Transferring money from England to Ireland

DebDynamite

Hi all

My boyfriend's mother is gifting him some money - over €10,000. She lives in England.

Could someone please advise what is the best way to transfer the money to him - the cheapest way to do it and/or to get the best conversion rate?

Apologies, I see there is a similar thread already, but that is transferring money from ROI - to Ulster Bank in NI - not sure if this is much different.

Thanks

srsly78

No difference, use dedicated fx service that gives you best rate.

rsj

Keep in mind when using FX companies that there will often be fees to be paid at the recieving bank. I do a monthly transfer through Natwest, and tried a few FX companies at one time, but found, while the rate was better, it didn't include recieving fees on the Irish end, so I ended up worse off.

srsly78

I have never encountered fees at the receiving end.

Likely you made a mistake and tried to put sterling into a euro account. There should be no fees for putting euros into a euro account, or sterling into a sterling account.

There is a small fee sometimes for money transfer, usually you have a fast vs slow option. The fast option (24 hours) usually costs e10-e20 depending on bank. This is charged by the sender, not the receiver. Most FX providers usually waive this fee anyway (they make their money from the spread).

If my bank were to charge fees for putting money into my account, then I would switch banks. I can confirm that Bank of Ireland do not charge such a fee.

DebDynamite

srsly78 wrote: »

Likely you made a mistake and tried to put sterling into a euro account. There should be no fees for putting euros into a euro account, or sterling into a sterling account. QUOTE]

Sorry, I should have made it clearer, she will be sending sterling.

srsly78

Use FX broker as detailed in other posts.

A simplified explanation:
Assume the exchange rate for GBP:EUR is 1.2:1. This is known as the mid-market rate.

Say you have GBP£10,000.
Your bank will likely offer you 1.15:1 rate, or worse. A dedicated fx service will offer you maybe 1.19:1, or better. Thus the bank is effectively screwing you for £400 or so.

If you were transferring money into or out of the european union then maybe extra charge might come into it. Note the UK is part of the european union. This is the "free movement of capital", miniature european flags for all!

ravima

I've used currencyfair. Lodge to their account from your 'donor' account and then transfer to your 'beneficiary' account.

skippy2

+1 for currency fair