[CapnBilly]

You must have asked for or chosen a wire transfer to be charged £12. If you had selected Electronic Funds Transfer ( EFT ) then it would have been free of charge. This is only available for certain currencies and countries, but euros to Spain is one of them. All you need to provide is the Iban number and SWIFT/BIC code. Haven't used XE for a while, as I don't think their rates are good, but as far as I recall the funds were in my account the next day perhaps two.

[Kath and Ted]

If you make regular payments then Currency Direct don't charge a fee but they do make 2 cents on every Euro. So if the going rate is eg 1.247 then you would get an exchange rate of 1.227.
Kath

[Lynn R]

Originally Posted by CapnBilly You must have asked for or chosen a wire transfer to be charged £12. If you had selected Electronic Funds Transfer ( EFT ) then it would have been free of charge. This is only available for certain currencies and countries, but euros to Spain is one of them. All you need to provide is the Iban number and SWIFT/BIC code. Haven't used XE for a while, as I don't think their rates are good, but as far as I recall the funds were in my account the next day perhaps two.

Thanks, I think you may well be right. I will remember that for next time!

[Lospacoshombre]

Hi
I am transferring money to Spain, to buy a house, and I have always used Hifx, but moneysupermarket came up with Halo, and I have transferred 2 tranches with them, very proffessional and a good rate. On monday I got 1.245, and yesterday I got 1.238, good rates!

Anyone know anything
bad about them!

Regards
Al

[stevesainty]

We have a Spanish bank account that allows us free banking if we deposit €700 per calendar month.

To this end, last month, we transferred funds for the first time using the post office, very efficient but also, as I have found out, a tad expensive.

Well using the preferred companies as posted on this thread I opened up accounts where necessary but got quotes from them all within 15 minutes of each other.

Lots of pros and cons with them all, none of them ticked all the boxes but plumped for CurrencyFair in the end to make this month's transfer.

I transferred funds over the internet from my bank account to theirs last night around 11:30pm.

I converted the GBP to Euros this morning, on their website, around 8:30 am. Transferred the Euros to my Spanish account at the same time and sat back and waited.

The funds had arrived in my Spanish bank when I checked this afternoon at around 3:40pm.

The rate I got was 1.25947 and the only charge was a flat fee of €3. This means that the equivalent fee, if you use the interbank rate prevailing at 8:30am, was £2.97 to put €750 Euros into my Spanish bank account in 17 hours. Apart from the flat fee they take 0.15% of the interbank rate.

In my book this was exemplary. CurrencyFair had my money for around 9 hours. They have secure, so they say, client accounts. Are based in Ireland and are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland

" We are fully regulated as an Authorised Payments Institution by the Central Bank of Ireland (equivalent to the FSA in the UK) under the European Payment Services Regulations, and hold all customer funds in segregated client accounts with a major global (not Irish) bank. "

The company sells itself as a peer to peer market place, i.e. bringing together, in my case, people who want to sell euros for GBP and me who wants the opposite.

I do not know enough about FX to actually recommend this company, merely relating my experience. I hope this helps.

[bobd22]

I must say I have also just used Currency Fair for the first time just to transfer a small amount for spending money for a trip over next month. As per above I have found it an easy service to use with great exchange rate. During the process I had a small query re the process. I emailed them and in 45 mins had a response.

One strange thing though I have previously used a number of FX companies for exchanges re mortgage payments etc and at end of last year used HIFX to pay off my mortgage (they provided a very good service I would add as well). I have since not used them purely as I now only do small transfers and for these can get better rates with the likes of exchange4free and Currency Fair. Within an hour of completing my transfer with Currency Fair I got a call from HIFX asking me about trading etc? I explained that for my current needs I could get a bit better rate etc. Also that hopefully 18 months 2 yrs I would hopefully be living in Spain and would contact them re setting up a regular transfer (which may obviously be better than using the likes of Currency Fair depending on rate at start). Just struck me as strange the timing? was it just coincidence? could simply have been that the rate was/is good at the minute and they were hoping to offer arrange a regular transfer?

It is just that previously when we first bought our house and had a problem with the wrong IBI bill and wanting info from that to complete my own None Residents Tax payment. Within hours of us attending the tax office in Velez Malaga and getting correct information I got a call from the solicitor saying this tax was due?? I said yes I have just been down to start sorting it out! We will do that for you he says, ok what do you asses cost is ? 3 x what I had calculated from all the advice I had been given on here and other research. I think I'll do it myself . He was not happy and said I had to mail them in writing to say I was dealing with it myself, not a problem!

Just makes you wonder how things are linked in and how far Big Bother goes?