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Regular Money Transfers from UK


ChezTinns
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Can anyone help?

We are looking at the most cost-effective way of transferring money from the UK to our french bank account.  Ideally we would like to do this on a monthly basis - so that it is easy to budget for.  So far our hunt for informationm has come up with some horrendous bank charges which we would obviously like to AVOID!  We will be living (and working) in the UK, but want to top up our french account regularly to cover expenses of running our holiday home, whilst trying to accumulate a bit of a slush fund for whilst we are there!

Thanks

JT 

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Never thought of that!  I'll have to check out the exchange rates.  There is no charge to receive money on Paypal if you have the basic account - but if I remember correctly (I only use it to pay for things on ebay so it hasn't been relevant to me so far) they charge you to withdraw the money from your Paypal account into your bank account....
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I think it depends on the amount you want to transfer each month. HIFX and some others have a minimum threshold. Paypal is more expensive than moneybookers who only charge 1.80€ per transaction, up to 350€, and 3.50€ for larger amounts.

If you set it up saying that you live in France, and thus have your french bank as your primary account, then the charge is a maximum of 1.80€

Guess who didn't know this until too late?[:@]

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We have PayPal accounts in both the UK and France. PayPal charges 2.5%

of the amount transferred, effectively built into the exchange rate at

the moment of transfer eg: today's rate is £1 = 1.46 euro, so payPal

use £1 = 1.42 euro. There is no transfer fee, ie no fee for receiving

money into personal accounts; business accounts are charged 3.4% + 20

pence for receiving money.

If, in any one year, you have transactions worth more than £4500,

PayPal in the UK insists on verifying your UK account, which means

allowing them Direct Debit access. They then send two small payments

into your account; you verify the account by telling them, on a form on

the net which they provide, the amounts received. Why they require DD

access to send you money is not at all clear to me; perhaps, as an

American outfit, they don't understand that they can send money to your

account without requiring DD access. Anyway, I personally have had no

problems with that, but I can understand that some people might object

to it.

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We came to France in September 2005 and arranged our money transfers through HIFX. They are easy to deal with very helpful and no charges whatsoever. You do have to sign a contract for 12 months and the rate is then fixed (we got a rate which has compared very favourably with quoted rates from other sources). No idea what the minimum amount is for regular monthly transfers but having been quoted horrific charges by our own Bank we are delighted with the service from HIFX.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

We're moving over in July. I will be using HIFX to transfer my medical pension. They have told me that I can have a contract from six to twenty-four months. We have used them for the purchase of the house and topping up of our account in France and have had no charges whatsoever and a good exchange rate. (I have no affiliation to HIFX).

Regards

Paul Bradford

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Currencies Direct do a monthly direct debit from your UK account and transfer to your French account. Money is in limbo for about 4/6 days- I guess thats how they make their cut. No fees and we have used them since moving over here in 2000 without any problems.
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One way of reducing your need to transfer is to use a UK credit card in France - a low cost one like Nationwide if possible, then pay from your UK sterling account monthly by direct debit. Also if using a Nationwide current account it is cheap to make cash withdrawals in France, again reducing the need for transfers.

 

 

 

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We use hifx for our UK to France transfers and are very happy with them. I'm not sure when you are tied to taking a regular contract with HIFX but we have been using them for irregular transfers for the last couple of years and we haven't got a contract with them. I don't know what the minimum amount is though. I found their website confusing but spoke to them on the phone and they are very helpful. Definitely recommended :)

We had a nightmare with moneybookers, they couldn't recognise our bank account details and their customer service was terrible. We ended up having to draw the money in 2 cheques (euros) but because the cheques (although ordered from Moneybookers Paris) came from outside France we were charged by our bank to deposit them.

I'd be careful about having two Paypal accounts as I believe it's against paypal regulations to have an account in a country other than your primary residence, and I've heard of them freezing the money under fraud regulations so probably not worth the risk.
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Endorse all the complimentary comments re HIFX.

Have used them for everything from house purchase (scary at the time, because it was the 1st transaction), to occasional tsfrs, to our regular mthly 'salary'. Reliable, efficient, helpful.

There may well be other methods that will save you a quid or two, but what price peace of mind?

By the way, there are probably several other good brokers who offer as good a service. Whatever, they're all bound to be better (provided financially secure) than the clearing banks, who I wouldn't give house room to.

(I modified that last comment for reasons of potential libel and good taste!)

 

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