Transfering £s into Euros to pay for my house

[Nicos]

I'm about to buy a property in France and need to send both the deposit

and the final balance to the notaire in euros from my UK account ( held

in sterling). I guess that my bank in the UK will sting me heavily for

the conversion costs so I'm hoping that you'll all be able to tell me

how best to do this and save money. Which organisations charge the

least and are the best / most reliable? Any info gratefully received.

[Bugsy]

Hi Nicos,

Just type money transfer into the search facility and you'll find lots of posts on this subject

Gary

[Ysatis]

   We just went into our bank that was holding our funds (Llyods) to pay for both the deposit and the balance (paid at a later date to the deposit), filled in a form with the required bank details of the notaire, and the bank transfered the money. I think the charge was £25.00. Make allowances for what ever the exchange rate might be, and in my experience, allow a week for the funds to be transfered. In our case, deposit arrived in about 3 days, but the bank 'forgot' to send our balance, and it was only two days before we were going to sail to sign, the money left the UK. Keep a check on your account and make sure it go's, so to speak. I was very anxious in the notaires office when we were signing, that the notaire was going to say that he hadn't received the balance, but he had.

   I'm not saying this is the best way, it was just the way we did it.

[Dave Plumb]

Hi Ya

Found it very easy to pop into and open an account in the local French bank, You will find it easier to do it direct  then doing it from GB,

choose a money exchange  company adn send it to your euro acount then tranfer from there to notaire by internet from euro account ( you may need to confirm to bank with fax due to amount for security ) this will reduce your sting on conversion cost and transfer costs. you will find it cheaper and easier to hold to French account in the long run for payments in shops and for utilities.

Dave[:)]

[Jacqui Too]

Hi Nicos

We have just completed on our house in France, we used HiFX who deal in currency exchange, and they do not charge any fees and give you an excellent rate. You find their adds in most of the French mags. They do two types of contracts: ‘buy now pay now’, and ‘buy now pay later’ (forward buying), we did ‘buy now pay now’ for the deposit and they sent it directly to the notaires bank, and we used ‘buy now pay later’ for the final payment, we had to pay a deposit of 10% and the rest a few days before we wanted the transfer done, all very efficient and all without fees either here or in France. We will certainly use them again.

Hope this helps

Chipie 

[Deimos]

When I purchased my house (and subsequent transfers) I have found a better rate from the specialist exchange companies. Often using a bank they have a "day rate" - so they hedge their bets. I tend to use MoneyCorp as before my 1st large transfer I called round them all (within 30 mins on a day when rates were stable) and asked them "how much for x now" and then compared the rates I got.

Banks were awful and those with "day rates" a complete joke.

One think you can do with the more specialist companies is to set a transaction at a set rate. When the exchange rate hits your specified threshold the transaction will take place immediately (24/24). Of course you can call, get a rate and do an immediate transaction (plus other variants such as "buy ahead").

The costs of doing the transfers (free to £25 typically) tend to be irrelevant in relation to the amounts being transacted so I'd focus on the rate rather than the costs of doing the transaction.

I have always thought these "commission free" type deals a bit of a joke as if you look at the rates they are giving they don't need to take "commission" (the amount they are making from such terrible rates).

Ian

[Nomad]

I am no expert but having just purchased a house in France (we collect the keys this week) I too faced the dilemma of how do I get the euros to the notaire - there are many FX companies around and you can use most any, I used CaxtonFX they were easy to deal with - once you contact them and provide identity etc they mail you a confirmation with a tel no to confirm once more.  You then use their internet site to watch the rate until you se what you want then you call make a deal and purchase your euros - again you then simply allocate these euros to a French bank account (the notaires') and transfer your ££s and of it goes - sorted.  note though that you can only move £10,000 through internet banking so more than this will need a visit to the branch office of your bank to make a swift transfer (Cost£23) I was able to hold off until the recent rise and bought at a good rate saved a fist full of £'s

I have used them a few times now and it has gone through effortlessly if you use them and they ask who recommended them and you feel kind, quote "Once A Marine"  but take a look around as there are others...

