Catral

hi all, 
congradulations to all those who have completed, and good luck to all soon completing.
we are on jardines 2 and have been asked to complete in july but still sorting things out, poss going with cam for mortgage, but were wondering how you can save charges on transfering monies over to spain after completion for the mortgage payments, as i've heard some places charge approx £17 each transaction were as someone else told me that the halifax uk would transfer free to halifax mazaron ( using cam i  think   because of set up costs are cheaper),  has anyone got any ideas please ,

  thanks  nigel and ann

Hi Nigel
We're on Jardine 2 as well - completing 18th July (fingers crossed)

Halifax Bank have a Spanish arm, and offer FREE transfers between  a UK Halfiax current account, and the Spanish equivilent - so if you are intending on regular transfers, then that could be a good option. 

Opening the Spanish account is fairly eary - you just go into your Local Halifax branch in UK, get a copy of your passport validated and then post if off to a UK address.  It took about 2 weeks for me to receive my Spanish account number, cheque book and Debit Card.    If you open an XTRA account, you also get membership to a free halifax members club - some of which is pretty useless (e.g. flower delivery service in Spain??!) but some might come in useful - e.g. free tranlsation service, hotline to arrange emergency plumbers, eletcirians etc etc.

I don't have a UK Halifax account, but was thinking of opening one at some point if I need to do regular transfers

Theres a Halifax branch in Puerto de Mazarron and also in Los Alcarzoes, so not too far from Condado.

Hope that helps

Cheers
Russ

I've got an account with CAM and have also set up an account with Currencies Direct. They'll transfer monies on a regular basis FOC and will give you a better exchange rate than most.

We are doing it that way too - mortgage with Spanish banks and transferring money via Currencies Direct by way of a standing order or direct debit.  They will either take a set amount in sterling each month or vary the sterling amount each month to cover the mortgage payment in euros depending on the exchange rate (if that makes sense!).   They do offer a better rate than transferring money via an English bank account. 

 

Hi Payton/Migde

Currencies Direct looks an interesting option.

I am interested to know if your Spanish bank, charge you a fee to receive the funds into your account from Currencies Direct and if so how much and who is your bank (Midge CAM).

Regards

Phil

Hi Phil,

we are with Currencies Direct we have made 3 payments with them and found them  good. Our bank is solbank .
Regards Dave & Lynn

Hi Phil,

Currencies Direct have arrangements with quite a few of the Banks in Spain so that they don't charge for receiving transfers of funds.  We have one mortgage with CAM Bank and one with Bancaja - if you check with Currencies Direct they will be able to confirm which Banks they have the arrangement with.  Thought I had some paperwork somewhere with a list of the Banks but can't find it now amongst the mountain of paperwork for the apartments! 

We have used Currencies Direct three times now and they have been really good - easy to deal with and very efficient.

Hope this helps.

Debbie

Hi
I have opened an account with them also, if you transfer an amount above 5K there is no charge and then monthly transfers by DD or SO are free of charges also.....I used MOneycorp for my 1st transaction and was charged by them and my bank so was a bit pricey.

Another good company we use is uk company sterling exchange where you can do either spot transfers, short or long forward transers or regular monthly payments for mortgage payments etc.  Friendly to deal with and will try and get you the best rate each time.  

Link for them is www.sterlingexchange.co.uk  Guy we deal with is Adam Keskin.

Regards,

Steve.

Hi Guys and Dolls (sound like jimmy saville)
For all the ones over 50 try Saga. They do the same as Currencies  Direct but they have a  lower minimun amount of £3000 per transaction with no fee.
 

hi all,
spoke to hifx today to get an idea of the rate of exchange they would give me, as of today if i was wanting 370 euros monthly payments the rate was 1.15 to the pound,there was no charge for this but it still seems very low, has anyone got any figures for very recent transactions from other exchange companies please,  thanks regards nige and ann

1.15 seems  a bit low,  I'm using GCEN and got 1.23 for my last monthly payment and they don't charge you.

PAUL.

Hi,
I recently got 1.24 from Hifx. I suspect the low rate offered of 1.15 was due to the amount being transferred. If you trsnfer less than £5,000 the rate quickly tumbles.

Hi, I got 1.26 from MoneyCorp a week ago when HIFX were only offering 1.24. I went for an open market contract where you pick the rate you want to get and as soon as the market hits it the contract goes ahead and you need to transfer your funds. You can also cancel the order at any time before it hits the rate if you need to get your money quickly