Hidden Charges.mmm

Just thought i would mention about charges i  unexpectedly encountered during my recent property purchase and maybe others could avoid with all your imput. Firstly i used a money broker called "Tor FX" to transfer my money and incurred a landing charge (my understanding was that the broker would pick up any charges made by the bank)   not so   only charges into there own bank (obiously i didn't expect to pay those afterall they were after my money) anyway that amounted to 0.2% of total.  next  there was a 0.2% charge from my bank in Spain to write a bankers draught for me to take to the notary. and i forgot to mention a £40 charge for the chaps transfer in the first place to "TOR FX". All money i didn't account for. Im sure i was niaeve and better ways could be used. Anyway on the plus side delighted with my Flat  ooops sorry Apartment and look forward to some nice relaxing hols there.   Jack.

Banks normally have to receive funds under €50,000 free of charge, anything else and you get clobbered. Why did you CHAPS the money to the broker? We use BACS to send money to our currency broker which is free, although not same day. Another option is to try SEPA transfers from your UK bank which are supposedly free, but you don't get such a good rate. Having said that, byt the time you have taken into account the charges you have paid, the lower rate for a SEPA transfer may have been more preferable.

Mark

So it appears its best to transfer money in smaller lumps to avoid landing charges.   Will also take note of  BACS as against CHAPS however in my case i needed to transfer quickly. good info cheers Mark.         jack

Hello, my broker from excel currencies mentioned to quote the bank for non urgent payments and this has always been free of charge. Its a bit poor spanish banks take receiving fees, Tor FX dont pay receiving fees? The told me they would accept to pay the fee, I was so close to using them

We used HIFX - very satisfied - helpful, totally open and no nasty surprises. No hesitation in recommending them whatsoever.

Steve.

 

Hi Jack

 

Hope you have many happy years in Spain, we love it and get out often  HIFX I would not recommend, we transfered 40000 euros with them to put in the developers account, it had to be in by a certain day and they said it would only take five days, welll one month later I got a phone call asking what we wanted doing with this money, unknown to us our developer had fined us 1900 euros, with the help of Eye On Spain I managed to get HIFX to put their hands up and say it was their fault and they refunded me the 1900 euros we had to pay the developer. Never used them again.

Like you say we are nieave when we buy our first property in Spain, but you soon learn, and their is still some honest helpful people in Spain.

Used a money broker,one named on this thread, to transfer funds. Got clobbered 25 GBP every time by UK building society to send funds to broker and then .3% detucted from Spanish bank upon receipt of money !!

Only after our Spanish lawyer intervened did the bank stop this practice.

Now I transfer using a UK cheque. Downside have to wait 30 days before I can withdraw the cash although it can be used to pay s/o's in 7 days but I get within.00 of business rate  and no fees.

Amex currently have an offer on for £1 charge per transaction. Details can be found here.

Mark

With the greatest respect to fx brokers, and I know £1 is only £1! and they are necessary, no bank will ever beat them, but they make enough money on buying and selling currency, why do some of them charge on top to transfer? It seems some companies just want to take as much profit as they can get away with these days!

Bummer. Just tried to send some money by Amex and it isn't available to individuals, only businesses .