Can you transfer money .....

..... between UK Banks and Spanish Banks for free, via the Internet ?

I can do electronic tranfers from UK to UK bank for free, but was wondering if it is possible between UK and Spain?

Thanx

DD

Most banks will charge a fee for sending money abroad, although with SEPA transfers, it is all supposed to be cheaper now!! I think you will find a bank will charge about £15- £30 for the transfer, plus you may not get a very good exchange rate. There are many money transfer companies that will give you a better rate and charge less than the banks.

That said, Barclays will now transfer from UK to Spain and vice versa free of charge and apparently at trade rates!

Mark

Thanx for a quick reply Mark

I want to top up my Spanish account for paying bills (Electicity, Water, Comunidad etc)

I have accounts with NatWest, Nationwide, IF & Nortern Rock  in the UK, and my Spanish account is with Cajasur. I'll have to see if they will let me transfer funds for free.

Halifax UK to Banco Halifax are free. Rates are not as ace as they used to be but you asked which banks did it free.

If you want to make REGULAR transfers try Currencies Direct who don't charge for transfers for REGULAR TRANSFERS so might be worth looking into.

http://www.currenciesdirect.com/uk/foreign-exchange-individuals/regularpayments.aspx 

It says 'Low minimum amount. The minimum amounts can be as low as £150 for monthly international transfers and £400 for quarterly transfers.'

Does this help you, Dirty Dick ?

Hi Mark,

       Do you know if Barclay has a maintenance fee or any other fees for opening an account with them? If so, how much is the fee?

Thanks.

We have a Barclays Spain Solutions account which has a quarterly fee of €20 and no interest!! We don't pay for the debit card and we don't pay for cheques, but we do pay for bank transfers!! I think it is a minimum of €4 per transfer.

There is another account that has just been started that is fee free, but that is subject to you depositing €750 per month into the account. They won't pro- rata it for if you make a large deposit. It may work out okay if you are going to do a Barclays to Barclays transaction. Details of the free transfers can be found at this link.

Mark

Thanks Mark. I'll probably open a Barclay a/c when I go over as there is a branch in Quesada.

I was told that there is no fee for receiving money from moneycorp.

We do a regular monthly transfer via Currencies Direct. We simply have a standing order to pay them X amount of GBP each month. They then switch the money to Euros and pay it to their bank in Spain. This Spanish bank then transfers the euros to my account with La Caixa. Because my Bank gets the Euros from another Spanish Bank, there is no  "receiving" fee.

I'm guessing Moneycorp use a similar system, but I know that Currencies Direct give better exchange rates than Moneycorp. (CD have consistently been voted best Foreign Exchange Company in the Sunday Times annual poll)

The guy from CD explained to me how they make their money. They get commercial rates on the FX markets, and they give their clients 98% of that, so for example if the Market Rates (which we as Joe Public can't get) is 1.1225, CD will give you 1.10, and believe me 98% of Market rates plus no inbound or outbound fees is about the best  you're gonna get.....

In addition to our monthly transfers to pay the mortgage etc, if I'm going out to Spain for any length of time, I make a one-off payment to cover some of my spending money and get a far better rate than buying currency through Bureau de Change, UK Banks or Travel agents.

Hi

Check out the new online service from Hi Fx the foreign exchange people, I used it last week to transfer money,in order to pay a few bills.

You registar on line,you load all your payee details(as many as you like) you can make payments up tp £6000 at a time. The service is 'free' with no costs to send or receive, the payments are made by chaps so 1-3 days and its there. Hi fx must make there money out of the rate they give you, this is displayed as you enter a transaction and changes in line on screen in line with mid market prices.

Last week i got 1-08 on 1k when the mid market was 1-10, The other adavantage I found was that I could pay my lawyer directly without having to transfer from bank to bank then again on to lawyer, you pay online with a credit/debit card.

http://www.hifx.co.uk/personal/online_services/about_online_services.aspx

Steve

paid the last percentage of my property last week, mid price was 1.134ish, got 1.125, so that straight away was better than hifx, also the funds were in the lawyers account same day, they didnt charge me a thing and as usual were polite and courteous when spoke to them.  company called rationalfx, i would heartily reccommend them to anyone that needs anything to do with transferring money

due to business we have an agency for clients use with Moneycorp and I suppose that due to volume we get a bit more than a standard deal with Moneycorp that said I beleive it is all on the day in regards to the differential between the likes of HIFX, CURRENCIES DIRECT AND MONEYCORP.

Does irk me though when people use their own UK bank because "there are no charges" no just a poor rate!

Moneycorp now have an excellent top up online card.

rational have started doing that aswell and from what i have seen by browsing the other comps websites, their rate is better every day for the card. 

I think more and more of the exchange comanies are launching the card which is a great option, as you can load it up at a strong rate and spend without charges, i havent got one yet but i think i will go for one soon. Cna anyone recommend one company i particular?

 I used to use HiFX for my currency but their rate stared to get weaker, so i now use Cornhill FX, I get a fixed tight spread every time and always get to speak to the same person who knows wo i am

I always know where the rate is and on 3 seperate occasions when I tried Cornhill before registering they quoted me well above market.... So if you are saying that you get 50 pips off, I seriously doubt that, they will probably say they are buying at x rate but really buying at y rate... Not being libelious(or however you spell it) just saying what I have found not just with them but with some of the other companies too...

benan, im pretty sure i do get 50pips, i usually watch a live feed when i get a quote to make sure, sometimes it is a few pips up or down. In my experience it is always best to register with a few companies then compare on tradeable quotes, others wise, as you said you can be quoted anything!

I think if you are quite firm with the broker from the start they will give you an agreed spread. I've recommended some friends there and they have been pleased with the service. It might be that you spoke to a bad broker i guess??

I agree that HiFX seem to be expensive, i think smaller brokers will give you a better deal then the biggest ones

you must be one of the lucky ones! Saying that, I get the same spread from my broker and know that I always get it.  dont even bother calling any other company now as I am more than satisfied with the service I receive.

If you have online banking you can transfer money direct to Spain through an intermediary.  We use GCEN who are excellent and there are no fees for their service ... even better.  The transfer is done from your account to their and then on to the account in Spain ... easy peasy ... takes upto 5 working days in all for money to arrive