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Transferring money to a French bank account from UK


Trevor
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An article in the Times last Saturday recommended paypal as the best way to transfer m oney to France.

 

I have a French bank account and sepnd around 10 weeks per year in France. Previous queries here led to me using Moneycorps to transfer money over.

 

As I already have a paypal account this would seem to be a quick and easy way.

 

Has anyone used this? Do they recommend it? Is it cheap? How do you do it?

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I currently top up my bank account here by withdrawing cash from my Nationwide account from their ATM and than paying it in over the counter.

I have not had any success with getting them to withdraw larger amounts than my daily limit by using my card over the counter, I know that some have done this but my branch of CL assure me that for them it is not possible.

One of the girls there also suggested Paypal and I am interested to know how this would/could work.

Pardon my ignorance but does the recipient (my french persona!) also need a paypal account or can the money be transferred direct to a bank account?

It looks like another E-mail address is needed also, it is all beginning to look like an attempt at money laundering having multiple e-mail addresses and personas or is it much simpler than that?

Finally as I dont yet have an account I cannot access their current exchange rate to see how it compares to what I get from my Nationwide card, could someone please let me know what rate they currently are offered?

Many thanks

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Has anyone just written a cheque to themselves drawn on a UK account and paid it into their french bank? I'm asking because I've paid US dollar cheques into my UK account in the past and they've just calculated the rate (and charged me for it naturally) and credited my account accordingly.

I just wondered if it was as easy here?

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hi le jars, like JR i am more likely to get the money out from the atm whilst over there which costs about £4 a time for me as i am with Abbey. or save up as much as possible and send it over in one big lump costing me £25 a go. 

However, like you i did ask if you could put cheques in and found out they are quite happy to accept ehtm in my french bank CA but they charge you 25euro to change it.

 

 

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About 2 years ago, I phoned and asked Paypal about this and they said it was frowned upon and could lead to a money laundering investigation against you.  However, they may have added this service now.  There suggestion was to use your own bank to do transfers.  Also on the subject of cheques, this is the least cost effective way of doing things and there seems to be not set charges, as I recently paid in a cheque at CA Languedoc for £150 and got a little over 150 euros in return, but on the flip side I paid a check in for £20 and got a about 28 euros.  They seem to make things up as they go along

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The post office will do a 0% commission exchang rate of 1.3556 is this good rate or not ? As I have been taking the cash in lump sums with me and just paying it in at my french bank. Other times I have used the halifax who charge you 25 pounds to send any amount dont know what the exchange rate is , but I have always been happy with the amount its turned into when I check its in my french account. Which of the two is better do you think?

I would also like to know more about how you can transfer by using pay pal accounts if any one knows ?  

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[quote user="Trevor"]

An article in the Times last Saturday recommended paypal as the best way to transfer m oney to France.

 

I have a French bank account and sepnd around 10 weeks per year in France. Previous queries here led to me using Moneycorps to transfer money over.

 

As I already have a paypal account this would seem to be a quick and easy way.

 

Has anyone used this? Do they recommend it? Is it cheap? How do you do it?

[/quote]

I have a paypal account with my french bank account, for some reason the account will not let me add a UK bank account, maybe this is due to signing up via paypal.com and not co.uk but then could I have had a french bank account within paypal.co.uk
Blimey, i've not even had a drink [blink]

edited to add - recently had £105 paid into paypal account and got 136 euros

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1.35 rate from the post office is the tourist rate, your better off taken the money out of the cash point then walking into the bank to pay it in, I think you get 1.42 then but lloydstsb will charge you maybe 4pounds per transaction so take out at least 200 euros
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Sounds like paypal, if you could use the service other than in a hypothetical way would be even bigger robbers than the post office. I will stick to the inconvenient but economical Nationwide debit card method.

It works for me because most of my purchases are made either with the card or with cash withdrawn from it, but I still have to use it to put some cash in my French account to cover regular bills etc, this silly method of taking money out of the ATM only to then deposit it in the same branch must cost everyone concerned a packet except me!

To explain the use of "hypothetical" re paypal transfers it is because loads of people suggest it but I am still waiting to find someone that does it.

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[quote user="J.R."]

