Transfering money back to UK

Has anyone given a thought to the fact that IF the cheque or transfer does not reach the exchange service company, then the period at which the quote lasts will expire. Then you have to pay them the difference between what they bought the money in for and what they can sell it for at expiry time.

Or have I got this wrong and there is a service available for the single transfer requirement (sold property and just want the cash in the UK) that does not have the risk of foreign exchange "gambling"?

if you have sold the property and have the money sitting in your bank account can you not transfer the cash from your Spanish account to the currency dealers account in Spain - I am fairly certain the one I use has an account over here

once you have cleared funds your trade is booked via a telephone call, this is a legally binding contract thus within reason a delay will not mean that you either lose or gain anything

Ah, I must check what BBVA need to transfer money!!! As a matter of fact a couple of weeks ago my UK bank quoted 0.842 conversion when the exchange services e.g. HiFX were 0.89!!! The published rate was about 1.2 at the time. This is a nightmare - who's doing the money laudering?!

well if youre transferring Euros back to sterling the lower the rate the better - surely? Might be worth trying one of the smaller brokers - less overhead in these times of strife so prices can be keener - if its a small amount it wont make any difference but on a significant sum (if you have sold a property) then it can make a big difference - let me know if you want an intro - shop around and see where you get it best

Hi All ,

I used  www.worldwidecurrencies.com 

A guy called Mr John Redford e-mail john.redford@worldwidecurrencies.com

They were very helpfull and they will  set up the account basicaly for you

The Foreign Exchange Transaction was for Euro 200k and we " saved" so to speak 1.850.00 from the Banks quete

Maybe worth a call on 0044 203 326 444

Best regards

Smiley, thanks for your reply. I work it out that if I send back 20,000E  my bank would take £2800 and HiFX £2200 saving me 6 hundred quid. The lower rate euros to the pound, yes. It is now around 1.06 the lowest for ages. Only hope I can get it back soon.

Thanks, jored I will look at worldwidecurrencies.

My bank BBVA seem to be saying they charge about 30E for a 20,000E transfer, not the 600E someone else was charged!

Hi Rodger - I think what Smiley was trying to point out was that based on the rates you quoted, if you are changing euros back to gbp then the 0.842\£ rate the bank quoted you would be better than the 0.89\£ HiFX quoted you, as you'd obviously get more gbp back per euro.

I'm guessing this isn't what you meant in your earlier comment?

Guys (and gals) - All things being well hopefully soon I will need to transfer approx €70k of a refund from Bancaja in Spain back to England (to either Barclays or Halifax) in £ sterling.  I would welcome any suggestions on the best (i.e. to get the most £ sterling back to the UK) way of doing this.

Obviously with this sum of money, I appreciate any miniscule differences in the exchange rate will result in a sizeable difference in actual GBP returned to me and from my initially reading my presumption that bank -> bank transfer is not the way to go seems to be confirmed.

So I guess I'm looking at the likes of HiFX, Moneycorp etc for this (I already have a HiFX account from a previous transaction the opposite way)?

I've seen worldwidecurrencies also mentioned in this thread, which I will also look at.  A heads-up on any other companies to facilitate this or indeed any other advice on this that may save money\time would be much appreciated :o)

Currently my bank is quoting 0.8922 which for 20K gives me 17844GBP. Less charges either end. I did check with HiFX and they were quoting me some 0.25 better rate but I am in the UK so to get my bank (BBVA) to transfer (by FAX them my details) is all a bit manyana so I might be late delivering the funds to the exchange company. At the moment the rate looks good for Euros to pounds so I am staying with a normal bank transfer.

nicholb
 

It is worth speaknig to a coule of brokers. In my experience the rate can vafry quite  abit between them, although all should be better than you bank. I have used 2 or 3 in the past and the variation has been upto 0.75% between the best and worst. I currently use www.cornhillfx.com and have always found that tey give a strong rate and have always sent funds very quickly, but as ever i would always recommend doing your own research!!!

Good. So which one did you use?

Thanks tmdaniel.  I already did my (1st) transfer a week or so ago.  Will be doing another one soon.  Compared a few forex firms in the end by phoning all in the space of a few minutes for quotes (incl cornhill, moneycorp, HiFX) but on two separate phoning days Foreign Currency Direct and TorFX came out with the best rate to convert back to sterling and I ended up doing my trade with TorFX.  The funds were deposited back to the UK within a few days of my original phone call on the date advised and the service was very good so I will no doubt be using them again to do the other transfer.  HiFX was over a cent higher than TorFX (and indeed higher than any of the other forex firms) which in real terms meant I would've got back approx £500 less for my 1st €35.000 .

The banks were ludicrously lower (as I knew they would be) so not even worth going there.  Would've lost out on £3k if I'd have gone with any of mine.

 Hi All,

Well I think I have truly found the answer to shopping around for currency and I think im the first person to say this...( i hope ) 

My husband and I had a joint account with the usual hifx,  moneycorp and a colleague of his who bought a place in cyprus said he used a website called currencyfinder. They shop around for the best rates so you dont have to, now we got quotes from the other 2 mentioned and we saved another £821.89 to the penny by using this website. I know have a new wardrobe out of it ;-) and I dont mean the wooden kind i mean all that goes inside. anyway ramble ramble as we women sometimes do ......try it and I want to hear how you get on!!

xxx Diane xxx 

Hi,

I found currencyfinder last year when I moved to Spain, I queried them too on how can they compare because I thought it would be impossible? They actually do 'mystery shops' on fx companies which seem to saved me the time and effort. I used the shipping part aswell.

PeterGr

I am dubious about the currency finder webites, as if they do a mystery shop, when you call in they might well offer you a different rate to what they offer currency funder as they might well workout that this random person who keeps calling in never actually does anything!!! But if it saved you £800 the i supose it cant be that bad,

Look for Oanda and their FX Global Transfer product in particular.  If you have bank accounts in both countries i.e. UK and Spain then it is very easy to transfer the money on-line yourself, which will be done at the Spot rate.  They charge a flat fee of $25 for each transaction, no matter how big or small.  The price / spread used is the underlying market price / spread, rather than the one used by your bank, currency shop etc. So you are basically getting the exchange rate that your bank gets, before they add their own spread on top.

I've used them for the past year or so and they are great. And don't worry, I don't work for them!!