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="Nomad"]

  note though that you can only move £10,000 through internet banking so more than this will need a visit to the branch office of your bank to make a swift transfer (Cost£23)

[/quote]

I did all my tranaction through internet banking: Halifax to HiFX with no limit on funds transfered, my last transaction was 100k plus and no fees![:)]

[AnOther]

I believe HiFX are something to do with Halifax which is possibly why you were able to do this.

Not sure if it's actual legislation but normally there is a fairly strict limit of 10k for online transactions.

Swift fees vary, Lloyds charge £20 for instance.

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="ErnieY"]

I believe HiFX are something to do with Halifax which is possibly why you were able to do this.

Not as far as I know, there is nothing in their literature to sugest this, but I may be wrong!

Not sure if it's actual legislation but normally there is a fairly strict limit of 10k for online transactions.

When I transfered on line the first doposit money and the deposit  for the 'forward buying' to HiFX from a Halifax current account it was more than £10,000 and I had to do it in two transfers. I was worried  that I would have to transfer the remainder  in £10,000 blocks, so I asked if there was another way to do it in one lump sum and I was told to transfer it directly from my web saver account and not from my current account, this I did and it went in one go and no charges!

Swift fees vary, Lloyds charge £20 for instance.

[/quote]

Chipie

[AnOther]

I stand corrected.

I wasn't sure on the Halifax thing, just seemed to recall reading it somewhere and I'm not currently at home so couldn't look at my own paperwork.

Perhaps then it was because it was a web based account with no physical branch to visit that this was possible.

Whatever, you saved yourself £20 or so plus avoided the aggrevation of going to the bank, well done. 

[Jc]

My bank will do Swift or Tipanet(£8).

[Jazzer]

I used John Paul Georgiou at Sterling Exchange  [email protected]   Very smooth transaction, account opened over the phone with faxed identification sent and account opened within hours. I worked 43 years with a UK bank and found their rate and service first class.

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="ErnieY"]

I stand corrected.

We both might stand corrected, if someone else knows better[:(]

I wasn't sure on the Halifax thing, just seemed to recall reading it somewhere and I'm not currently at home so couldn't look at my own paperwork.

Perhaps then it was because it was a web based account with no physical branch to visit that this was possible.

Certainly the large payment from my web saver would have had no physical intervention at all, and I have never paid 1p in bank charges from any of my web accounts with halifax and I get about 5% gross interest as well!! My Halifax card cash account does not pay interest but has free banking (no cheque book)

Whatever, you saved yourself £20 or so plus avoided the aggrevation of going to the bank, well done.

 I would not have needed to have a SWIFT payment from the Halifax to HiFX so no charge anyway

[/quote]

The whole transaction was easy, free, all from the comfort of my own home and I was more than pleased with the exchange rate. what more could I ask

I have since sent over funds to my french bank account : sent the onward payment instruction by fax to HiFX on friday morning and the money was in my French account on Monday ( I checked online)[:D]

Chipie

[Will]

Whatever method or company you use, do make sure you arrange for the funds to arrive in France in good time. It seems to be increasingly common for people to turn up to sign for their house and find that the funds have not reached the notaire's account, despite initiating the transfer several days beforehand. Unfortunately even when one particular company has managed to transfer money quickly before, or the transaction has only taken a couple of days in the past, for some unaccountable reason, the current performance does seem to be rather inconsistent. Probably a euro bank draft is the most reliable. Even though you may get a slightly better exchange rate elsewhere, it may not be worth it in the longer run if the money doesn't turn up and you can't sign as planned.

[Andyphilpott]

When I bought in 2000 I sent enough for the purchase and an estimate of fees plus a bit more to cover immediate bills and used Currencies Direct who were fine. Just sent it to my account with CA and sent a cheque to te notaire well in advance and tey were happy with that. I had expected them to insist on a bank to bank transfer but they made no fuss at all.

Andy