To explain the use of "hypothetical" re paypal transfers it is because loads of people suggest it but I am still waiting to find someone that does it.

[/quote]

Perhaps it is because people don't want to admit to doing it in case PP jumps on them....although there is nothing illegal in moving your own money (providing it is legally obtained!) from one country to another....

...and without admitting anything, it is perfectly feasible. I wouldn't suggest it as a good way to transfer large amounts, but a great way to move regular small amounts to pay bills.  However, you have to set it up right on both sides, you have to have two PP accounts, and you have to know what you are doing otherwise you get charged [avoidable] merchant fees.

Their rate yesterday was 1.40something, with no additional fees.

Matt

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You'd be utterly barking to use Paypal.

I've just checked and apart from 2.5% fee the current exchange rate is a pathetic 1.39 - HiFx today are offering around 1.43

As others have said, set up an A/C with Nationwide, get a second card for your other half and you can withdraw €800 daily, enough I would hazard for all but he most extravagant life style [:D]

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Ernie

That has given me a great idea,  I wonder how many checks do they do, whether I would have to change the account to joint names (me and my new alter-ego!) or will they just issue a card to Mrs cardholder?

I am sure that I am already half way to having bi-polar disorder!

800 euros per day would be "rentable".

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[quote user="woody2122"]So with a nationwide debit card you can take money out of the atm in france with no charges or commision, is that for all banks in france, sounds better than paying  £4 per transaction with lloydstsb [/quote]Yes, haven't found one yet which does otherwise.
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Let me start by saying I haven't tried this myself yet, but something I saw recently in an advert that appealed

http://www.caxtonfxcard.com/
It sounds good, but says it has to be preloaded with 750 - I'm not sure if that means you have to always keep that amount in or not.  If not it certainly sounds an alternative method of transferring smaller amounts of currency and it's use at an ATM is 2 at each transaction.

Problems with my French bank recently could easily have been circumvented by using this, but have now gone down the route of swapping banks.

 

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I've got one although I've yet to load it or use it.

It's basically a preloaded Debit Card so the rate of exchange is whatever it is on the day you load it.

You don't have to keep any minimum on it but you have to initially preload it with a minimum of £500

Not entirely sure why I got it to be perfectly honest but it was free and I guess I thought it might come in useful some day.

Like most of these sort of things you must be UK resident to get one (I was at the time) and you need a UK bank A/C to load it from.

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Caxton quoted me quite a good rate the last time I contacted them.  However, I was allocated a "dealer" to whom I didn't relate, so that put paid to that.  I used the rate they quoted me to get the same rate from another foreign exchange dealer so, for me, Caxton had served their purpose!
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[quote user="ErnieY"]

You'd be utterly barking to use Paypal.

I've just checked and apart from 2.5% fee the current exchange rate is a pathetic 1.39 - HiFx today are offering around 1.43

[/quote]

(ErnieY, this is not personally directed specifically at your comments, but a reply to a few others too)

So you transfer maybe £100 a few times in a month to pay bills (which I'm sure the big money transfer companies would absolutely love to handle for you - NOT!) and if you are not living in France how are you supposed to get to the branch - fly over everytime you need to pay in a bit of cash to pay the phone bill?

£100 @ 1.39 = 139 euros, 1.43 = 143 euros - Wow, I'm really going to miss those extra 4 euros!!  (Not to mention that you would not get 1.43 for a £100 transfer)

Now let's compare.  With Paypal within less than 30s I can transfer from bank to bank sat at my PC, and it is often in my bank account in France next day, two days at the latest.  The last time I withdrew cash and paid it into my local branch of the bank I use it took 4 days to get into my bank account (no joke).  Now, I can get it into my original branch of the bank I opened the account with next day, but it is a 60 mile 1 1/2  hour round-trip (plus waiting time!!) fuel, and thoroughly inconvenient.   Yeah, I'm utterly barking to use Paypal!!

As I said before, I'm not suggeting you seriously use it for large amounts, and I very much doubt anyone ever was - of course in that case the best way is using the money transfer co's, but if you're not in France, or local to your original branch (or often even if you are sometimes) Paypal is hard to beat.  Damn sight easier to open a Paypal account than set up a whole new bank account in the UK with N/wide just to get free withdrawals occasionally!

Matt

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