Hello there,

We have sold our house in the UK and are moving to Spain to retire. We have £400K that we want to transfer into Euros in order to purchase our new house. With the exchange rate been so low is there any other ways to acquire Euros, could we for example buy Gold in the Uk and then sell it in Spain, or other commodities and therefore find ourselves with a better deal?

Is this idea viable in any way????

Pardon me if this comes over a bit strong, but I ran a commodity trading business in the City for some years. If anyone had come to me with such an idea I would have done one of two things, depending upon how charitable I was feeling. Either called the men in white coats, or held them upside down till all the pennies fell out of their pockets.
You are taking one instrument (A) whose relationship with instrument (B) is deteriorating, exchanging it for one (Z) whose rate of volatility has soared to unimaginable levels and which has no discernible price relationship with either. You then propose at some point in the future to exchange Z for B when its relationship has stabilised.
You MIGHT get it right. Just as you might pick the winner of the 3.30 at Haydock Park. But at any rate at Haydock Park you could have a nice day out anyway.

Thank you for this, I will therefore follow your advice and tomorrow I’ll go to the bookies and place my bet!

As you have noticed we haven’t a clue on how these things work!!

But isn’t there a better solution than the straight forward exchange ? There most be some other way, can we not buy lets say £400K worth of PG tips in the UK and sell it back in Spain at a higher cost for example?

To each problem there should be a solution! NO?

How would you tackle this matter???

I don't know the numbers on this as you would need to work that out but...

What about not buying the property outright so you didn't need to move all the money into Euros right now, invest the rest at some decent interest rate until the right moment and just move small amounts over as you need them for your mortage making sure you have a mortage that can be paid off if you want to.

Mind you, who is to say things won't get worse?

Yes of course you can. Simply ask the forum for a list of all those things that are expensive in Spain and that give you a risk margin of whatever you need. But I imagine they might all do it themselves first .
Sometimes the answer is simply to accept reality unpleasant though it may be. We are in an identical situation to yourselves. Also sold house, currently tidying a few things up before heading out hopefully April May time. We are using advisors though who believe that sterling has a way to go yet on the downside.
I share the sentiments of those who believe that the political classes will attempt to use the current crisis to edge us into the Euro. I personally think that Germany will not allow it, and the mess we are in is too great, but if I am wrong, and the goal of a single European polity outweighs that, then I entirely agree that the price Germany will extract is that the exchange rate must be closer to 1.30 or so than parity. See if you can get some other views. There are a lot of very well informed and helpful people on this forum

If there was any commodity that could be used (legally - I hope you're not considering white powders ) reliably to make a profit by buying in one country, transporting it to another and being guaranteed to sell it all at a higher price, then many, many other people would already be doing it - and the price difference would have dropped to the point where it was barely worthwhile
Consider that this is your life savings you're dealing with here. If you mess-up or lose it, you won't get another chance. This is IT.
I'd say you have three options.

1. bite the bullet and recognise you're going to get a crabby exchange rate if you buy right now. However, the more buy/sell-s you do, the more times you have to pay commissions
2. Wait until things stabilise, so at least it'll be less of a gamble and you'll be in a position to make a rational decision with better information.
3. be prepared to lose a lot of money - old adage: every trade has a winner and a loser. Another old adage: the only way to get a small fortune in trading is to start with a large one

Seriously, as you say: you have no experience in these matters - as we all do, since we only ever embark on such huge trades rarely in our lives. Take professional advice.

pete_1 is absolutely, totally and completely right.

If ANYONE tells you they have a surefire method of making money by trading, walk rapidly in the opposite direction

You would definitely be onto a winner there may take a while though

Start a shoe/trainer shop, they seem a ripoff over here.

Trainers are a rip off everywhere.

Look at it another way,what you lose on the exchange rate you should make up on the fall in property prices.

I have an idea, sell the gold to some Nigerian, who will give you a cheque for more than it is worth.
We get plenty of similar offers when they want to book a room at our place.

Thank you everyone for your comments, I think we will just sit tight and wait!

Your transfer from sterling to euros will have to go via a bank because you will need a bank certificate to justify where the funds are coming from when you purchase. Without it the notary will not grant the escritura.

Is that very recent? I just drew out the cash, no certificate.