Money Transfer

[MarieK]

I am selling my old boat to a chap in Southern Ireland, he is paying me in Euro and I am now trying to figure out the best way for me to get the funds into sterling without the bank taking a big slice. Has anyone done this before and can advise me?

Thanks
Ryan

 

[RobWales]

Tell him you want it in sterling, I had a similar prob a few years ago when I sold a 20ft trailer boat to Ireland.
I insisted he pays in sterling so he did.
Good luck

 

[MarieK]

Already agreed to deal in Euro - I am getting the sterling equivalent and I considered bank charges when agreeing a price, still would like to do it in an efficient manner.

 

[Moonshiners]

Normally you would get him to pay in Sterling by BACS.

I presume you have a euro account to receive the funds?

What we do is use a company called AFEX or Travelex when we send funds, we wire the money in Sterling and they will then forward the Euro/USD etc.. to the receiver, they're just like the travel-exchange agents you get in airports except they are the middle man for the bank transfer, but get much better rates than high street banks etc...

No reason why you can't send them the Euro and get them to send back to you in Sterling.

But for anything to work you must have a euro account to receive the funds in to! and then pass on to AFEX/Travel ex.



Only really worth while with large sums of money (thousand +) as you have to open an account (free but requires copies of ID etc... much like opening a bank account)

AFEX are essentially currency stock brokers, you send them one currency and they will sell you back another.

 

[MarieK]

I do have access to a Euro bank account but wont I get hit with bank fees when I try and withdraw that money in sterling?

 

[Moonshiners]

As above post, once the funds have cleared in Euro's to your Euro bank account. Contact Afex or Travel Ex and open an account. They will offer you daily rates of exchange (changes slightly hour to hour) if your happy with the rate, you BACS them your total Euro funds and request they BACS the converted sterling amount in to your Sterling/current account.

They basically take a slight commission on the rate, and pass it on.

It's just a commercial version of what you do when you go buy holliday money. The rates are usually a hell of alot better than standard bank rates as your dealing with the commercial rate - a few pips for their commision, i've seen them more than a whole 1% better off than high street %'s.

PM me if you want specific contact details of the agents.

We use both Afex and travel-ex for large commercial international payments, but I have also used them for large-ish private ones also on a seprate private account. there website usually shows current rates of exchange.

 

[gjgm]

if you calculated the charges anyway, why not just ask your bank to exchange it?
I'd do the sums, and decide whether its worth the trouble. What you dont want is to be exchanging notes;account balances should be simpler.

 

[alt]

I did this before when buying a boat in the UK.

Options are normally:
1) Get the buyer to make out a STERLING bank draft and verify it with the bank (This is the safest method for you) - I've done this twice and never been a problem

2) Get the buyer to make out a EURO bank draft and open a EURO account (This only suited the seller of another boat because he lived in Spain sometimes so said he'd just use the Euro account over there)

3) Get buyer to just do a money transfer to whatever you want in Sterling. The conversion will be done on his side and he will have to pay the banks euro equivilant. However the seller may not be happy with this as he's going to be paying before he see's - I certainly wouldn't do this (as a buyer)

 

[Nick_H]

Get the money transferred in euro to your euro account. Contact your bank and ask them if they have a money dealing service (not just a normal holiday money service). If they do you can ring them and tell them how much you want to change. They will then give you a spot rate, which you can accept on the phone (or reject if you don't like it). If you accept it they will give you a "deal number", and you then have two days to send them the euros, which is easy as it's already in your euro account. They record the phone calls to prove that you entered into a contract.

As others have said you can use an FX house, but the rates are not really any better, and you have to set up an account and go through the money laundering nonsense, so why bother.

 

[TigaWave]

Have a look at Paypal, we use the business option and save quite a bit on transfers to and from £ when compared to banks, cards and exchange services.

 

[Moonshiners]

Worth checking the rates as a comparrision but i've saved hundreds over the last few years using an FX Co. depends on the value i guess!

 

[KevB]

Whatever you choose hurry up cause currently the pound is on the up and my guess is that once it passes 1.15 it'll stay there.

