Buying from abroad?

[harryagain]

The trouble with banks is you get a poor rate of exchange plus they make charges for the service.

[gareth]

Can one issue a cheque specifying Euros from a Brit bank account, and, if one does, is one loable to receive a hefty fee from one's local bank?

[Adrian]

My bank (FD) charges me less than a fiver for a transfer to a Eurozone account.

[Nightjar]

You would need a Euro bank account to do that, which I assume you don't, or you probably wouldn't be asking.

You can usually pay by bank transfer. For this, you will need the full name and address of both the recipient and of their bank, the bank's Banking Identifier Code (BIC) or SWIFT code and the recipient's bank account number, or, preferably, their IBAN (International Bank Account Number).

There are also international money transfer agencies, but these are not regulated in the same way as banks and, if one fails while it has your money, which happened recently, you could lose the money.

[alan_m]

You may find that the seller will refuse it because he is the one that will be subject to hefty fees to cash it or put it through his account.

[alan_m]

And if the seller accepts paypal you can go down this route.

[tabbypurr]

and IMLE they can be a bit dodgy

[Brian-Gaff]

Eurocheques do have a cost, but that varies. I found when I was a business, if I had a Euro facility it cost me quite a bit. I don't see the banks changing their nasty way of making moneyany time soon. Brian

[Adrian]

Eurocheques were discontinued nearly a decade and a half ago.

[Nightjar]

A bank transfer ought to be at or near the inter-bank rates, which are considerably better than the rates you get if buying currency over the counter. As for charges, it will be a lot cheaper than something like a letter of credit and, if both accounts are with the same bank, may even be free.

[cl]

Eurocheques (if you really mean that specific way of sending foreign currency) were discontinued many years ago.

[Huge]

IME, interbank transfers between the UK and USA cost the sender £25 and the recipient $40. Given that the whole thing is automated, these charges are an outrage.

[F]

If you're buying can you not use a credit or debit card? They'll do the conversion for you.

[Theo Markettos]

There will be a load of up to 3% on the exchange rate for interbank - better than getting cash at the airport, but still expensive. You can get this down to about 0.5% depending on amount with third-party brokers (including transfer fees).

There is no need for any fixed fees, charging them is entirely at the whim of your bank. SEPA rules in the Eurozone mean cross-border payments in Euro must cost the same as local Euro payments, so freqently Euro-Euro payments are cheap (free or 50 cents). But the UK banks have wriggled out of this one as you're starting in pounds, and are free to charge whatever they like (and they do).

Theo

[Nightjar]

When I bought a house in France, quite a few years ago now, IIRC I got

0.5% above the interbank rate and paid no transfer fees. However, that was 0.5% on a quarter of a million Euro and I was moving the money between my own accounts in different branches of the same bank.

[Nightjar]

It is a long time since I used a letter of credit, but ISTR a charge of around £60, if I chose to pay the fees for both ends.

[Theo Markettos]

0.35% (average) plus EUR3 fixed fee: 0.5%, minimum GBP1:

(both legit companies)

Theo

[Lobster]

On 10 May 2015, Nightjar grunted:

My bank (RBS) charges a shitload to do this, and on rare occasions (maybe around annually?) I need to do this, usually for holiday-related reasons, over the past 2-3 years I've use Transferwise. They've been very good; as it happens I transferred 510 Euros to Portugal yesterday, which cost me in total 374.85 GBP. The equivalent (1-2 day) service from RBS would have been 30 GBP extra, or 10 GBP extra for a slower service. It's particularly good when you're talking about transferring small sums - like being charged a fee of 30 GBP to transfer 20 quid to Europe!

As Colin says, you aren't protected against them going bust on the day you do your transfer, and I think I'd sweat a bit if I was using them to buy a house or something! And I'd always use a credit card in preference if possible.

If the OP's interested - suggest you sign up using my referral link, and they'll give you a free first transfer (and me a kickback):