Money transfers

Hi

This might have been mentioned already but thought I would post it just in case.  

We, as I am sure has everybody else, have been sending money over constantly for bills, furniture, lighting etc and everytime my bank has charged me £25 to do this.  We opened a bank a/c with Barclays in the UK and Barclays in Mazarron and now send money over free and can even do this by direct debit each month to pay our mortgage.  Yesterday I arranged to pay online our furniture company and was charged 3 euros and the money arrived today, much better service than the UK who charge £16 for national transfer.

Possibly other banks may do the same, wish I had known this earlier and saved myself all those charges.

Allison

Halifax do the same.  English account here and Spanish account - free transfers, although you need to ring to do the transfer every month, no big deal really.

Hi Lindsay

Thought you were in Spain this week?

Wish someone had told me about free transfers, not even going to add up how much money I've wasted.

Allison

We also have the Halifax account, not too bad transfer rate a bit higher than ordinary tourist rates.

The best way i've found though is the Nationwide credit card where you get virtually the business rate of exchange and then assuming you pay it off you'll get about 30 days before you make your payment back in this country. Got 1.28 exchange rate a week and a half ago.

Hope this helps anyone

 

We've just been sent an invoice for 1 euro from PW Homestyle! Obviously an error when the credit card figures were input by the store assistant. The invoice asks us to pay by Bank Transfer however we think it will be cheaper to carry the euro over to Murcia with us in a weeks time!!!!!

 

Hi All

We also have a Halifax UK and Banko Halifax Spain accounts as they have some advantages like reduced operating charges compared to some other Spanish accounts especially if you have the Xtra account. Thay are also very easy to communicate with both in Spain and from the UK and you can access your account on the Net. However I don’t use the free transfer between Halifax UK & Spain as the exchange rate is poor I use Currencies Direct to do my regular monthly transfers I set up a Direct Debit with them and they transfer a set amount from my UK Account to my Spain account each month. I pay no charges and get a far better rate of exchange than Halifax gives. Other money company offer similar services. For withdrawing cash when in Spain or any other country for that matter use my Nationwide debit card in Visa ATM’s and get a very good exchange rate and no charges(but make sure when using atm’s in other country’s you don’t opt for the bank you are withdrawing the money from to do the conversion, always say no to this question if asked). And for credit card transactions I use my Nationwide credit card for the same reasons, but don’t use your credit card to withdrew cash.

Phil

Morning All - Phil, when transferring your monthly DD to BancoHalifax, do they charge you anything for receiving the money? I thought this was one of the pros for transferring from Halifax in this country to Spain, that is, that you get no receiving charges from the Spanish Halifax.

 

Hi June

No, when I setup the regular arraignment with Currencies direct they informed me I would have no admin, sending or receiving charges and non have shown on my accounts, I also phoned other companies to check what they offered and on the day non I phoned offered better terms or exchange rate, it was also on the day 3 cents in the pound better than Halifax would do for an internal transfer. The exchange rate is variable month on month in line with currencies fluctuations.

Phil

Thanks for that Phil - That's something worth knowing