Which is the most economical method to transfer my pension lump sum from the UK to Ireland

Hi, this is the first time I've used this website so I hope I am posting this in the correct forum. Apologies if it should be somewhere else.

I am in the processing of drawing down a large (for me) amount of money as an uncrystallised funds pension lump sum from my Prudential pension in the UK. The form they have sent to fill in offers me the options to have this paid directly into my UK current account (Nationwide building society) or have it sent over to my Irish current account (Permanent TSB) as a £Stirling transaction.

There will be fees/commission to pay, I know that. My query is to ascertain which is the most cost effective way of receiving my money so I pay the least commission/fees possible.

Permanent TSB were unable to provide any useful information regarding transaction fees, they simply said it depended on the day the funds were transferred.

So my 3 options seem to be:

Authorise Prudential to pay my lump sum directly into the Permanent TSB as a £Stirling transaction
Have my lump sum paid into the Nationwide as £Stirling & send myself a SEPA payment in Euro from the Nationwide to Permanent TSB
Have my lump sum paid into the Nationwide as £Stirling & write myself a £Stirling cheque & lodge this in a branch of Permanent TSB

Are there any other options that I haven't considered? Of the 3 options above which would people recommend I do, or won't it make much difference?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

For transferring funds from the UK I use Wise (formerly called Transferwise) which gives a better rate than the banks. wise.com is the website. Create an account there ready to start the process.

Get your £ lump sum paid into your UK bank account then make a transfer using Wise in € to your Irish bank account.

Nationwide may have transaction limits so you may need to make the transfer over a number of days.

Michael H said:

For transferring funds from the UK I use Wise (formerly called Transferwise) which gives a better rate than the banks. wise.com is the website. Create an account there ready to start the process.

Get your £ lump sum paid into your UK bank account then make a transfer using Wise in € to your Irish bank account.

Nationwide may have transaction limits so you may need to make the transfer over a number of days.

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Thanks for your response Michael, this is all new to me. I have looked up information/reviews on wise.com and am happy with that option. Most likely I will open an account and send myself a small sum first just to get the details set up correctly.

Michael H said:

For transferring funds from the UK I use Wise (formerly called Transferwise) which gives a better rate than the banks. wise.com is the website. Create an account there ready to start the process.

Get your £ lump sum paid into your UK bank account then make a transfer using Wise in € to your Irish bank account.

Nationwide may have transaction limits so you may need to make the transfer over a number of days.

Click to expand...

Jumpin on this thread. Is Wise cheaper for transfer from Irish account to UK?
Please could you recommend the cheapest method of transfer from Irish account to UK?
Thanks

rynos80 said:

Jumpin on this thread. Is Wise cheaper for transfer from Irish account to UK?
Please could you recommend the cheapest method of transfer from Irish account to UK?
Thanks

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I just registered on this site and when I did I received an email from Brendan, who I presume is in charge. One of the posting guidelines he quoted in the email was "4A Do not hijack someone else's thread. Start your own thread". So seeing as I've got the answer I needed to my question perhaps you should start a new thread with your own question? You'll probably get more response that way.

Wise works both ways, in fact it works with most major currencies so it shouldn't make a difference which currency pairs you are exchanging between.

There are other similar services out there, but of the ones I have looked at, Wise is the best.

Another vote for Wise. Used it in both directions to/from UK. Good rates - far better than the banks - and fast transfer. I think there's a daily limit of 25k as far as I recall.

Baby boomer said:

Another vote for Wise. Used it in both directions to/from UK. Good rates - far better than the banks - and fast transfer. I think there's a daily limit of 25k as far as I recall.

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Thanks for that vote of confidence. I sent myself £50 from the Nationwide to the Permanent TSB via Wise & it was there the next day, just 40p charge. Very impressive.

What about Revolut?

Get it paid into the Sterling account and then transfer from that onto Revolut.

Then convert and send it to the Euro a/c.

Gordon Gekko said:

What about Revolut?

Get it paid into the Sterling account and then transfer from that onto Revolut.

Then convert and send it to the Euro a/c.

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I looked at that in detail when we sold a house in NI and wanted to transfer the proceeds back down here. I can't remember the exact details but there's monthly limits on Revolut currency exchanges and/or bank transfers, after which fees get quite significant. We could have done it piecemeal in small transactions but it would have taken ages and still cost more than Wise.

Having said that, for smaller amounts, say under €1000 or so, Revolut is marginally cheaper and very convenient.

I have Revolut Metal so I don’t think those limits apply

Gordon Gekko said:

I have Revolut Metal so I don’t think those limits apply

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I looked at that too. The limits are higher but they're still there. There's a higher tier still with higher monthly fee and higher limits but still, when I worked it all out, Wise was cheaper.

PS: this was about three years ago so charges and limits may have changed slightly.