what you do is sent it to me and I'll let you have some of it :lol every now and again !
I suppose it depends on how much you talking bout but I would have thought a normal bank transfer should do it! you will get the current exchange rate for that lump sum plus the banks handling fee ..
there may be ex-pats out there that read this that have a better understanding of transferring money from a UK bank to a foriegn bank using Euro's!
It ain't what you ride, it's who you ride with!!!
Before you do it though, let your bank know so it doesn't get held up for money laundering checks.
That's also a cheap way to transfer money if the French account has a cheque book associated with it, just write yourself a cheque and pay it into your UK account.
If talking hundreds rather than thousands, Paypal. I've got a mate in France who often wants to buy stuff from companies that won't deal with overseas customers, so he sends me the money as a gift through Paypal and I buy them instead.
We're defiantly talking thousands.
Could always draw it in cash and fly home with it. Doubt airport security would mind a briefcase of cash passing through :lol
why not wait until you need a new car / bike then buy one abroad and bring it back ?? that way your money will be earning intrest !
It ain't what you ride, it's who you ride with!!!
I used to use Currencies Direct when I had a house in Spain. Don't hang around though, the euro ain't looking good!
Open a Euro account with your bank in the UK then get your French bank to make a SEPA (Single European Payments Area) payment. SEPA is like BACS in the UK but only takes 1-2 days to transfer the money, BACS used to be 3.
Your French bank might have an online feature so you can do it yourself via internet banking. If not just tell them you want to make a payment.
If you haven't got a Euro account in the UK get the your French bank to make an International Payment (SWIFT) to you UK GBP account. They will have their exchange rates which might be better or worse than others.
I think Barclays charge £15 for SEPA and £25 for SWIFT, but no idea what the French will charge. For SWIFT there may also be a Correspondent charge if your French Bank doesn't deal direct with your UK Bank and the payment has to go via a 3rd party. If your French and UK are major banks they probably will have a direct relationship.
All Cross Border payments are screened under AML laws. If you name is Bin Laden it may be held up, but Joe Bloggs should be ok. Most screening is done automatically by computer software.
As someone else said, give your French bank your UK brances IBAN and SWIFTBIC to make sure it gets paid promptly and incurs no further charges.
Telling your UK branch you are expecting is it probably a good idea too.
a) Buy a nice Peugeot.
b) Fill the trunk with good wine.
c) If there's any money left, spend it on women, or wife.
Most things done in a hurry need to be done again - patiently.
Surprisingly, the good ol' Nationwide Building Society will do it ... But you'd only want to set up the necessary accounts if you're going to be doing it regularly. It can all be done on t'internet.
You need to open a euro account with Nationwide International, in the Isle of Man - and a flex-account (regular bank account) with Nationwide on your high-street. You'll need to 'authenticate' yourself with a passport, which you can show at your local branch.
Swift transfer your Euros into your "offshore" account (will cost you £20 a time, as said).
When you feel like trading, phone them up and say - "convert 20,000 euros to pounds".
And they do ... it appears instantly as cleared funds in your online flex-account.
They do good rates too - I do it in Dollars but their rates are within 1/5th of a cent of the money-market rate.