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I'm assuming most bank skim on exchange rates ? Any recommendations for transferring £100k to a Euro country for a boat purchase?
Cheapest way of transferring funds abroad?
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Clancy Moped
Well-known member
Look at Wise.
westernman
Well-known member
And starling bank. You can set it up with both Euro and Pound accounts and transfer readily between them.
The rates seem OK and competitive.
From Starling Euro account you can directly wire to a European Euro account with no charge.
julians
Well-known member
revolut - foreign exchange is done at the interbank rate (assuming you buy the currency on a weekday - there are additional fees if you buy foreign currency at the weekend). The transfer itself is also free. There is a one off yearly fee of around 60 quid for the account itself.
[165042]
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Thanks. I think I have a Wise account - it was called TransferWise before?
DavidJ
Well-known member
I use Revolut and also have a Starling card. You can go for the Revolut “free account“ option which incur a charge of 0.4% last time I looked. Again last time I looked Starling were 0.5%.
Be careful not to use these debit cards for pay at pump fuel stations. They test that your account has enough money in by taking the max fuel allowance out before you fill. You then get charged for the fuel you use on top of that. It took me a month and 4 phone calls to get back my test money from Starling.
Not so much Starlings fault more that L’eclerc didn’t automatically hand the test money back.
I‘ve also heard that pre booking hotels can give the same problems…..and French road tolls.
Starling are FSA regulated. Now called the FCA I believe, even FSCA ????
Not sure about Revolut, I quote
As Revolut has a Lithuanian banking licence and is therefore regulated by the Lithuanian central bank
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julians
Well-known member
yes the free revolut account has a percentage fee for the transfer (still often cheaper than your average high street bank for transferring smaller amounts), but for larger amounts it makes sense to pay the yearly fee. I used revolut (under the paid for account) to transfer euros when we bought our boat a couple of years ago. I've kept the account running (and paying the yearly fee) as it works out pretty competitively for all the other things you typically need to pay for abroad on an on going basis.
I rarely use the card for anything, as I have fee free & competetive fx rate credit card for purchases abroad - would have used this to buy the boat but didnt have a high enough credit limit!
DavidJ
Well-known member
You have made me think
£60 fee seemed a lot
I reckon I transfer about £10k to euros each year
0.4% sounds small but its £40 a year so I’m still a few quid in, so £15k transfer is the break even.
I think my Barclaycard charges about 3%
It’s a shame for the OP that the pound has taken a dive.
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tico
Well-known member
I used Wise (Transferwise) to handle the payment of our boat when buying from Holland.
Very simple and got a good rate - it's prudent to pick your moment when rates are fluctuating.
Very happy with the way it went.
Very simple and got a good rate - it's prudent to pick your moment when rates are fluctuating.
Very happy with the way it went.
[165042]
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I don't have to pay just yet so hoping the £ recovers a little!
KevinV
Well-known member
I've used IFX before, great company, saved me E25k on £250k compared to the bank.
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westernman
Well-known member
Wow!
What bank was that (to be added to the avoid list)?
Clancy Moped
Well-known member
Yes.
KevinV
Well-known member
That was Natwest (personal banking, so very much worst case scenario), around the time Mrs May was having a spot of bother so things were all over the place. We agreed a minimum rate for them to achieve, with 4 weeks in which to achieve it. All done on the phone apart from the transfer to them by bacs.
Edit - just double-checked, that didn't seem right - it wasn't £200k but £250k, the saving WAS E25k, original post edited accordingly
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dunedin
Well-known member
For clarity the Financial Services authority (FSA) was wound up in 2013 so does not regulate Starling.
The FSA was replaced by two bodies, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) - more jobs for the Eaton boys? For mere customers it is the FCA that is of most relevance.
Both Starling and Revolut are, I believe, regulated by the FCA in the UK. But you need to read the small print as to what services are actually included. Both are regulated for foreign exchange, I believe.
However, importantly Starling also seems to be licensed in terms of holding funds, and is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85k balances (at least my Starling Euro account does, which is why keep Euros there not in Revolut, though use Revolut for FX and debit card transactions).
Personally for a 100k Euro conversion I would compare rates of Wise, Starling & Revolut then decide. We did a dealer trade with IFX I think - one of the scary “you have 15 seconds to decide whether to accept or decline”.
When we bought in Europe we bought half the Euros early on, so we could complete without to much FX risk, then bought the rest later after passing survey and concluding contract terms. Fortunately pre B stuff rates were much better when we bought.
Martxer
Active member
Have used hifx in the past better than the banks, depends on how much you transfer as to the rate you get
simon
Member
I recently used Wise to pay 250,000 euros. I set up the transfer, sent the money and they then held it for 3 days whilst they did a security check to see where the funds came from. I asked for the money to be returned and they refused. The money was eventually transferred, but it was worrying at the time.
I have another payment to make and they are telling me that they cannot pre authorise the payment and the same may well happen again. This makes it difficult if the money has to arrive at a set time.
I have another payment to make and they are telling me that they cannot pre authorise the payment and the same may well happen again. This makes it difficult if the money has to arrive at a set time.
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That's worrying - did you get the exchange rate as agreed?
simon
Member
Yes the rates were held. They just said that they had to prove source of funds. Ive spoken to them again this week and they have said that they will not pre approve and will only check once the money is deposited.. This time I am going to deposit in my Euro account (wise still) so that any pre approval will have taken place then and hopefully the money can be transferred at the time I choose.
scottie
Well-known member
Will some wonderful gentleman with funny spelling not transfer it via there own account Foc
