Jontee

When one manages to sell their house, what is the best way to deal with the money received.

My bank have told me they charge a percentage of the total to bank a bankers draft or cheque, 0.05% I seem to remember. A cheque will take several days to clear and they were unable to tell me precicely when a draft would clear. I thought it was instant!

The estate agent says that the money could be transferred directly to my bank account, but it would be expensive. (I am still awaiting to be told how expensive and whether it is a fixed fee or a percentage) but at least the money would be available.

Is there any way to actually get hold of my own money without a bank getting hold of a couple of hundred euros of it?

I have registered with a couple of money transfer companies, but in both cases they need the money to be wired or transferred to them. I cannot just go to a bank and pay it into their account, so I assume I will have to pay my bank exorbitant charges to do that too!!

Surely a bank should simply charge a set fee for any service as it is the same amount of work whatever the value involved. I believe that in UK this is how banks have to justify any charges now. I don't suppose there is an EU directive on bank charges?

missile

My bank Barclays.es did not charge me.

Moneycorp had a deal with a spanish bank where you deposited the funds with zero charges. Funds were then credited to your Moneycorp account to convert to £ or any other currency you desire. I am not sure if this offer is still availble?

Jontee

Thanks, I will check out Moneycorp.

ANye

A banker's draft or a check may take up to 8 weeks in some circumstances. It could be possible for the estate agent to wire it directly to the FX company's euro bank account and then the trade can be done. I'd ask your estate agent if this is possible.

I suggest you shop around for currency transfer quotes and make sure that you get the best exchange rate from an FCA (formerly FSA) authorised foreign exchange provider. Typically, a foreign exchange broker's rate can be up to 4% better than the banks too.

Jontee

Up to eight weeks!! How is anyone supposed to be able to buy another property at the same time, or within a short while?? What a good job I have decided to rent for a few months. It's not easy is it?

Thanks ANye, I will have to look into your other suggestion.

Dick Dasterdly

Bring back the brown envelopes I say.

Unfortunately like the humble peseta, those days now seem just a distant memory.

scampicat

Our money went from our buyer's Spanish bank account, to our solicitor's client account, to our account in the UK. It did not touch our Spanish Bank Account, but obviously there were charges resulting from the transfer from the solicitor's account. (If it had gone into our Spanish account we would have incurred another set of charges when that was transferred). It was cheaper for him to do two separate transfers rather that do the whole amount all at once.

The charges were 185 euros.

The cleared funds were in our Bank Account within two working days.

Hope this helps.

Jontee

Thanks for your post Scampicat, when did the currency exchange take place? Euro - GBP. Was it in the solicitors account or at your own UK bank?

From smaller transfers I have made recently to my UK HSBC account I have found that the exchange rate they apply is really poor compared to the rates advertised by the money transfer companies. For instance transferring 300,000 euros at 0.84 is £252,000 whereas the same amount transferred at 0.87 is a difference of £9,000. As I need to keep hold of as much of the proceeds as possible this small difference in rate makes a massive difference in the outcome.

missile

Getting your house sold will be ................ challenging

steviedeluxe

Once you've gone through a probate process, that will seem like light speed.

rspltd

I paid the Notary's cheque straight into La Caixa bank (they opened and closed an account for me at no cost) and Currencies Direct made the trade the next day. The money was in my bank account the day after and the conversion rate was 2 cents below UK bank rate.

scampicat

Oh...The solicitor transferred an amount of Euros and it appeared in my Co-op Bank as £s so I assume the Co-op did it.

Good luck with your sale.