Ian 56 Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 I still have a NatWest bank account in the UK as I have some income there. My pension is paid into my Crédit Agricole account here. Recently I transferred 400 € back to the UK using the IBAN/Swift method. The charge levied by CA to send it was a reasonable 3 €. The charge to process it in the UK was £7 which I think OTT. Is there a cheaper way of making occasional transfers? I know French banks get a bad press on this forum but it is not my experience.ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 Ian,I suggest you take all charges in France and transfer the money as stirling - so paying CA the exchange costs. This is usually a much cheaper option.What you have ended up doing is paying the robber barons in the UK banks for the exchange from euros to pounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian 56 Posted February 21, 2006 Author Share Posted February 21, 2006 Thanks for the advice Andy.ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jc Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 The other way is to retain an English credit card-some companies will even bill you in France-and charge all your purchases upto it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alnmike Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 You could also try www.moneybookers.com, for about €3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian 56 Posted February 22, 2006 Author Share Posted February 22, 2006 Thanks for all the suggestions. Moneybookers would seem to be favourite.ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian 56 Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 It is no longer the favourite as it does not seem possible to transfer money from Moneybookers to NatWest. It is easy to transfer to a private individual with an e-mail address. However my NatWest branch has no internet connection and the central NatWest helpline was also no help. Moneybookers has yet to reply to me. Has anyone used Moneybookers to transfer to a bank account? Surely it should be simple.ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 I do this every single month and my bank in France charges me €3.99 per transaction and I incur no charges in the UK. On my form we mark the charges as 'share' and it is always euros that I transfer. I also have the proper IBAN and SWIFT numbers on this transaction. It took us several attempts to get this going through like this and that was three years ago. Since then it is the same every month and no problems. And the share and euro transfer we were told would be the cheapest way of doing it. I also get the bank rate on the exchange, I always check this with the reuters currency exchange the day it goes through. It takes three working days to go through, ie I ask for the transfer on the Monday morning first thing and it is in the account on Wednesday at some point. I must add that this transfer is from part of the HSBC group in France to my HSBC account in the UK. I think that I can transfer up to €12000 euros for €3.99 transfer costs.......... helas we never have money like that to transfer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian 56 Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 Thanks for the suggestion TU but I only require the occasional transfer to the UK and I do not think it is worth the hassel of changing banks here and in the UK to achieve that. I imagine that banking with HSBC in France and in the UK facilitates your method. However I will go back to my bank here and discuss the problem with them.ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarrot Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 IanI think you should look at Moneybookers again. It's awkward to set up because the site isn't very intuitive, but I'm sure you can do what you want, viz send an instruction to your bank to deposit into a Moneybookers account. Then (three days leter usually) send that money to your UK account number (you need the sort code and A/C number, not an email address). I know it works and it really is cheap. Someone on this site has even suggested how to make it very cheap by juggling which is your "primary bank account". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 This is only a guess but I suspect the majority ofpeople are usually transferring money from UK to France. For the sortof amounts you are talking about can't you find someone who will putsterling into your UK account and you put Euros into their Frenchaccount. You could agree an exchange rate with reference to theinternet ( didn't someone mention Reuters? ). You thus both avoid anybank charges.Just a thought.Benjamin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian 56 Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 I will look again and I agree it should be possible. I managed the first stage and I already have a balance in my Moneybookers account. Benjamin's suggestion is possible but I would rather do the transfer myself without relying on the goodwill of my friends.ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 I was never told that the transfer between HSBC's was the reason why I did not incur charges in the UK. What I was told was that getting the paperwork absolutely spot on with regards to 'share' and in euros and the SWIFT and IBAN numbers was imperative. And those first few months was a learning curve as it kept going wrong, then we got it right and it has been right since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owens88 Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Seems to me that there is an opportunity for a trusted marriage broker (Living France). The OP wants to move euros to UK. Many others want to move money to France.How do we spell parallel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brilec Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 [quote user="Owens88"]Seems to me that there is an opportunity for a trusted marriage broker (Living France). The OP wants to move euros to UK. Many others want to move money to France.How do we spell parallel?[/quote]I remember being in the ferry terminal in Calais many years ago, queueing to change some sterling into francs. There were two uf us, and we only wanted to change about £30. All the other people were english people wanting to change their francs back to sterling. The chap next to me suddenly realised that we would be better off just swapping between us, using the mid rate, which we did, but my friend could not find anyone else in the queue who was prepared to do this. They all insisted on paying their money to the bank clerk, who took his cut and payed it back to my friend. I think several of them genuinely thought that they would be put in prison if they did a direct exchange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian 56 Posted March 5, 2006 Author Share Posted March 5, 2006 After many attempts I have at last got Moneybookers to work and credit a bank. I had to edit My Profile. It should be a doddle from now on.ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkhunter Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 This was something i was looking at, i intend to bring back from uk in excess of 5k and was horrified at the charges i will get either in UK or here in France and thought, wouldn't it be great to find someone who wanted UK sterling in exchange for Euro's, i was told this is illegal though, is it???? Hugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 HughMandy, french banks should only charge €3.99 for up €50k transfer with the correct details, SWIFT/IBAN and share and in euros. What UK banks will charge, well ours does not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 TU, I think the upper limit for a standard transfer has changed down to 12500€ - which is the point at which banks are legally obliged to report the transaction to the anti-money laudering authorities. Since this involves more work, there are higher costs involved. I agree however that this is probabaly the most cost effective way of transferring money from France to the UK (not the other way round however since UK banks charge a fortune for transfers ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 Andy I agree that that was what I used to be told. However my bank is now quoting for a €3.99 fee for up to €50k. I too was surprised, but it is on their web page and I was told that in my branch too. Not that I have that sort of money, but as my usual transfers work I can't see why transferring such an amount wouldn't. I would have thought that my bank which is part of the HSBC group would be on the ball with this. I shall ask again when I am in, but as I have just looked and it is on the web page I can't see them telling me any different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 [quote user="andyh4"]TU, I think the upper limit for a standard transfer has changed down to 12500€ - which is the point at which banks are legally obliged to report the transaction to the anti-money laudering authorities. Since this involves more work, there are higher costs involved. I agree however that this is probabaly the most cost effective way of transferring money from France to the UK (not the other way round however since UK banks charge a fortune for transfers )[/quote]The limit was raised 1 January 2006 from 12500 euros to 50000 euros. This was heralded in large print on both my French bank's website and my UK bank's website. Being cautious I double checked with both of them just to make sure.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 Sue TUthanks for the update. Of course my banks conveniently forgot to inform me of this [8o|]- not that I have that sort of money to transfer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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