Transferring money from the UK to Ireland

seanny

I meant that I am the account holder for the sending bank and the account holder for the Irish account. 

danny13579

This is how your transfer would look if sending £250k from the UK to Ireland today using Wise.

Unfortunately the exchange rate isn't great at the moment for buying Euro.

You would transfer the money a Wise account, which is set up in your name and then they send it to your bank account in Ireland.

You may want to do it in smaller batches if you're a bit nervous about it. 

grumpy_codger

seanny said:

It seems that if the account the transfer is going to is in the same name as that of the UK bank account it's being transferred from that you get a higher rate of exchange.   That seems to be the case based on my contacting Lloyd's. 

seanny said:

I meant that I am the account holder for the sending bank and the account holder for the Irish account. 

This doesn't clarify anything in you previous post that made no sense.
Why on earth would the rate depend on the name of the payee?
https://www.lloydsbank.com/help-guidance/everyday-banking/payments-and-transfers/international-payments/how-to-make-a-payment.html

Exchange rates
You can use the online payment calculator to see our standard exchange rate, which may change depending on how much you send.
If you enter an amount without selecting a recipient or without entering a new recipient, we’ll only show you a payment illustration. 
If you select a recipient or enter a new recipient first, you can continue your payment with the exchange rate displayed.
We’ll show you the final payment details and exchange rate before you confirm your payment. 
Our standard exchange rate includes a margin, which you can see by using our margin calculator. The margin changes depending on how much you send.
The margin is the difference between our standard exchange rate and the wholesale rate at which we buy and sell currency in the foreign exchange markets. 

Compare to Wise above

grumpy_codger

grumpy_codger said:

Compare to Wise above

If Lloyds' rate remains the same for £250K, the difference will be £10.5K (!)

wmb194

Wise is now a big, profitable company and easy to research: LSE:WISE. You don't have to make your transfer all in one go but I'm comfortable with Wise. Its full year net profit to March 2025 was £416.7m and appears to be growing quickly.

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/WISE/wise-plc/company-page

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/WISE/results-for-the-financial-year-ended-31-march-2025/17070519

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/WISE/wise-plc-q1-fy26-trading-update/17138388

wmb194

grumpy_codger said:

grumpy_codger said:

Compare to Wise above

If Lloyds' rate remains the same for £250K, the difference will be £10.5K (!)

GBP/EUR 1.1079 is so bad: as I type spot is 1.1500.

danny13579

The actual exchange rate for £250k to euro at 1.15pm today is €287,755.90. Source: xe.com


 
If you were to use xe.com to transfer your £250k to euro, you would get €285,450.00 at 1.15pm today, after they take their fee.



Using Wise, you would get €287,036.20 at 1.15pm today after their fee is deducted. They give a discounted fee for large transactions such as yours.

Wise is your best bet and I would have no problems using them to transfer £250k, if I had such a sum!

The exchange rate for buying euro isn't great right now so you could hold off until you get a stronger pound and/or weaker euro if the cash isn't needed right now.

The €1.10 that Lloyds are offering is terrible, but not surprising. For such a high amount, you'd be out over €10k after the transfer. 

seanny

Wise have something called fdic insurance for customers who are eligible.  I'm not sure what eligibility is based on.

Can anyone explain this is in simple terms. 

wmb194

seanny said:

Wise have something called fdic insurance for customers who are eligible.  I'm not sure what eligibility is based on.

Can anyone explain this is in simple terms. 

FDIC is the US' equivalent of the FSCS deposit insurance. If it relates to anything it'll be its USD account but it looks like it's only for customers of Wise in the US:

https://wise.com/help/articles/5toCJQjm9MkTs8bEKSm30O/how-our-us-entity-wise-us-inc-protects-customer-funds