Changing a big chunk of Euros into £

[ATM]

Hello

Not sure which forum to put this in.

I am getting a big chunk of Euros soon and as I live and bank in UK I want these changing into British Pounds. Does anyone have any tips or advice on changing these, so converting from Euros into £ achieving the best rate possible, thanks.

[hot metal]

Find someone who about to go on holiday in Europe and you can both do each other a favour .

[funkyboogalooo]

ATM said:

Hello

Not sure which forum to put this in.

I am getting a big chunk of Euros soon and as I live and bank in UK I want these changing into British Pounds. Does anyone have any tips or advice on changing these, so converting from Euros into £ achieving the best rate possible, thanks.

http://www.hifx.co.uk/

First class company. i have a house in France and regularly use them to change my money.
Mike

[BigLepton]

A UK euro current account?

http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/interna...

[ATM]

I will investigate these tomorrow.

Thanks.

[ATM]

mickken said:

ATM said:

I will investigate these tomorrow.

Thanks.

Use HiFX, I use them everyday, the best.

OK

Do I need to open a Euro account with them / whats involved?

[g_attrill]

I use XEtrade and it's pretty decent, although the setup process takes a couple of days.

edit: It works by you entering the beneficiary and source account details, then when you make a trade you send the funds to their account (CHAPS or BACS) and they send the money to the other account. I've only done UK > foreign, but I think the reverse is a similar process. You set up various complex trades to, eg. when the rate hits a certain level etc.

Edited by g_attrill on Friday 26th September 04:56

[urban_alchemist]

Keep it in Euros. As someone who lives abroad but earns in £s, the currency's going down the drain. -30% in the past few months.

[cardigankid]

I agree. The Euro may also be devalued shortly, but you would be as well changing it into toilet paper as buying sterling just now. Toilet paper is also more absorbent and softer against the skin than twenty pound notes. Plus of course if you get a dodgy one, the purple ink will come off and leave your arse a strange colour.

If I were you I would put it in Swiss Francs or maybe Yen or Brazilian Real. Just guessing on this, I'm not a currency investor. Some of the other bros would maybe give you advice on this.

Edited by cardigankid on Friday 26th September 07:55

[ATM]

So I have spoken with Hifx. They tell me I need a Euro account and then I can change from my Euro Acc to my Sterling Acc very easily. So I have called my bank to ask about a Euro Acc and they say I need to be a business user with turnover of £10m plus - which I am not!

Any ideas anyone how I can get a Euro Account [with an average uk salary] or if I can achieve the same goal some other way?

Thanks....

[Stig]

funkyboogalooo said:

ATM said:

Hello

Not sure which forum to put this in.

I am getting a big chunk of Euros soon and as I live and bank in UK I want these changing into British Pounds. Does anyone have any tips or advice on changing these, so converting from Euros into £ achieving the best rate possible, thanks.

http://www.hifx.co.uk/

First class company. i have a house in France and regularly use them to change my money.
Mike

+1

[ATM]

I am reviving this thread - look I have done it.

I have used HIFX several times now for currency conversion between GBP <> EUR - thanks for the pointer. I had to open a EUR account and chose to do this with Barclays. Barclays charge me £20 every time I transfer from my EUR account to HIFX. Now I know this is not a massive amount of money but physically going down to the branch to fill out the form is a pain [especially when I am abroad!] so now I am wandering if anyone knows of a bank or building society [Irish possibly or ING etc] who would give me [a British citizen] a EUR account with some form of web access so I can transfer money online and ideally for free.

Thanks....

[iggletiggle]

Citibank do it >..!

ETA sorry didnt read above post properly!

Edited by iggletiggle on Wednesday 18th March 09:16

[ATM]

OK thanks I will have a look.

So do you guys have EUR / GBP / USD accounts with them?
Do these allow internet banking?
Free money transfers?

[maser_spyder]

Bank of Ireland will do you an account as a non-resident.

SwissPost (PostFinance) will open you an account if you live in a country surrounding Switzerland, pretty easy to open, internet banking etc.

Both can be Euro accounts, low fees etc.

[ATM]

I just resurrected this Topic. Just so you all know.

Anyway let me get to the point.

I have a Citibank account which allows me to have USD, GBP and EUR separate. For the first time I had some USD paid in from abroad. I could not transfer these via the online banking so I called the Indian call centre to move these to a currency conversion company. I was told there is a charge for doing this of £25.

Again I am left confused why there is a charge for a simple bank transfer.

Does anyone here have a USD account in the UK which does not charge for simple transfers?

[DonkeyApple]

ATM said:

I just resurrected this Topic. Just so you all know.

Anyway let me get to the point.

I have a Citibank account which allows me to have USD, GBP and EUR separate. For the first time I had some USD paid in from abroad. I could not transfer these via the online banking so I called the Indian call centre to move these to a currency conversion company. I was told there is a charge for doing this of £25.

Again I am left confused why there is a charge for a simple bank transfer.

Does anyone here have a USD account in the UK which does not charge for simple transfers?

Yes. Citibank.

Moving USD to a 3rd party USD a/c incurs no charge.

I switch currencies around quite regularly. The only downside to CitiBank is that they have a policy of only employing medically retarded carpet fkers to man their phones.

Re physical FX transfers, just remember that there is no central market for FX and so they can quote you whatever they like. Most retail clients oblige the broker by telling them which way they wish to trade prior to asking for a quote and as such recieve what looks like a good spread but is in fact skewed heavily against them.

[Hugo a Gogo]

is it really that complicated in the UK?

If I have sterling I just pay it into my normal bank account here in Germany and get a good exchange rate, when I go to the UK I use a Barclays ATM and get a good exchange rate the other way and no costs

(although there was that small matter of them 'losing' a 14k sterling cheque I'd paid in, but I got it back eventually )

[DrYazz]

I get paid in Euros into this bank:

www.bankaustria.at

Costs nothing, via online banking, to transfer funds into 1 of my UK accounts.

[ATM]

DonkeyApple said:

ATM said:

I just resurrected this Topic. Just so you all know.

Anyway let me get to the point.

I have a Citibank account which allows me to have USD, GBP and EUR separate. For the first time I had some USD paid in from abroad. I could not transfer these via the online banking so I called the Indian call centre to move these to a currency conversion company. I was told there is a charge for doing this of £25.

Again I am left confused why there is a charge for a simple bank transfer.

Does anyone here have a USD account in the UK which does not charge for simple transfers?

Yes. Citibank.

Moving USD to a 3rd party USD a/c incurs no charge.

I have been charged £25 as explained. I have tried a number of times to do this online and it will only allow me to send money to a payee in GBP from my GBP account. I have a GBP, EUR and USD account with Citibank all linked to the same Visa card. Am I doing something wrong or do I need a different account setup?