# working in London- bringing home sterling



## nbc (30 Nov 2010)

Hi,
I have been doing some work in the uk and hope to head home at xmas. I will have aprox 10,000 sterling. I want to convert it to euros and want to use most of it to pay off my halifax credit card. I have an english bank account and checked online and they will give me 11000 euro. Yet today I walked into a foreign exchange office in Leicester sq and he said he would give me close to 12000. So thats a big difference. I'm obviously too nervous to get 12000 cash in case i lost it or am robbed. So is there any other way around this?  I'm basically looking for the cheapest but safest way of transferring money from my english bank account to my irish bank account
nbc


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## whattodo? (1 Dec 2010)

Do not use a Sterling cheque, this will take weeks to clear as you can see from my psot further down and its been 4 weeks and still nothing - I am transferring a similar amount to you!

I worked out that you got a rate of 0.91 - that is completley unacceptable and they are making a fortune on you! The only way to transfer it is by sending it to your account by internationl transfer.

I think there are other ways by using some sort of transfer agent companies - anyone know of any?


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## runner (1 Dec 2010)

Why not get a euro bank draft made out to Halifax for say 5,000 or whatever, and bring the rest in cash.


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## nbc (3 Dec 2010)

*.*

Regarding the international bank transfer- this would be done through my bank and im getting a poor rate. regarding getting a euro cheque- i assume this is done through a bank also and again I will get screwed in the currency exchange. the best rates appear to come from the currency exchange offices. So I still dont know what to do.
Also are these offices reputable? Is there aa chance of getting dud notes?
nbc


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## nbc (3 Dec 2010)

*xe*

Has anybody used xe money transfer?They claim to have no fees.
nbc


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## TheShark (3 Dec 2010)

Have used XE several times without any problem.
Today they will convert £10000 to €11751.
Hope this helps.


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## nbc (3 Dec 2010)

*,*

Thanks shark,
That has been very helpful.
Niall


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## ccraig (4 Dec 2010)

Try transfermate.com, irish company in London and Dublin , you check their rate and once happy they hold the rate for you, you lodge in the Uk and they transfer to an Irish account. It takes either 1 or 2 days, not sure


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## candyflipper (6 Dec 2010)

There is a way to do this for free.  Get a Santandar Zero card (which has no FX costs).  Then use that card in Ireland.  Everything you spend will have no FX commission - you would pay the straight interbank rate.  

Of course, this generally limits you to only being able to transfer the money as you spend it.. so may not work if you need suddenly need all the money at once.


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## fto (5 Jan 2011)

there are plenty of currency brokers out there i.e travelx, omnisfx, travelmate that will save you money compaired to using a cheques/bank. Also there are a few good  advice sites out there that detial the process quiet well.


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## roker (5 Jan 2011)

What about transferring from Ireland to UK. My local TSB said they could not transfer €2,000 to my UK sterling account because there was not enough sterling in the branch, even though it is an electronic transfer, who does the conversion the local branch or the UK bank?


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## terrontress (10 Jan 2011)

I think it is illegal for that sort of cash to be carried across the border. 

There are usually signs for it in the airports and sniffer dogs are trained to detect large volumes of cash. Putting your hand luggage through the scanner it could be spotted. You'll have it confiscated and then have to prove where it has come from.

DO NOT BRING CASH!!!!


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## redbhoy (10 Jan 2011)

terrontress said:


> sniffer dogs are trained to detect large volumes of cash.


 
What does money smell like??


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## candyflipper (28 Jan 2011)

redbhoy said:


> What does money smell like??



cocaine.. dogs probably need no extra training!


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## TheBritalian (17 Feb 2011)

Hi,

If you're based in the UK the best service I've used to transfer money to Ireland is FairPay by fairfx.com (no affiliation, I'm just a regular customer). The rates are very good and the money is in Ireland within the day (AIB account in Dublin) if you do the transfer first thing in the morning.
The rates are better than what HSBC here in the UK provides, plus fairfx doesn't charge a transaction fee which with HSBC is £9 per transaction.
Another good one is hifx.co.uk but they're a bit slower in processing transactions according to my personal experience.

TB


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## ccraig (24 Feb 2011)

Check xe and currency.ie in Dublin too


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## Mpsox (24 Feb 2011)

Bear in mind that if you lodge that amount of cash in Ireland, you may be reported for suspected money laundering by the bank.


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## denise2007 (25 Feb 2011)

Hi,

I've used these to transfer money from Ireland to UK and would recommend. I have no affiliation !  Currencyfair.com


Cheers


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## fto (16 Mar 2011)

On amounts more than £10k it is worth using a currency broker to help with the exchange. 

As using a bank for exchanges of that amount you would be loosing around 2% compaired to using a broker.

There are many good brokers in Ireland and the UK all offer pretty much the same service, they will not charge for the transaction, they just differ on the exchange rates they offer. 

See below expected broker margin/spreads from interbank (what you see on cnbc or http://www.fxstreet.com/rates-charts/currency-rates/) 

€5-10K -    2% off interbank (similar to what a bank offers)
€10-20k -   1% off interbank
€20-50k -   0.7% off interbank
€50-100k -  0.5% off interbank
€100-500k - 0.2/0.3 off interbank
€500k +       0.1/0.2% off interbank  

for more infomation there are a few advice sites out there


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## burner (17 Mar 2011)

terrontress said:


> I* think it is illegal* for that sort of cash to be carried across the border.
> 
> There are usually signs for it in the airports and sniffer dogs are trained to detect large volumes of cash. Putting your hand luggage through the scanner it could be spotted. You'll have it confiscated and then have to prove where it has come from.
> 
> DO NOT BRING CASH!!!!


 
So you don't actually know? There is no restriction between Ireland and the UK that I am aware of. Try driving into Northern Ireland and there are no customs posts anymore.


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## Laramie (18 Mar 2011)

roker said:


> What about transferring from Ireland to UK. My local TSB said they could not transfer €2,000 to my UK sterling account because there was not enough sterling in the branch, even though it is an electronic transfer, who does the conversion the local branch or the UK bank?


 
Is this a joke? Did the person working in the branch actually think that raw currency is transferred in a box or shoved down a phone line?


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