nigel.b

There have been a few threads on sending money the other way - I use Tranferwise myself.

But a large (50K+) euro to sterling transfer? I looked at the Transferwise Borderless Account, but setting up a new account just for a one-off transfer seems excessive. (Does anyone have the Borderless account, BTW?)

Thanks for any suggestions.

EMR

We can send them to our sterling account, the bank then sets the rate and of course has its charges.
Not the most economic way but it can be done..

RichardHenshall

The main advantage of the Borderless account is the ease of receiving income in multiple currencies and/or spending in multiple currencies. For a simple exchange it doesn't really offer anything that a normal TransferWise transfer doesn't.

From a cost perspective (fees, charges and divergence of exchange rate from mid-market rates) I think TransferWise is pretty good and is transparent. Others will claim that their banks make transfers for free at mid-market rates (or similar claims) but as far as I can see they use a daily exchange rate which may not have been fixed when the transfer is arranged. If the rate has been fixed it won't reflect possibly advantageous rate movements since.

There is always a risk of corporate failure resulting in the loss of your money in transit. If you send the money in multiple smaller transactions, only sending the next tranche once the previous one has arrived safely, you still risk being caught but it will be for a lesser amount.

tombo

I have been using Hargreaves Lansdown currency service. I send in batches by Sepa transfer from the bank that GLS could not find.
The transfer costs €4 or so. It is a € to € transfer and is held with HL's external account with Barclays. You can leave it in Euros for up
to 30 days then you have to convert to GBP. No fees only the spot rate on the day/hour. To get an idea of when to change look at
say XE's midmarket rate then add 1 or maybe 1-1/2 cents above this rate. That is what you will get. HL is a UK listed company.

brodev

I used the normal Trabsferwise service to repatriate the money I made from selling my house. As it was a 6 figure sum I got an enhanced rate. All went well.

Pulaski

Is there a reason why you can't user Transferwise to send money from Portugal to a GBP account in the UK?
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nigel.b

Thanks for the ideas.

The problem with using TW in the PT-UK direction is that I don't have a PT debit card to fund the transaction. And I can't do it by a bank transfer to TW because Novobanco caps such transfers at something like E100. And I can't get that limit increased because I'm not in Portugal, and that increasing-the-limit process involves an (almost certainly limited validity) code being sent by post to my address in Portugal...

The Borderless account is extremely simple to set up, except near the end when there's a sudden demand for a non-PDF scan of passport/ID. At that point I had to stop, but I'd already seen a German (DE) IBAN heading my way. You only have to fund the account initially with E20 and a debit card gets issued. Even if I didn't use it much I'm not losing anything by having it. It might be the way to go.

Fortunately it's the early stages of selling the flat so bags of time!

Pilotabroad

Hi Nigel

Wouldn't know the specifics of making it work so both sides safe and secure, but would it be possible to do a straight swap with another member at an agreed rate?

Both save money on rate and fees.

As I say, no idea of how or the logistics of it, so tin hat on for a deluge of posts telling me why it's a stupid idea haha

Pulaski

It's certainly possible, but I would be extremely cautious about doing it with someone I didn't know very well and trust implicitly. I frequently provide exchange services for my family, either when they come to visit or if my mother wants to send cash gifts to my daughter - they deposit GBP into my bank account in the UK and I disburse cash at this end based on the midrate published on the BBC's web site. We both get a great exchange rate and nobody pays any wire fees, but honestly when TransferWise is exchanging at an overall cost of about 0.5% the benefits of bypassing TransferWise (or other exchanger-remitter) are quite small, and the risks of dealing with someone you don't know well can be much larger.

I once received a check for about $750 for a colleague, and paid him in GBP, but that was his idea, and ultimately his risk because I only paid him when the check had cleared, so the credit risk was all his - but he had baulked at the idea of paying Western Union a 10% fee on top of a crappy exchange rate, to cash a USD cheque. The idea of sending £'000's to someone I don't know personally on the promise of receiving matching FX currency, would be a complete nonstarter for me!

RichardHenshall

As is often the case (in my experience) when it's difficult to get an estimate of the exchange rate & fees they turn out not to be particularly attractive. I've had to open an account (which took 5 days and two letters from HL) just to get a quote. Comparing Hargreaves Lansdown to TransferWise for various amounts in the €1,000 to €5,000 range would suggest to me that the real costs** of using TW are less than one third of the real costs of using HL, as well as being days quicker, for sending EUR to GBP.

** I consider the real costs to be the difference between a hypothetical fee-free transaction at mid-market rates and the actual or estimated real result.

tombo

Hi Richard. I can't say I found any delay in the transactions. The main drawback is that once you have transferred your euros by sepa
they are now held by HL still in euros and you have 30 days to convert. If you get the timing wrong the exchange rate conversion can work against you. If you want to convert, then simply phone the currency desk and its done right away. I figured that HL would be a safer bet than TW.
Over the years I had accounts with BCCI and with Crown Currency. Both of which collapsed

RichardHenshall

We all have different requirements and experiences to inform our choices. HL was suggesting 2 - 5 days against TW's 6 hours.

Personally, I'm not keen on having to deposit the money before making the trade for the reasons you've mentioned. It's probably the main reason I moved away from CurrencyFair.