Converting Euros to Sterling - Moving currency out of business account

[prozak]

Have you thought about speaking to Cater Allen?

I remember a while ago I changed £70k into euro and negotiated Citibank's margine down to something more reasonable.

[psychocandy]

I thought CaterAllen charged about 1% over the interbank rate for transfers between € and £. I guess CurrencyFair might be slightly better than that but you are getting into diminishing returns here, surely?

In the past it hasnt been worth the hassle. i.e. save £20 or so.

Recently, CA seem to have been much more conservative with their rate.

CurrencyFair rate is very good - you're actually trading with other people so sometimes the rate is even better than the mid-market rate. Gotta be fair been impressed with them so far. Even on £10K, you're saving something like £150 or so on CAs rate. At the moment, with the euro so tulipe I'll take all I can get. :-(

[psychocandy]

Have you thought about speaking to Cater Allen?

I remember a while ago I changed £70k into euro and negotiated Citibank's margine down to something more reasonable.

Usually I'm doing £10-£15K at most. I did speak to them but they wouldnt change for this amount.

[jamesbrown]

Have you thought about speaking to Cater Allen?

I remember a while ago I changed £70k into euro and negotiated Citibank's margine down to something more reasonable.

The best way to transfer a large sum of money is to use a dedicated currency transfer service, such as Oanda.com, Xe.com, HiFX etc. In general, assuming you trade when the major markets are open and not during a major event risk, there will be a very small spread on the interbank rate, certainly far smaller than the premium charged by a bank (I usually find it's a few pips on USDGBP).

I'm currently working in the US and I do regular currency transfers of moderate amounts into GBP. The only slight downside risk is that you aren't insured if the transfer company collapses mid-transfer. A very small risk, but something to bear in mind for the risk averse. None of this is really worth it for transfer amounts of £1-2k, but you will save £1-2k on a transfer of £70k (assuming a bank premium of 1-3%).