alvintc

Hi Guys,

No idea if this is the right place..quick background:
Lived in Spain for a number of years, moved back to UK 4 years ago and have just finalised the sale of the villa in Spain.
I’m looking to move the funds from Spain (currently split in a deposit/ current account) back into the UK. I’m assuming there’s no tax implications as all the taxes in Spain have been paid. Just really looking for confirmation and if anyone has any suggestions on best way to transfer. It’s not millions but enough that a small change on rates/ fees makes a difference!

Many thanks for any help!

bigglesworth

Transfers are very much a matter of preference. And the preference is how much risk you wish to take. High street clearing banks are (theoretically) safer, but will take a very large chunk in fees and will clip you heavily on the rate into the bargain.

I used foreign exchange brokers, and transferred in smaller chunks when I bought our house in France. There are plenty of good ones, I use RationalFX, but there is also Caxtons, Currencies Direct and HiFX and probably more - but your money has less protection than in the large banks, although the UK based brokers are regulated by the FCA.

There are also currency exchanges, whose name escapes me, which basically match buyers and sellers. I don't know what sort of protection there is with them though.

Lynn R

I use one of the peer to peer currency exchanges, Currency Fair, to make regular transfers from my UK bank account to my Spanish one (but it can be done the other way around too). The bank rate at the moment is £1 : €1.1963 - based on past experience I would get around €1.1920 from Currency Fair. They charge a flat fee of €3 per standard transfer, which they say could take up to 4 days for the funds to be received (but in practice the funds have always been received in my Spanish account within 24 hours of making the transfer). There is a same day service available for a €12 fee.

If I wanted to transfer the proceeds of a house sale, I would still use them but break down the amount into separate smaller transfers - divided into 10, it would still only cost me €30 in total.

You need to open an account with them before being able to transfer funds, it is all done online and very easy.

Ian_Daly

Good afternoon Alvintc,

My name is Ian and my company is one of the vendors on BE, we specialise in currency exchange and I will be more then happy to answer any questions you might have.

With regards to what Bigglesworth mentioned, Bigglesworth was right in saying that your typical high street bank will take a very large chunk in fees and will clip you heavily on the exchange rate however with regards to the risk involved in using a company like ours, this is no longer the case.

Exchange companies must now protect 100% of clients funds and in order to obtain a FCA number they must keep client accounts separated to company accounts. This insures that if in the unlikely event something was to happen to a currency company then all client funds would be 100% protected.

With regards to Lynn's comments, while Lynn would receive that exchange rate is does not necessarily mean you will receive the same rate. The only way to find out what rate you would receive is to actually open an account with them, once done then ask for a rate and that way you will see exactly what rate to expect.

Each currency company is different in many ways and the first thing I would suggest is to have a look at the link below. I recently posted a Thread about the Importance of using a currency company which I think you will find very useful.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=813686

Have a read and let me know what you think, if you have any questions then please don't hesitate to contact me.

All the best

Ian
...