Moving money from UK to Spain

[Quattromaster]

My elderly mother has lived in Spain for over 17 yrs, has a UK bank account with the Halifax, and a Spanish acc with Santander.

I’m looking for the best/cheapest way to move money from UK acc to Spanish account, on a monthly basis, Just over 1000 euro.

Halifax do it, but the exchange rate is shocking.

Anybody have any suggestions of what platform/company to use. Seems such a minefield out there.

Thanks in advance.

[21ATS]

For that amount of money you'll not get many options, it's not enough for anyone to make commission on, hence the appalling rates you're being offered.

May be simply worth getting a FairFX card or similar:-

https://www.fairfx.com/

[ReverendCounter]

I've used HiFx in the past, worked very well for larger amounts, as did TransferWise, now Wise. However tried Wise a couple of times for smaller amounts recently, unfortunately I don't rate the customer experience very highly any more.

Customer support calls take an age to be started after being put in a queue, then put you can find yourself back on hold further, even for a fairly simple query, and there's no chat function. Not the business it used to be, imo.

Edited by ReverendCounter on Tuesday 16th August 20:41

[bigandclever]

I use xe.com (formerly called hifx).

[dingg]

Wise and revolut both work fine for me, no requirement for me to speak to a representative, all done online.

[paddy1970]

Use wise (or similar)

https://wise.com/gb/currency-converter/

[Mr_Megalomaniac]

Revolut. You can transfer to bank accounts as well as load the card.

[dmahon]

I use a Wise.com debit card. Great product and good rates.

[Percy Cushion]

Another vote for Wise from me

[elanfan]

Would it be worth putting it into a PayPal account and converting it to Euro? Haven’t looked into it myself but worth a look. I know it can then be downloaded to her Spanish account?

[Quattromaster]

Thanks for the pointers so far folks, a few to look at, sadly WISE is a non starter, long story that I’ll not bore you all with, but will certainly take a look at the other options.

[Abacus21]

I would move the money in tranches over a period of 3 months or so.

Also perhaps have 2 brokers on seperate portal internet sessions and see what the spot price is at any given moment.

For big money the difference can be hundreds of pounds/euros or perhaps more.

[james_zy]

One option for EUR expenses would be to use a currency card such as Currensea.

https://www.currensea.com/pricing/exchange-rates

This works by direct debiting the GBP account for transactions made in EUR on the card. The rates are extremely competitive - I can vouch for their customer support (have been using them for the last year or so).

[generationx]

Yep Wise for me too. I've been using it both ways Germany <-> England without issues, for various sizes of transfer. I've never had to speak to anyone either.

[Rob_125]

Could she not just get a uk bank account, chase/nationwide flexplus/monzo et al. And withdraw cash as she needs it from an atm at the visa exchange rate.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

Presumably she needs a spanish account for paying local bills / direct debits ?

I use a Revolut card - load from my UK account, then make the FX trade to EUR at very good rates, then transfer out to my EUR bank account.

Mine's not in Spain & the local bank charges are quite high, so I use my Revolut for all EUR spending that I don't absolutely have to do through the local bank.

[Quattromaster]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

The Spanish Santander account must have 1000 euro a month paid in, or she incurs costs.

She then uses a card from this acc for her day to day living costs.