should we change our money from the sale of our house to euros before we leave, or wait?

[Raygraham]

We have heard that a lot of money can be lost during the currency conversion when selling your home, what do you recommend?  should we convert our money into euro' before we leave the uk, or wait until we get to france and just pay it into a french bank account and let them do the conversion for us? any answers greatfully recieved, Jo and Ray 

[Will]

If we knew the answer to that question then we would all be rich through dealing in currencies.

I don't personally like the sound of paying the money straight into a French bank. I would prefer to use one of the currency conversion specialists often mentioned on the forum and which advertise in and contribute to Living France, where you can choose between present or forward exchange rates. However, as has been pointed out, these are not banks and so aren't subject to the same controls and guarantees.

[Jackie]

We used Siddalls

http://www.siddalls.net/index1.asp?page=whatdoidonext.asp

and were advised to invest any spare money from sale of UK property off-shore in Euros as France is in Euroland. Tax may become payable when money comes into France from offshore accounts. We kept a UK bank account going and my pension is converted and transferred by Nat West to our  account in France to give us day to day running expenses. Not convinced this gives us a good rate but it is useful to have account top ups on a regular basis.

Other income remains in the UK and we have used HIFX for large capital transfers and have got reasonable rates. You really need advice on this and advice is usually free as these firms hope you are going to invest with them. We were suprised to find how few firms, at the time of our move three and a half years ago, really had the experience of folk moving to France to give good advice! They all have an angle but some are more up front than others in revealing their way of making money out of you.

Good luck.................................John in Dept 79   

[graham34]

You don't say whether you need the money in France immediately or not. The thing to consider here is that you can only get about 2% interest from a French bank or savings institution while in the the UK it's currently over 5%.

Assuming you don't need all the money in Euros short term then, as one cannot predict future exchange rates, you could keep some of it in the UK earning 5% plus and move it over in batches every so often.

Of course there are plenty of companies who can offer guaranteed future exchange rates, but bear in mind that at the end of the day you will, on average, be paying a premium for this guarantee.

Graham

[Jackie]

You can get more than 2% with a savings account, e.g. at the post office.  A Livret A with a maximum investment of €15,300 pays 2.25% net and a Livret d’Epargne Populaire (L.E.P.) pays 3.25% net.  This account (LEP) is only available to those who make a tax declaration in France and have a tax bill of less than €684.  The maximum investment for this account is €7,700.  Each adult can have one. Income tax is not payable on interest on these sorts of accounts in fact you need not declare it at all. Well this is what we have been told and it seems to work quite well.  Account monitoring at the post office can be done on the internet the same as banks and works most of the time................................John in 79