# Moving to UK.  Ireland GBP account. Sell house and a bit more



## dawall (17 Aug 2019)

Hello,

Thinking about selling up and moving to the UK.  

I've had a bit of a windfall that will fund the move. it will be paid in GBP probably by cheque from a solicitors, I don't really want to be changing the pounds to euro then back again if I can help it, although I will probably need to change some to help with the move. 

What I'd like to be able to do would be, pay the proceeds from the sale of my house in to my AIB account then, when I want to change that to GBP, change it via a 3rd party fx broker. 

Is there anyway I could have a UK account set up over there before the move ?  Would I be able to keep my AIB personal until the funds were transferred?

I understand I could set up a GBP account with AIB but from reading this (*below)  payments in/out are resrticted and, technically after the sale I wouldn't be resident in the republic as I would vacate the house a day or 2 before the sale finalises, for the shift over to the UK   

*Incoming and Outgoing International payments are not supported, only sterling payments within the UK (UK Interbank Payments) are supported 

*Personal customers have no online access to these accounts 

Any advice would be well received....Cheers


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## Thirsty (17 Aug 2019)

Advice? don't do it

At least not yet, far too much still in flux with Brexit issue in my view to make major decisions.


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## dawall (18 Aug 2019)

Thirsty said:


> Advice? don't do it
> 
> At least not yet, far too much still in flux with Brexit issue in my view to make major decisions.


 
Cheers man....I know there's loads going on with Brexit...crystal ball would be handy.  I'm looking at fx rates, I'd hate to miss the boat on the exchange


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## Horatio (19 Aug 2019)

Set yourself up on transferwise.com. You can have a GBP account there for free & hold the funds in GBP until you want to exchange some or all of it. They have excellent rates, the best in my experience. They'll even send you out a debit card for free. Do some research on transferwise it's an excellent set up. 

I have used it many times for large international FX transactions & they never put a foot wrong.


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## Horatio (19 Aug 2019)

British Pound Sterling to Euro Exchange Rate. Convert GBP/EUR - Wise
					

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					transferwise.com


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## dawall (21 Aug 2019)

sahd said:


> With most of the FX brokers, you can choose to fix today's rate on a specified amount for up to 12 months. When I was in a similar situation selling a property - I opted to fix a rate on half the value of the house. Saves worrying about fluctuations.



Thanks for that...sound advice.  How would that work if the house sale hadn't gone through at the end of the fixed term, I'm assuming you would owe the broker the difference if the rate had gone against you.

Cheers


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## dawall (21 Aug 2019)

Horatio said:


> Set yourself up on transferwise.com. You can have a GBP account there for free & hold the funds in GBP until you want to exchange some or all of it. They have excellent rates, the best in my experience. They'll even send you out a debit card for free. Do some research on transferwise it's an excellent set up.
> 
> I have used it many times for large international FX transactions & they never put a foot wrong.



Spot on ...thanks.  I will have a look at transferwise.com, it seems as that could take care of the other side of the equation.

I did use a broker 6 years ago when we moved here. I'd have to look through my records to get the brokers name, at that time it was a very good rate.  I had opened an account with them and after a couple of phone calls, a few i.d scans, they gave me a rate on that day and, also a week for me to sort out the transfer from the UK side as I had to go over to release the funds in person.  I'm wandering if they could do kind of the reverse this time, from euro in an Irish account to, GBP in a UK account. Maybe after Brexit it may not even be possible. That word is there in every plan or calculation at the moment.


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## Horatio (21 Aug 2019)

dawall said:


> I'm wandering if they could do kind of the reverse this time, from euro in an Irish account to, GBP in a UK account.


Absolutely they can do that. You just need the details of the destination account. 

Transferwise will give you an *important reference number* for your transactions it is *critical *that you reference that number when sending money via transferwise to your destination account. It's the unique key the identifies the funds as coming from you & sends them onto the destination account.


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## dawall (21 Aug 2019)

Horatio said:


> Absolutely they can do that. You just need the details of the destination account.
> 
> Transferwise will give you an *important reference number* for your transactions it is *critical *that you reference that number when sending money via transferwise to your destination account. It's the unique key the identifies the funds as coming from you & sends them onto the destination account.



That's good info...very much appreciated, thanks


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## Ravima (21 Aug 2019)

You could open Ulster NI account online. Then you have a UK bank a/c. You can transfer funds then via transferwise or currencyfair.


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## so-crates (22 Aug 2019)

it might be worth considering the online banks.

N26 (a German-based online bank) have partnered with Transferwise for foreign currency transactions. They are very straightforward to set up with and the currency transfer I made to dollars was easy and cheap. They are available in the UK too. The cost is the basic Transferwise cost (same as if you set up an account on Transferwise itself, but you don't have to manage the important reference number yourself)

Revolut also provide easy to access online banking in Ireland (and also available in the UK) and cheap currency transfers. The set up of an account is equally straightforward. Currency transfers have no charge up to €6000 over that, if you have the standard account, they charge 0.5%. If you have a Premium or a Metal account there is no charge on any amount transferred.

In both cases, account set up is straightforward from your phone. I set up both accounts in one evening and was using them within days.


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## dawall (22 Aug 2019)

@so-crates @Ravima  Thanks for the information, I've got a lot of research to do.  Having a UK account with Ulster could be a viable option but I will also look in to N26.  

I will have to check with the solicitor if they would pay my windfall by transfer. Previously, many years ago something similar was paid by cheque, I could imagine maybe that's how they'd still do it.  If it were possible with the solicitor to do it electronically and I had a UK account with the Ulster,  I could use that account to accept the proceeds from the sale of the house (euro) via Transferwise (gbp)

Cheers


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