with your lawyer what kind of a paper trail they need to see for AML checking.

Again, if you use a currency transfer service, your UK bank statement will show a transfer to "ABC Currency" and your Spanish bank statement will show a transfer from "ABC Currency" (or maybe the name of a local partner company).

If you transfer direct from your UK bank to Spanish bank, there won't be that added complication. (You should just see transfers from Leodogger's UK account number to Leodogger's Spanish account number.)

The money will be going from my UK bank account to the Spanish Lawyer's Escrow Account who will be handling the purchase of the property we buy

1- so you have a EUR account with your UK bank? if not, they wont be able to receive EUR into GBP acocunts.

2- i just looked up the Smart Currency website. they only display live interbank rates but dont give you the effective rates. ideally you want to be as close to interbank as possible, the spread is ultimately the money your exchange house it making. compare the effetive rates (fx rate plus commission) across a number of providers. This is a v lucrative business for any bank but also platfrom like Smart Currency so dont be surprised if they screw you over as many people dont understand FX well ....

Which is obviously why I was asking for advice.   As I said my daughter used Wise to exchange her Uk bank currency to Euros which then went to her Spanish Lawyer's Escrow account but I just wondered if there were better exchange companies around that would act as our exchange currency provider.