Euro (€) Currency Thread

Crabman

eldreda wrote: »

Hi,
I've booked a holiday online and need to send approx 3000 euros to Germany. It will be very expensive to do a bank transfer through my bank, as i'll be stung on the exchange rate and arrangement fees.
Does anyone know the most cost effective way of sending this amount? Someone has recommended using an online company such as moneycorp.com- is this the best option? Their exchange rate seems good, but will there be other charges?
Thanks

There's an article on the main site: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/overseas-money-transfers

Are you paying for the holiday this way? If so, it'd be safer to use one of the best-buy credit cards (with balance paid off in full) as you'd then benefit from protection under the consumer credit act, details here.

Nytehawk

El_Presidente wrote: »

Just tried Thomas Global Exchange on-line for my Euros. Two things happened that cheesed me off no end:-

First the very good looking 1.25 exchange rate was spoiled by the addition of what seems like a mandatory £5.00 INSURANCE charge on the transaction.

Then when I wanted to see the final bill, including delivery, the web page simply said "Thank you for your order - one of our representatives will contact you shortly". No payment details have been entered...

Where on earth does that leave me? I know I haven't committed to the transaction, but how long do I wait? I travel in one week.

I'm tempted to move to the next cheapest on my list (CurrencyExpress.com).

Anyone dealt with TGE before and got the Insurance taken off fees?

Many thanks in advance. El_Presidente.

Decision should IMO be simple, read posts that offer good experiences as the final bill should include any charges otherwise the 1.25 you have been quoted means diddlysquat. Only one post above you I have suggested a good deal, I do not gain if you use the same exchange company but my past regular experience of Crown currency is justification that it does whatvit says on the tin

JamesSE22

Hi there.
I am wanting to change some cash Euros into sterling and was wondering if you could advise me of the best rates out there.
I have 1120 Euros.
I hold a Natwest Gold account which doesn't charge me commission on exchanges but their buy-back rate is not that great.
Neither is the Post Office (there's £7 difference with Natwest).
There's a place called the Kensington Exchange Bureau which offers a better deal (£868).
And there's a website called wisemoney.co.uk which would offer me £917.
I have never heard of wisemoney and am a little dubious about using this type of service.
Especially after having seen their, shall we say "unmodernised", website.
They would require you to send your cash Euros to them via special delivery and issue you with a cheque by return (again SD).
Whilst I am greedy and want to get almost £100 more than my bank would offer me to buy back my Euros, I don't want to get stitched up and end up in some BBC Watchdog type scam where I lose the lot.
I have just been made redundant and rather need this money for my bills.

Advice or help anyone??

Thanks,

J

benjus

JamesSE22 wrote: »

Hi there.
I am wanting to change some cash Euros into sterling and was wondering if you could advise me of the best rates out there.
I have 1120 Euros.
I hold a Natwest Gold account which doesn't charge me commission on exchanges but their buy-back rate is not that great.
Neither is the Post Office (there's £7 difference with Natwest).
There's a place called the Kensington Exchange Bureau which offers a better deal (£868).
And there's a website called wisemoney.co.uk which would offer me £917.
I have never heard of wisemoney and am a little dubious about using this type of service.
Especially after having seen their, shall we say "unmodernised", website.
They would require you to send your cash Euros to them via special delivery and issue you with a cheque by return (again SD).
Whilst I am greedy and want to get almost £100 more than my bank would offer me to buy back my Euros, I don't want to get stitched up and end up in some BBC Watchdog type scam where I lose the lot.
I have just been made redundant and rather need this money for my bills.

Advice or help anyone??

Thanks,

J

£917 is higher than the current mid-market rate (€1120=£880). If this is genuine, the owner is going to go out of business pretty quickly. The apparent owner of wisemoney seems to be promoting himself as some sort of "Web Guru" (http://www.simondye.com/) - judge for yourself on the quality of his websites. Personally I'd avoid like the plague.

The quote from the Kensington place doesn't sound bad.

JamesSE22

Dear Benjus,

thanks for your reply.
I used to work, many years ago, in web marketing and know exactly who Simon Dye is.
I can't believe I missed that one!!
His real expertise is in SEO and he's an absolute wide boy.
Good at SEO, but as you say, don't touch anything else he's got a finger in as it's probably not what it seems.
He was once the subject of a documentary on BBC2....
Anyway, I'll go with The Kensington Bureau.
They have an actual branch office which I can physically go into and do the deal.

Thank you again for taking the time to reply.

All the best,

J

JamesSE22

once again, many thanks!!

alanf1314

Is that Nationwide exchange rate generally quite good? I have just taken out a flex account for travelling Europe for a month.

Crabman

alanf1314 wrote: »

Is that Nationwide exchange rate generally quite good? I have just taken out a flex account for travelling Europe for a month.

It's generally better than that available at a bureau de change. Check out the current VISA exchange rate compared with the Travel Money Maximiser.

If it's not too late, using one of the best-buy credit cards (see article) gives you Section 75 protection on purchases abroad.

TinaH_3

My pensioner mum enquired about ordering some euros from her post office yesterday and was quoted an exchange rate of 1.09! Given that the tourist rate on the day was 1.19 it seems that the post office is hiding behind its "no fee" claims and instead ripping off its elderly and most vulnerable customers by major undercutting of the "true" rates. Better do as I did and warn your old folks to shop around and not rely on their nice friendly postmaster/mistress to give them the best deal.

DGJsaver

hopefully the right thread !

should i buy euro travellers cheques (no commison) or sterling travellers cheques (commison) in the UK to change IN turkey ?

Or does it make no difference ?

Any advice welcome !

Dan