Transferring money from France to England on the cheap??.

As it sez, got a need for money to come from France in Euros to England UKP as cheaply as possible, anyone any experience with outfits like Transferwise and the like that they could recommend?.

Cheers..

You want to convert Euros to GBP? Roughly how much?

I've used Transferwise without problem, but occasionally these companies go pop.

I've used Xetrade (xe.com) for many years. I think there are other similar ones now but they have always been reliable and quick and answer questions quickly too.

Just a one off requirement?

I opened a Barclays Euro account when I was going to get paid a good few thousand in Euros. It doesn't cost anything to run, IIRC the exchnage rate is good(*) and gave me the flexibilty to sit on the Euros and transfer to my sterling (Barclays) account when the rate was to my advantage.

(*) Possibly not the best but without any additional "transaction" fees in or out.

Tranferwise, saved me a lot of money compared to using my bank. Also has a debit card that is very useful for paying small amounts by card such as Italian autostrada tolls

I've used virgin money a couple of times and a couple of others once - I'd recommend virgin money

Do I take it from this that you may have a UK bank acct but not a French one or vice versa?

Dunno mate. Just use paypal? Pay it in at one end, withdraw at the other?

Tim..

Its money form the ex wife to help pay for nursery fees for the grandchildren so no she does not have a UK account but when she does send them anything the money that turns up here has been subjected to bank robbery!!

This and the other side of the channel..

Looks like Transferwise may well be the one to go for.

Thanks to all who have replied!..

Is she sending it to you or one of your children? I suppose what I'm getting at is why not just do a bank-bank transfer?

Paypal certainly used to be a cheap and reliable way of transferring money from continental accounts to UK. Not sure if it still is as I've not had to use if for some time. Dutch friend used to use it regularly to make various payments to offspring in UK University.

Ive used it to send mall sums to US based people

Arbitraging exchange rates is not Paypal's business model

Its going the nippers mum but it seems to "loose" a lot on the trip from France to England;(

If you see what I mean!

Bank exchange rates are dreadful compared to specialist money exchange dealers, plus you can monitor rates and specify when to deal.

Used Transferwise a number of times over the years without problems.

Cheers

Dave R

Must admit to being surprised there is a problem between France and the UK. Not had a problem with Germany. Unlike the US...

Transferwise has been recommended to me too, after my US fiasco. But I couldn't insist it was used.

Dunno about France. I recently had a Paypal payment from the US. Total cost including poor exchange rate, very high.

Is that something to be proud of? ;-)

But you can have multiple currency accounts with paypal and do your own exchange rate, the best you can find.