TRANSFERRING EUROS back to UK.

Hi Everyone, I have a buyer for my Apartment and should Complete in early August. I then wish to trasfer my Euro funds back to the UK. My lawyer has offered me their facility via their Bank with a 0.1% fee to them ( I guess ), but I have no idea then what the Bank charges and the Exchange Rate might be after their 'manipulation'!. Alternatively, I can have a 'Cheque' and then pay it into my Spanish Bank and ask them to do the Transfer. And finally, I could choose one of the Fx Companies and get them to do it.

Obviously, I want as much back in £'s as possible, so which option do you think is best for me to pursue further? If you have any recent experience of this, please let me know.

Cheers, Richard

Get them to pay the money in to your Spanish bank account... and then use Moneycorp or the likes to transfer the euro's to sterling..and they will transfer it to your UK bank account ...you will have to inform you UK bank prior to the transaction .

RGR, You do not say where your buyers funds are coming from. Not starting off in pounds by any chance ?

Yes, it is Euros from a German person living in Spain and buying my Apartment as a second home. So, yes, I think that I will get the money into my Spanish Bank and then transfer via the best offer on the day. If Brexit goes even further up the creek, I will gain of course - a selfish attitude, but I am losing heavily anyway having bought in 2008!!

Thanks for your comments and help. Richard

Transferwise are competitive when transferring sterling to Euros, so I see no reason why they won't be the same going the other way. They charge a very small % fee but the rates given are mid rate. Definitely worth looking at.

Hi Richard, when you say 0.1% fee, that's coming out at 100 fee in 100,000 sale, which sounds pretty acceptable for handling that if there is a guarantee from them the money is not going to be lost or misplaced etc. and avoids any laundering accusations.  

We have always used world first for money transactions and had really good rates.   I was wondering if you can instruct your solicitor to transfer to your English account through world first (for example), and you can have control over the transfer rates and fees?  

I have always when sold got a bankers draft from the buyer, in Euro's of course, paid this into my Spanish bank account, got the exchange rate on that day, then went back in a couple of days later to check the rate, there is a time when to do this, say after 11pm your bank should inform you the best time when rates are either up or down, it's a gamble on the rate exchange perhaps but it has worked for me every time, the last time I got just short of 800€ extra by doing this checking over 5/6 days, haven't lost yet and like I said it has worked for me, perhaps this gamble is not for everyone though.

when we moved back to england in 2014 we had money in our spanish bank from an

apartment we had sold in 2012. we transferred all of our money back to england through

smart currency,they were great and gave us a good rate.

closed all of our spanish bank accounts at the same time

Very important - check with your Spanish bank first how much they are going to charge you to deposit a banker's cheque. This often comes as a nasty unexpected shock to people. It cold be as much as 0.5% of the value of the deposit. They will then likely want to charge you again to transfer the funds out to a currency exchange company offering a better rate than they can. Be careful!

Currencies Direct have a way around this, whereby you pay the cheque directly into their client account without charge (at La Caixa I think) and then your funds are converted to sterling and transferred to your UK account  -avoiding your Spanish bank (and lawyer - I would definitely avoid that option) altogether. I haven't used them, though, so cannot vouch for them. I have used CurrencyFair, who have a very easy to use online platform where you can choose when you want to convert the currency, and even have a little gamble using their Marketplace feature, where your funds are matched with those of others wanting to convert sterling to euros, and you get to select at what rate you'll agree to exchange. 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and ideas. I will decide after talking to my banks and Lawyer. Cheers, Richard.

we transfered money back home65,ooo.

anything under 50,000 there is no charge from your spanish back,but make your bank here aware of a transfer,we were not charged this side either,only what the rate was at that time of transfer,you do not really need a company to do it for you

Whether or not your Spanish bank will charge (to deposit a cheque, and / or to transfer money out) depends entirely on which bank and what account you hold, so CHECK first. 

Specialist transfer companies will almost always offer a better rate than you can get from any bank; whether or not the difference is significant enough to bother, only the individual can decide.

Yep, fair do's. I will be phoning around tomorrow to check rates etc. Many thanks Roberto. Richard