Sending money to my bank in France

[Pads]

My UK bank is offering to send any amount of money for 7.50 to my french bank trouble is I cant seem to comfirm with any one what rate of exchange this is at ( is it the current rate or do they take a bit off for them selves?) I understand that it changes all the time and I get the rate as it moves , But when do they do the exchange when I make the request or days later when the paper work is done in an office some where ?

Im currently trying to send 41K euros and i normally use a online broker ...but if this flat rate is all they take it seems silly not to take this option ....

What am I missing ?

[Rabbie]

[quote user="Pads"]My UK bank is offering to send any amount of money for 7.50 to my french bank trouble is I cant seem to comfirm with any one what rate of exchange this is at ( is it the current rate or do they take a bit off for them selves?) I understand that it changes all the time and I get the rate as it moves , But when do they do the exchange when I make the request or days later when the paper work is done in an office some where ? Im currently trying to send 41K euros and i normally use a online broker ...but if this flat rate is all they take it seems silly not to take this option .... What am I missing ?[/quote]It all depends on the exchange rates you get offered from both routes and any commission charged. Try asking your UK bank when the tranfer will take place and then do your sums.

[Pads]

This is my problem ... I asked at the bank and I was told it was a flat rate of £7.50 and I said yes but do you give me the true rate of exchange or do you take a commission ... they all cocked there heads to one side and acted as if they didnt know what I was talking about ....no matter how much I tried to explain they seemed to not under stand what taking a commision meant .... I asked to talk to the manager who only just seemed to understand and said there was no commission taken off ...I find this hard to believe that I can send 41K to france and only pay £7.50 when I have always been told to use brokers , who charge much more ....

[suein56]

[quote user="Pads"]I asked to talk to the manager who only just seemed to understand and said there was no commission taken off .... [/quote]

If you look on the £7.50 payment as their commission, then perhaps it might make sense. The difference between a broker and your bank is likely to be the exact value of the exchange rate you are offered. There can be quite a range between 2 companies, plus the day and date can be important factors too - depending on what is happening in the news. Monday morning is often a good time to transfer money as the slate is clean at the beginning of the week.

Sue

[mint]

Pads, ring an exchange company and your bank, or vice versa, more or less one straight after the other so that you have an idea as to what the exchange rate is.

You can always play one off against the other as well.  I have done that myself, but only between two exchange companies and not the bank.

I am with Nationwide and when Judith (Aude area) recounted her experience with Nationwide, I decided not to use them.

[Judith]

Hi Pads, Hi Sweet,

My name was mentioned so reporting for duty!

Any bank or currency firm should be able to tell you the rate they will use (though it may change depending on when they do the transfer, they should still be able to tell you ..... and if you don't like it... walk away.

As Sweet says, my experience with Nationwide was not good, not only could they not tell me the rate (it will depend when we send it, they said) they could not tell me when they would send it, and stupidly, I let them go ahead, (because I was actually in the UK and we needed the money in France), and then when the money was returned (because I had tried to send it to one of my accounts here in France (Now closed!), who would not accept it, when it came back to Nationwide they did not tell me until I chased that they had the money back.  I suppose I cannot blame them for the fact that I lost significantly on the transfer back to Nationwide, but I do blame them for not telling me it had come back ....

In common with others on this forum I am slowly removing the bulk of my banking from Nationwide, without actually closing the account ....

Phone your dealer and the bank, one after the other, ask each the same set of questions, and go with the ones who give you the answers you need.....  and the £7.50 may not be the commission charge, but what they charge you for actually transferring the money regardless of amount.  My "other" bank charges an amount (with Nationwide it is £25 regardless) but if you are sending less than 50K they they can do a SEPA (?) transfer which is much cheaper .... Nationwide don't use this service, as they "contract out" to another dealer to do it ... again worth checking if they do it themselves.

Sorry this is confused (it's late!), but may give you some pointers....

[Pads]

The problem is Although the Halifax are offering a transfer flat fee of 7.50 I cant get any one to understand they must also be charging a small amount of the exchange rate aswell and I want to know what it is .... but they look at me as if im stupid and have no Idea what Im talking about , so im going to give up ... I have a good brokerage online company I use and have agreed a 0.03 rate which im happy about so Halifax will miss out ... As for the nationwide , they were great for taking money out through the hole in the wall but bank to bank transfers were always expensive only did it once and they were useless ... oh well.....

[Judith]

Hi Pads,

It might be that Halifax (not being a real bank) do something similar to Nationwide, and use a broker, so they cannot tell you what the rate is - I was told by ntionwide that they did not know the rate and it would depend on when it was sent .... yes, I was stupid to send it with them.... but that's water under the bridge now.

Anyhow, since you've decided to go with the broker you do at least know the costs and the rate .....and what I've said really doesn't now matter.

[liz]

[quote user="Pads"]My UK bank is offering to send any amount of money for 7.50 to my french bank trouble is I cant seem to comfirm with any one what rate of exchange this is at ( is it the current rate or do they take a bit off for them selves?) I understand that it changes all the time and I get the rate as it moves , But when do they do the exchange when I make the request or days later when the paper work is done in an office some where ?

Im currently trying to send 41K euros and i normally use a online broker ...but if this flat rate is all they take it seems silly not to take this option ....

