GBP to EUR transfer - exchange rate and charges

Hi All,

I'm just wondering what the situation is with transferring money from a UK account to an Irish account.

I did this recently and I was charged £20 for the transfer and only after the transaction I realised that exchange rate that was used was quite a bit lower than the exchange exchange rate for that date. The difference in the exchange rate amounted to €70 for the amount I transferred.

Is this typical when transferring money i.e. that the bank give a lower rate than the standard exchange rate? I know this is the case when getting foreign currency i.e. there is a "we buy" and "we sell" rate, but I didn't think it would apply for a bank transfer.

Is there a better / cheaper way that I can transfer money to my irish account? At the moment, it's costing me about €60-€100 each time because of the exchange rate and the transfer fee.

Thanks,
Stef

stefg said:

I did this recently and I was charged £20 for the transfer

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Sounds about the right ballpark charge as far as I know.

and only after the transaction I realised that exchange rate that was used was quite a bit lower than the exchange exchange rate for that date.

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What are you comparing the bank's rate with? If it's something like www.xe.com or www.oanda.com then bear in mind that not all of the rates quoted by these sites reflect retail margins normally charged.

Is there a better / cheaper way that I can transfer money to my irish account? At the moment, it's costing me about €60-€100 each time because of the exchange rate and the transfer fee.

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Would the likes of www.PayPal.ie or www.xetrade.com be more cost effective options? Do a search as this sort of query seems to crop up a lot.

Thanks for that ClubMan.

Yeah I had been looking at www.oanda.com to get the rate but I guess that makes sense.

I'll look into your suggestions, Thanks again.