dickydog

Good shout ant68', i have been following the rate closely and can see now is a good time. Problem for my wife is she doesnt hold an address there now so the bank wont play ball. We plan to put a lump of cash in her sisters account but i was worried about being accused of money laundering !

captainflack

I used thefxfirm.com when I did the transfer of UK cash over here for buying the house, and for my monthly salary which comes from UK. Rates are far better than a bank, and it's easy to deal with them as they give me a 2 or 3 day fix.

liveaboard

There could be tax problems if you put your money in someone else's account; get expert advice for each country who might take interest.

You should be able to 'borrow' an address to use for a bank account, that's what we did. but of course you'd have to be in country to make that work.

nogard

Does your bank charge you for this serice?

ant68

Hi - Just answering some of the above points...
Not sure how she did it but my solicitor arranged for a bank account to be opened in our name without having an address in Portugal, we had paid the deposit so maybe she could use our new property address (I can ask the bank if you like, they are VERY helpful).
My UK bank charges a £25 fee to send the money abroad (Santander in UK) and the Portugese bank does not make any charge (Banif).
I have found that as long as the transfer from the UK is in sterling then Banif exchanges into Euro at market rate less about 1.5 to 2 cents - and is far cheaper than any of these companies that do money exchanges (we used them for the deposit and it was good compared to UK banks but not as good as this method) - would really recommend you check this method out!

bejaboz

We transfer our funds via World First, using faster payments (within 2 hours) from our UK bank (Lloyds) to World First's UK bank (Barclays), no fees. World First transfer to our PT bank (CGD) within 24 hours, but usually the same day, no commission at a rate very competitive to any exchange company and certainly cheaper than banks. CGD have never charged us any fees to date, but why should they, as they receive the funds in Euros.

ant68

Like I said - check all the options - I think £25 charge from UK bank against a saving of a cent on exchange rate when you are transferring thousands is worth paying. Banif have an internal exchange rate that has beaten every quote I have ever received from these specialist companies - just because these companies tell you that they offer the best exchange doesn't mean it is - someone is paying their fees/advertising/sales people - it just gets taken out in the exchange rate.
Anyway, once it is done you have to forget about it - the exchange rate goes up and down like a yoyo - its over 1.42 at the moment, and we purchased at mid 1.20's - but if we had waited until now our property would have sold, and the neighbour has recently sold at 20% more than we paid, so it is just bits of paper after all that

bejaboz

Of course companies paint the picture they want to draw in clients, but it is a competitive market and we check against other companies before an exchange and the differences are small and not significant unless transferring large sums. Having bought our property, our transfers now are relatively small and having built a relationship with World First it would take a large difference in a rate to move to another company.However, I'd agree, they have to make a profit and therefore each client transaction has to contribute to that. It is always going to be swings and roundabouts with an ever moving exchange rate.

GeniB

It is a 'micky mouse' world of swings and roundabouts.You just have to time the moment you climb on. We had 'stalked' our villa for 5 yrs through many different exchange rates. It was matter of ,did we want that house? Answer-yes! So we bought it at an exchange of 1.20+ House prices were low and we feel we got a bargain. Our neighbour has just put their villa on the market for 30% above the price we bought at,reflecting todays market.

bejaboz

Buying a property at any time has a degree of risk, we bought ours before the economic down turn so paid more than we would have a couple of years later, but it's impossible to mitigate for things outside ones control or completely unknown. One has to be prepared to wait for the wheel to turn again, as it eventually will, but for some, it's not possible to wait for things to improve. House prices are slowly rising, but I think it's a long way back to the pre 2008 values.

dickydog

All great advice and things to carefully consider, thanks guys.

dickydog

Going next monday for a week, will let you know how we get on .

dickydog

Searched all week went home sunday with a clear winner, back tuesday signing contracto promessa compre e venda tomorrow in lousa.....

Munsterfan

how exciting for you GOOD LUCK...What area?? DO let us (ALL) come to your housewarming. We ourselves are SO very happy here just 10-months and 21 days.... Obrigado Portugal!

mfesharne

Congratulations but would suggest you don't sign anything or part with any money until you've had a lawyer check it all out for you.