Jump to content

Using our French bank to move money to UK


Carolski
 Share

Recommended Posts

Can I just add some clarification here?  The "InterBank rate" - the rates you see on Teletext, in the Financial Times etc is the rate at which banks buy currency from one another.  It is not available to private business and individuals.  The banks make their money on the currency markets by offering you a rate at around 4% below the interbank rate.  And then they charge you an admin fee for sending the money onward!

So where do the foreign currency exchange firms come in?  Well, they are essentially money wholesalers, buying and selling billions daily, and can therefore negotiate an exchange rate much closer to the interbank rate than you or I could with our relatively small amounts.  Of course they take a small margin - it is how they make their living after all! - but a tiny amount from each trade means an income for them, and a much better rate for the client compared with the traditional High Street bank rate. 

Most FX companies can now open an account immediately on-line to enable you to trade (although they do of course have to safeguard against money-laundering), and you will also get specialist advice on the markets; something which your average bank would not be able to do, as providing FX services is not their core business. 

...This is my first visit back to this forum since about 2005, but it's like I've never been away!

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HIFX state, “The prices shown are "inter bank" exchange rates. Your rate will be determined by the amount of currency that you are buying.” So they don't give you their best rates for smaller amounts. I don’t know where the price of a house sits on their league table.

XE say, “We simply collect the information about your desired trade and quote you a price.” So that isn’t a super blanket rate either.

Please look at my post ‘Sterling to euros’ where I compare figures. It seems to me that the best results are obtained if you have a sterling a/c and a euro a/c at the same bank and do an internal exchange. My cousin does this with HSBC and is happy and I have just set this up with Nationwide international.

The lady at Nationwide International told me that they give a better rate for internal transfers than transfers to another bank. Also, you only have to wait for the initial cheque to clear. Remember too that the interest on the value of a house is worth having if only for a few weeks, so another ten working days clearance time is costing you money.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just for my 3 pen'orth.  When we bought our house in France I spoke to a couple of the moneybrokers (the normal ones) and also the Alliance and Leicester and Natwest banks where we had accounts.  NatWest DID offer me to buy ahead for a certain sum - which was actually at a better rate than the moneybrokers and MUCH MUCH BETTER than Alliance and Leicester.  So they will do it if you speak to their international departments.

I don't see why anyone is worried about the UK bank charging to receive sterling - why would they? 

Pix

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've read with interest, and I think the banks will offer a better service now they need some money coming in, but I've used banks and brokers over the years, and the broker I'm with (I won't endorse them here as it would look like advertising ) are excellent, they have covered my mistakes in the past without charging me (and yet my UK bank wanted to charge me £40.00 until I threatened to close our account ) so if you're looking for a one off it will pay to shop around between the banks and brokers playing them against each other but if you are transferring regular payments use a broker,

Please be careful and check out the company before handing over your money,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Benjamin"]It's a long time since I've used a UK bank to transfer money but they used to be notoriously bad for giving you a specific rate when you want to transfer funds.

I had one telephone conversation with a regional "hub" centre (before lots of them were moved abroad) which went roughly as follows.

Me: Can you tell me what today's rate is for French francs?

Them: How much do you want to move?

Me: Let's say £ 5,000.

Them: So you want us to transfer £ 5,000 today?

Me: No. I want you to tell me what the exchange rate would be if I was to transfer £ 5,000 today.

Them: Well that will mean us contacting our Foreign Department and they don't like us doing tht unless you're definitely going to do it.

End of conversation.

To my mind either their staff aren't very well trained or else they don't want to commit to a rate which of course is changing minutely minute by minute.

I certainly wouldn't accept a bland "inter bank rate" statement from them as you have no idea what that might be.

If it was me I'd put the Reuters web page giving foreign currency rates on my screen and then 'phone the bank and insist they tell you what their mythical inter bank rate is so that you can check it in as good as real time as most of us mere mortals can get.

[/quote]

Hi there

Your Bank is not being difficult. Having worked as an importer where I used to have to buy foreign currency regularly, I know the reasons for it.

The reason the Bank asked you this question and needed to have a definite answer, is that their Foreign Currency dept have to phone the currency dealers and get a rate from them based on the amount being exchanged. This is the business rate, not the tourist rate.

As this rate is constantly changing, and will vary depending upon the amount, they have to buy "on the spot" or "buy forward" from the dealers which means agreeing to the rate there & then and this is why they asked you in the way they did.

Hope you got sorted eventually.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then why don't the banks put you through to the dealer direct, like my brokers do, every time I phone up I have a personal dealer (Tom) who I ask what rate do I get for this much money,

I also have some tips on exchanging money on my website which would take to long to re type in here so if your interested just follow the link at the bottom of the page.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Well..as promised a quick up date. We received our money yesterday back here in the UK having put our cheque into our French bank account a week ago from the sale of our house over in France.(and there were 2 days within that week that were French holidays). We got a very good rate (that days interbank rate i.e. XE.com) and the charge in total was 3.50€!!!! Painfree and involving no moneybrokers at all. It seems according to our friend who works in a bank in Paris that this is a newish system (2 month old) and being used more and more. I post this for those out there who may be unaware of this...bon chance. We couldnt be more happy with the end result.

C

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations and thanks for posting back.

Hope you enjoy being back in UK. The though of all those holiday makers who can't afford to go abroad this year heading for Blackpool, Torquay, Saarfend or wherever, fair sends a shiver up my spine [6]

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...