The best way to transfer money to Spain (Seriously)!

Hey,

Just to say thanks to Karunsun for the western union advice. You just go one of like a million places and they send it and arrives at wherever you tell it to in minutes, then you just go with passport and pick it up. Good times. They charge 14 quid, 13 less than natwest for the same service. Well, having said that, im going to pick it up after classes today so I hope thats how it works, the web site says so but as we all know . . .web sites lie!

What about a sterling account with spanish bank???

I have found this very useful and the exchange rates when transfered online are excellent.

Thank you Edna

I'll post the link for you. Individuals call 0800 953 0221. They have a call back service too.

http://www.xchangebusiness.co.uk/

Hi everbody.  I'm new on here and this is post 1.

We have owned our finca near Yunquera for 3 years and looked at lots of different ways to make transfers.  We have a friend who has several properties near us so he gave us a few pointers.

When we looked at the banks, their commercial rates were reasonable, but really not too far away from the tourist rates.  However, most crucially they were fixed, and not negotiable.  After many other routes we finally got a privately owned local FX company who were, and are, really friendly.  The way we get the best deals is the fact that we get on really well with our trader.  If we are in no hurry to make a transfer, or we plan ahead, she will wait and tag our transfer on to a bigger deal (generally over 2 million euro), where she can negotiate far higher rates than she can get for my £10k or so.  We then benefit from the higher rate.  You do need to plan ahead, but in most cases it is only a matter of one or two weeks or so.

If you have a good FX company and a good relationship with your trader, could be worth a try, there's big savings to be made.  Sometimes the smaller companies can be a bit more flexible.

Regards

Ray

Hi Ray, welcome.

Those needing euros should be planning well ahead anyway.  We hear on forums so many saying the rate WAS such & such so many months ago yet they never arranged to purchase at that time in advance. You can lose such a lot. Thanks for your input.

Hi More-unfortunately not everyone has the funds to plan ahead,ie if you have only just sold your house in the UK to purchase here and the rate is bad at the time then unfortunately you have to go with the rate at the time or wait as long as you can.

The rate at the moment is particulary bad,after reaching an all time low it is steadily on the climb again,great if you are transfering from euros to pounds but visa versa.

This again has been brought on by our American cousins and Northern Rock etc...etc...

If i remeber rightly Gordon Brown onced mentioned that if the Euro ever stabilised at around 1.34 he would call a referendum on Britain taking the Euro......

It would be interesting to see how people feel about that??!

Georgia

Hi Georgia

My point was really relating to those who could plan ahead but (seemingly) haven't.  Obviously, if people need to sell up in the UK before funding their Spanish purchase, I appreciate what you're saying, of course I do.  Many take a mortgage or pay cash & are non residents, keeping their property in the UK too.

Many just don't seem to know what to do regarding buying thousands of euros. They go to their usual bank, wrong choice ! I've just had quite a lengthy conversation with a friend who is in the process of buying off-plan, who took the view that how can the likes of Currencies Direct give him that rate when his own bank can't & it's only after he's registered & spoken with Currencies Direct that he is feeling more confident about using this (alien to him, previously) currency bank. Now he's making comments such as "if I'd only used CD instead of sending xxx € through HSBC, I'd have saved myself  ***€  !!! "

There are many members on EOS who can, & do, offer help & hopefully, people will take note. You can arrange to "forward buy" by lodging a deposit anyway so maybe that's worth noting. I think people must contact a few currency banks & register with each then discuss how to proceed with consideration to their personal circumstances. Don't leave everything to a couple of weeks before you need to send over that first massive stage payment, in the case of off-plan buying. Easiest way of getting funds from your bank to CD for instance is to set up a Direct Debit & CD ask you to allow three weeks for that to be set up.

Hi More

just playing devils advocate....................

you are dead on for pointing this out though,just remember people that for every point you drop you lose 1,000 in every 100,000 transaction,so in essence if you trade at 1.35 instead of 1.40 on 100,000 you lose 5,000.

I never use the banks,they give what we call tourist rate,the currency dealers give business or commercial rate,its a no brainer really.

There can be as much as 4 points different between the banks and the currecy transfer specialists,thats 4,000 guys....

Once you have set up your account you can transfer to dollars,yen...whatever.its handy when goig on holiday as again you get the best rates avaiable..

Tired today after a weekend of playing Mum and Dad!!!!!!!

Try this- v good rates and no dealer commission.

http://www.4xcc.com/index.shtm

fed up with Halifax bank transfer!

Hope this is a good thread - so much to read.  We moved here in December and opened a Halifax account because of the free transfers from Hfx UK.  So far all we have had to do is go into a Hfx bank and they sorted it out no probs. Went to the  marbella bank a couple of weeks ago needing money that day to pay for the latest disaster here and they said that from 4 Feb we had to phone the UK to arrange the transfer.   we then went home and phoned Hfx who asked for our security info.  Well we had never set this up as we didn't know aything about it and thats what we wanted to do as per Marbellas instructions.  (they had an e-mail from UK which they passed to us).  After getting absolutely nowhere with the call centre we hung up and trotted off to Guadalmina branch.  They sorted it for us - brilliant but by the time we got set up and having to ring Uk each time its hardly a free servcie anymore!  So fed up. think I'll go back!

anyone with any further info on this?  I've still to get round to making a complaint but thats just another hassle!!!  They now want to know why I want the dosh - whats it got to do with them!!!

I always use WorldFirst. Excellent service and rates,

http://www.worldfirst.com/?ID=292

Simon