Moving to France - converting large amounts of GBP to Euro

[thefrog]

Hi, I may be moving to France in the next few months and will likely sell our house in the UK, pay off the mortgage and want to convert the remainder into Euros to buy a property there.

I already have a bank account in France and I'm sure my UK bank will be more than happy to organise the transfer with an appropriate amount of fees, etc... so looking for the most cost-effective solution for amounts in the region of £300k+

Options as I see them:
-Use a currency exchange bureau - which is best these days ? Seeing the best one today could be the worst tomorrow, are there decent comparison web sites you use ?
-Open a GBP/Euro account, but while convenient, is this the cheapest way to exchange money ? Not too fussed about long term exchange rates on small transactions (see below), but on £300k, a small change in rate can make a big difference !

I'll probably open a GBP/Euro account anyway, so that I have a means to pay in pounds for online purchases + occasional spend, but it can't be in the UK for tax reasons (I think that if I have an account in the UK, I am technically still a resident...). Again, suggestions on the best ones about would be welcome, considering I don't intend on leaving large chunks of cash in there (maybe up to 5k max).

Thanks

[ReaderScars]

Try Transferwise - you can see exactly what it will cost you without any making commitment to send, but you have to have a receiving bank account, which it seems you do.

[Noblebenn]

Mentioned him before, we bought a house in France and used Chris Canning at Argentex Private for the purchase and use him for sending all funds to our French account now. No fees and rates so much better then any bank. Saved us over £10k on exchange rate alone over HSBC.

[thefrog]

Cool, I'll look into them for the big transfer, any thoughts on UK/Euro accounts ? I'll probably have to close my UK bank account for tax purposes, really don't want to have to fill in two tax returns every year !

[Perik Omo]

We didn't and haven't closed our UK accounts since we moved over in 2007. You need to fill in the "leaving the UK tax form" so you won't be liable for UK tax and fill in the relevant French tax forms. It's all sorted out under the Double Tax agreement so you won't end up paying tax twice. We also complete a UK tax form every year (R85 I think it is) to claim for tax deducted from bank interest at source as some banks won't accept the R105 tax form and will always deduct tax from the interest received.

[thefrog]

Perik Omo said:

We didn't and haven't closed our UK accounts since we moved over in 2007. You need to fill in the "leaving the UK tax form" so you won't be liable for UK tax and fill in the relevant French tax forms. It's all sorted out under the Double Tax agreement so you won't end up paying tax twice. We also complete a UK tax form every year (R85 I think it is) to claim for tax deducted from bank interest at source as some banks won't accept the R105 tax form and will always deduct tax from the interest received.

Ok, will look into it some more. Thanks.

[Noblebenn]

Yeah it is fairly straight forward. We still have our HSBC UK accounts and hold an HSBC off shore account. Chris can talk you through it I think and he sorts all the transfers of funds from our HSBC account to our HSBC account. Sounds funny but it saves us a fortune each year.

[Mattt]

I've used UKForex many times before, easy to use and good rates.

If you want I can give you a referral code and we both get £10 Amazon voucher

[thefrog]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, bookmarked this thread for reference when the time comes.

[KTF]

A few options listed here as well: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-c...

[R11ysf]

Open an HSBC Premier account. Deposit the cash in here and ask for a Euro paired account. You can then transfer the money across for FREE at spot rate.

You will not find any cheaper method than this.

[Noblebenn]

Our accounts are HSBC Premier and they will maybe do this once for you but all other transfers attract poor rates and they try to put fees on. In my years of experience, banks are never the cheapest. FX is a hugely profitable area for them.

[Noblebenn]

Our accounts are HSBC Premier and they will maybe do this once for you but all other transfers attract poor rates and they try to put fees on. In my years of experience, banks are never the cheapest. FX is a hugely profitable area for them.

[Noblebenn]

Sorry just to add, what I meant was that the banks Spot rate is not the same as the Inter Bank rate that the likes of Argentex Private work to. The spot rate is the rate they charge for a 'spot' value date. For Eur / USD this tends to be the working day after next.

[R11ysf]

NobleBenn,
I think you need to contact your HSBC private manager. I agree banks make a lot of money form wide spreads on currency exchange, but one of the benefits of the account is the ability to transfer fee-free between you two nominated currency accounts.

Also "Spot-rate" is referencing the cash market rate at the current time, whereas inter-bank rate is made up of other rates, including the spot rate itself. There is no way the bank could set the spot-rate 2 days in to the future otherwise they would trade this and make a fortune!

[robinessex]

My wife comes from the Philippines, so we have a bank account there. And a house. So we do have to transfer abroad to fund this. We do this via bank in the Philippines which has a branch in London. So, transfer money from UK bank to Philippine bank, UK Branch, UK account. Login to UK account, transfer funds from UK account to Philippine account at posted exchange rate. Fee £5. Job done.