What am I missing ?[/quote]

I'm a bit late reading this so you've probably already dealt with it. But, for what it's worth I've seen Halifax's offer too and it struck me as a good deal but haven't had the need to make a transfer lately. I would not be too suspicious. Now Nationwide is useless we use a Halifax credit card for purchases in the Euro zone, they make no separate charges and give a decent rate of exchange (last week 1.14) so it could be this, too, is a genuine offer. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the upper limit and I have sometimes found banks to be very coy about letting you know what that limit is. They make it look as if you can do an electronic transfer only to fall foul of some seemingly arbitrary sum.

[Pads]

Thanks for your reply Liz but yes I have already done the deed online with a FX company and am happy with the deal I got ... I have since been told that the exchange rate for the Halifax is not a good one plus they charge you 7.50 ...

[Théière]

[quote user="Pads"]..I find this hard to believe that I can send 41K to france and only pay £7.50 when I have always been told to use brokers , who charge much more ....[/quote]

HIFX are just one broker and will not charge anything for the transfer and the rate is as close as you will get pretty much anywhere to the interbank rate shown on their site if you want to browse.

http://www.hifx.co.uk/en/Marketwatch/Exchange-rates.aspx

Banks on the other hand charge a fee, usually sub it out to a dealing room if they haven't got one themselves and each step the rate is slightly diminished, truly international banks can generally give a better deal than ex building societies.

[cruddler]

I use FX brokers regularly and having used most of them, I have found that HifX are best for larger sums say 8k+, whereas for smaller sums 1 or 2k, XE offer the best rate.

[Robin]

Hi folks

I would not use my bank even though I have been with them since 1962. If I had used them to ship the proceeds of the sale of my Engl house over, let's say 1/2 million£, then it would have cost me about 5k£ more compared to using the trader I came to trust.

For the 2 yrs pre moving over here, selling/buying I used a London trader for short visits. I'd phone them before midday, agree a trade/exch rate and then a contract would be exchanged by e-mail, I'd pay by IBAN that day and next morning before midday, the postie would have a reg letter containing the € notes I had bought. It beat local sources, M&S, Sainsb, PO, Bank, by typically 1 or 2%. So when it came to shipping over the house proceeds, which means you can't sleep for the hours it is invisible, I had learnt to trust them more than my bank. And it saved me 5k€ which went towards the kitchen. (You know what I mean - exterminate the curtains .)

I use the same traders now for my regular UK income shipping, I learnt to avoid the end of the month when UK occupational pensions get shipped over, also 21st, when the university pension outfit transfers funds to its members who handed their life to it. Avoid the M25, you pay more.

I am old enough to recall the old days, working in Germany and knowing the exch rate was fixed (to next devaluation.) I cannot say that I have yet come to terms with the 1% daily fluctuations. In have a strategy. In the end, it might save me 100€. wtf.

But I am damned if I will let my UK bank RBS, or my Fr bank Chaix, cream an extra 2% off me just because they are a bank. Over a year for me, that is about a grand. I won't advertise my trader here, but if anyone wants dig deeper, I will give you an London landline #, the names of 3 trustworthy folk I know there and you can phone them and find out what they can do for you. I checked two traders and these ones gave the best rate.

But if you really trust yr bank and feel comfortable with them, stick with yr bank and pay the 2%. I was sick for the hours my 1/2 million was in the aether, but the traders actually did it. My French bank Chaix holds on to an income IBAN transfer for 3 days. It is an scandal and I have'nt finished with them yet.

e-mail me if you would like details of how I do it.

[Robin]

Hi folks

I would not use my bank even though I have been with them since 1962. If I had used them to ship the proceeds of the sale of my Engl house over, let's say 1/2 million£, then it would have cost me about 5k£ more compared to using the trader I came to trust.

For the 2 yrs pre moving over here, selling/buying I used a London trader for short visits. I'd phone them before midday, agree a trade/exch rate and then a contract would be exchanged by e-mail, I'd pay by IBAN that day and next morning before midday, the postie would have a reg letter containing the € notes I had bought. It beat local sources, M&S, Sainsb, PO, Bank, by typically 1 or 2%. So when it came to shipping over the house proceeds, which means you can't sleep for the hours it is invisible, I had learnt to trust them more than my bank. And it saved me 5k€ which went towards the kitchen. (You know what I mean - exterminate the curtains .)

I use the same traders now for my regular UK income shipping, I learnt to avoid the end of the month when UK occupational pensions get shipped over, also 21st, when the university pension outfit transfers funds to its members who handed their life to it. Avoid the M25, you pay more.

I am old enough to recall the old days, working in Germany and knowing the exch rate was fixed (to next devaluation.) I cannot say that I have yet come to terms with the 1% daily fluctuations. In have a strategy. In the end, it might save me 100€. wtf.

But I am damned if I will let my UK bank RBS, or my Fr bank Chaix, cream an extra 2% off me just because they are a bank. Over a year for me, that is about a grand. I won't advertise my trader here, but if anyone wants dig deeper, I will give you an London landline #, the names of 3 trustworthy folk I know there and you can phone them and find out what they can do for you. I checked two traders and these ones gave the best rate.

But if you really trust yr bank and feel comfortable with them, stick with yr bank and pay the 2%. I was sick for the hours my 1/2 million was in the aether, but the traders actually did it. My French bank Chaix holds on to an income IBAN transfer for 3 days. It is an scandal and I have'nt finished with them yet.

e-mail me if you would like details of how I do it.