 

[Tranona]

If you want the money in Sterling, why should you take the risk and charges, particularly as the £ is strengthening at the moment. The easiest, cheapest and most efficient way for a one off transfer is to use the bank transfer system. Agree the sterling amount you want and let the buyers bank do the work. You can get the money in 24 hours.

 

[Labhaoise]

A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush... i understand your buyer wishing to deal in euro and you agreeing so that you have a buyer.
Ask your bank for a commercial spot rate to exchange your euros to sterling. This is usually better than the normal rate offered at branch If happy with rate book it forward to the date you will have euro funds available to exchange. Remember sterling is getting stronger over the past 4 weeks against the euro so move quickly or you may end up with less STG than you expected for your new found euro wealth.

 

[jfm]

You say you have done the deal and agreed to take Euros, in which case ignore the Tranona line of advice which amounts to going back to your seller and reneging. There's nothing wrong with agreeing to take euros, it's just part of the deal, and anyway you are past that point. I sold my boat recently for euros, and here at work I often price my fees in dollars or euros, if the deal is overall ok for me

You need to get the best FX rate. you need to ask your bank for a proper commercial rate, not a walk in/holiday money rate. Most banks will be very competitive if the amount is chunky, and it then wont be worth the effort going to a money broker and opeing a new account with all the kyc hassle.

So if you have euro and ask the bank to convert to sterling, and they quote you 1.1300, how do you know if that's a good rate? You could shop around but there are two easy ways: one is to ask them outright how much different the 1.1300 is from the interbank spot rate, ie what is their margin. Unless it is 0.1-0.2%, you are not getting the best deal. Second way is to ask them not just for the rate at which they'll buy your Euros, but also what they will sell the same Euros to you for, ie the bid and the ask. That means you can see their spread. Agian, unless is is better than say 0.3% you are not getting a great deal.

The spreads/margins I mention here are for stable currencies. you get much wider spreads if you trade volatile currencies. also, the rates I'm quoting only apply to quite large transactions, say £100k + ish, depending on your bank's attitude.

You could also post the rate on here and let others compare witht heir dealing rates. That should flush out if the bank is misbehaving

And as others have said, hurry, cos sterling is generally appreciating vs the euro, imho

 

[MapisM]

[ QUOTE ]
sterling is generally appreciating vs the euro, imho

[/ QUOTE ]Mmmm.... I went long in GBP at .95, 'cause that was obviously unsustainable in my mind. And many analysts feared the parity at that time.
Now at .87, I'm rather thinking of going short. And most analysts now predict a further appreciation vs.Eur...
I'm not pretending to know better than anyone of course, but in this field tossing a coin is as good as trusting the analysts.

 

[jfm]

I dunno Mapis. I think this forum predicted that stlg would appreciate vs euro, a couple of months ago...? I'd stay long in £ a bit longer if I were you. € has some way to fall yet, imho, coin tossingly

 

[MapisM]

Well, a couple of months ago it was again near .95, after having strenghtened to .87 following the peak (almost .98, as I recall) of the end of 2008. So, yes, I'd have also predicted an appreciation two months ago - and I stayed long. But now?
It's not that the € hasn't way to fall, it's whether the £ has way to rise... I don't see any at the moment.
Coin tossingly also from my part, obviously!

 

[Nick_H]

I get the Reuters fx poll every month, which incorporates the views of 50 leading financial institutions. The spread of forecasts for 12 months is between something like £1 = €0.98, and £1 = €1.38. Don't quote me on the exact numbers, as it's a month or two since I looked at it, but the scale of the spread is about right, and just confirms that no-one knows.

You could say at 1.15 currently it's nearly mid way between, and the markets are supposed to represent the average view of all investers, so maybe it wont move so much.

 

[Dave_Snelson]

All good advice. You can check the mid-market rate every 30 seconds by logging on to www.xe.com. You are most unlikely to ever beat the mid-market rate but the closer you get, the better. My bank, Natwest, does money transfers at mid-market for me to send money to my account in france and for sums over £25k, they are pretty much there as well. Avoid tourist rates.