Don't use your bank!

I am buying in Los Gallardos and have a bank account with Bankinter in Vera - when asking about transferring money to my account there to purchase the property, I was told that I could "simply ask my bank to do a Sterling transfer" and that I would get the current commercial rate and pay no commission charges (at least at the Bankinter end).

This sounds too good to be true - I thought the exchange to Euros would need to be done before the transfer by the UK bank - and banks use the tourist rate - but what they are saying contradicts this.

Anyone else heard of this (with Bankinter or other) ?  Should I trust this or should I still go via a currency broker ?

Dave

Hi Dave seems woolly to me - I have an account with Bank Inter here on the CDS. While I do not incur a charge from them for receiving the money it comes through a currency broker that arranges the commercial rate.  If you ask your bank to do a sterling transfer I think they need to transfer to a sterling account and I assume that your account with Bank Inter is a Euro account. Bank Inter do have some sterling facilities for non resident accounts but I think you need to have set up a special facility. I think you need to look into this further before making arrangements. Before doing anything I would also compare exchange rates on the day you do the deal because their idea of a commercial rate might be very different to the broker's.

Regards Smiley 

A lot of brokers have a debit card facility as long as you have completed the paperwork when setting up the account. I trasferred well in excess of £200,000 to Spain just on the strength of a debit card via a broker.

Rgds Smiley

I've mentioned them before - but HiFX guarantee no charges at the other end by your bank and if you do happen to get a charge they reimburse you, also you get the business rate and they'll give you an agreed fixed rate from 6months to a maximum of 2 years for transferring your mortgage payments, then if there's a fluctuation in the market you at least know you're paying 'x' amount for the term of your agreement.

www.hifx.com

Try Nationwide Building Society.

They are superb. I have a flex account and get no foreign charges at all for using it plus they give you the daily rate. I was recently at the BBVA in Gran Alacant and needed £300 for a supplier. I got 1.48 where as other banks were 1.45 and charged 2.75%

They are excellent. I contacted HiFx yesterday as I wanted to make a regular transfer to save me having to keep taking cash out of the cash point to pay into my BBVA account. They offered me a rate of 1.38 to 1.40, I explained about Nationwide and they said they couldnt compete, he even had a Nationwide account himself. I go over every month, so for me it is easy and much cheaper for me to get it out of the wall.

Hope this helps -

Hi Jeanssis,

Are you the same person who is on the Costa Blacna La Marina forum???

I thought I recognised your name.  We're buying in Almoradi, 10 minutes from Guardamar Beach.

what rate does the Halifax give you approximately when you transfer money??  Is it nearer the business rate or tourist rate??

Hi

The halifax espania give a rate of whatever it may be that day, we sent our money through moneycorp it was very easy and only cost £15.00, but we sent a lot of money, we got a great deal and saved nearly £800.00 they transfered it straight into our halifax account and no charges on either side were made, i would reccoment moneycorp all day long.

Rates from brokers are normally better than Halifax offer but make sure they either cover the Landing Charge such as HIFX or have an agreement with Halifax for no Landing Fee such as Currencies Direct. Good service too.

Rgds

Hi everyone, yes we transferred money from barclays to HIFX to Rojales b@vbanco and the rate was 1.48 which was good and we were not charged any charges.    

Thanks Jeanssis for the info re Halifax, I will certainly check that out as I am already a customer there.

I have already set up with HiFX for larger transactions but was thinking along the lines of if I have to get small amounts over there quickly or odd payments that need to be made as I think HiFX only deal with your larger transactions and regular monthly amounts such as mortgages.

Hi JeansSis.

That’s what we did, but we just made an appointment with our local Halifax branch, the told us what to bring and the whole thing was done within 30 mins. We now have an account in Torry and one in the UK.

But I would still say, as do many others on this forum;

Transfer large amounts of money via a reputable currency broker and get a rate that is within 0.5% to 1% below the actual exchange rate on the world currency market.

This could save you thousands on a large amount.

Example; (not at today’s rate) Bank rate; 1.4€ to the £.

                                              Currency Broker; 1.775€ to the £.

This will give you a potential saving of £375 for every £1,000 transferred!

Thanks Jeanssis for that info.  Will possibly do that.

Sharon