Reply to: How to convert pounds to euro/$. Not in forex

[WTFH]

What is Cable?

[garnet]

I wondered the same thing, but that wouldn't be a good play, as the EUR would also depreciate significantly. Chances are there will be a remain vote (almost certain IMO), and Cable and Eurodollar will appreciate somewhat, perhaps 5% on Cable. A leave vote might see Cable drop 15-20% over the subsequent months, less on the Eurodollar (although I wouldn't be confident on that). Anyway, enormous event risk, so not something for the faint of heart, but you'd be better holding USD in the event of Brexit, not EUR.

What is Cable?

I am on the opinion that a IN vote will make the £ stronger at least in the short term. We will see. The revolut seems interesting even for larger sums.

[jamesbrown]

Are you trying to hedge against a £ collapse if the EU referendum goes the other way ?

Remember, forex betting is pretty risky and in no time you could lose a lot. I personally know friends of mine losing shed loads of cash when the CHF EURO floor was removed by the Swiss bank.

I wondered the same thing, but that wouldn't be a good play, as the EUR would also depreciate significantly. Chances are there will be a remain vote (almost certain IMO), and Cable and Eurodollar will appreciate somewhat, perhaps 5% on Cable. A leave vote might see Cable drop 15-20% over the subsequent months, less on the Eurodollar (although I wouldn't be confident on that). Anyway, enormous event risk, so not something for the faint of heart, but you'd be better holding USD in the event of Brexit, not EUR.

[fullyautomatix]

Are you trying to hedge against a £ collapse if the EU referendum goes the other way ?

Remember, forex betting is pretty risky and in no time you could lose a lot. I personally know friends of mine losing shed loads of cash when the CHF EURO floor was removed by the Swiss bank.

[AtW]

LLoyds trading desk, around ~0.6% for good customers, more for everybody else...

[Mordac]

Hi,

what is the best way to convert pounds to euro or/and $?
Say I have a pounds bank account and a euro account. Today £/euro is 1.2833 (xe.com). How can I convert say £1000 and get 1283.30 euro in my euro account?
I don't mind a small commission or say lower rate, but it must be reasonable.
I am not interested in forex.
Any ideas.

Euro bank account, linked to a credit / debit card. Been there, done some of it...forgot to mention, might not have paid tax on all of it...

[Bacchus]

Hi,

what is the best way to convert pounds to euro or/and $?
Say I have a pounds bank account and a euro account. Today £/euro is 1.2833 (xe.com). How can I convert say £1000 and get 1283.30 euro in my euro account?
I don't mind a small commission or say lower rate, but it must be reasonable.
I am not interested in forex.
Any ideas.

Have a look at revolut for those sort of amounts - basically an "app" which lets you keep a balance in different currencies and switch them around at pretty close to the spot rate.

I think you get a card which allows you to withdraw cash from your account in the country of choice

https://revolut.com

[greenlake]

I change money for you, good exchange rate, any currency....

[Old Greg]

I used transferwise to convert a large amount from £ to €. Market rates + 0.5% commission.

You get a quote and then have 24 hours (IIRC) to complete the transaction or cancel. So it's worth getting a quote just before an event such as Interest Rate decision. I did well by getting a quote, then cancelling to get a better quote.

[jamesbrown]

will 2nd transferwise.com, the closest anywhere you'll get to the going market rate.

All of the FX brokers offer a few pips for liquid currency pairs like Cable. There's really very little difference between them. They either make money from the pips or from the various transfer fees or both, but the margins are way smaller than the highstreet banks.

[scooterscot]

will 2nd transferwise.com, the closest anywhere you'll get to the going market rate.

[jamesbrown]

I don't want to go to forex, I don't know it, all this leverage things and all.
I am talking about "flat" conversion, cash style (only into bank account).
In November 2015 £/euro was 1.42, now it is 1.28. I wanted to convert £50 000 into euro and keep it in euro account until a week ago when it was £/euro of 1.25.

This scheme:

my £ account, send £ to intermediary £ account > intermediary converts to euro > transfer from intermediary's euro account to my euro account.

I think you're misunderstanding what forex means but, in any case, you want a straightforward foreign exchange broker, of which there are many. Examples include Oanda and HiFX. You'll need to open an account with them and transfer money in from your GBP account. You can then open sub-accounts in various currencies for the internal transfer, before you withdraw to an appropriate bank account in the target currency. There are literally hundreds of FX brokers. You will typically achieve within a few pips of the spot rate. However, the funds are not protected by the FSCS, so you may lose your deposit if the broker goes bust (highly unlikely, but not unheard of, and increasingly likely if you leave you deposit for a long period). Obviously, there are no guarantees that you're punting in the right direction if this is a future position (i.e. as opposed to a straightforward transfer). Also, if it's a currency speculation, I don't really see why you wouldn't want to use a leveraged option. In any case, your best bet is to open an account with an FX broker.

[d000hg]

Someone like https://www.moneycorp.com/uk/ I've used them before, but only up to about £300K at a time.

I wonder if you can use sites like TransferWise (is this a similar idea?) to transfer money to yourself?

[garnet]

Er. Um. You want to conduct a foreign exchange without forex? Let me know how that works out...

You aren't going to get spot rate, so you either make a bank transfer to a GBP/EUR account (or via an intermediary, such as Paypal) or you use a dedicated FX provider or you withdraw the cash and visit Serge on the corner of Tulip St.

I don't want to go to forex, I don't know it, all this leverage things and all.
I am talking about "flat" conversion, cash style (only into bank account).
In November 2015 £/euro was 1.42, now it is 1.28. I wanted to convert £50 000 into euro and keep it in euro account until a week ago when it was £/euro of 1.25.

This scheme:

my £ account, send £ to intermediary £ account > intermediary converts to euro > transfer from intermediary's euro account to my euro account.

[DimPrawn]

Someone like https://www.moneycorp.com/uk/ I've used them before, but only up to about £300K at a time.