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paul S · Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:51 pm Post subject: Sterling to Euro

Dear All

first post for a while, but I hope someone will be able to help.

We are in the process of getting our property together in order to sell and finally buy in Ireland. Can anyone who has already got experience of moving over from UK advise as to the best way to transfer money to buy property. Ours will be a cash sale. Anything that will save a few quid will be greatly appreciated.

Best wishes to you all

Paul
Freshwater
Isle of Wight

squirrel01 · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 90 Location: co. roscommon

we did a direct transfer from uk bank to here, no problem...

blowin · Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:08 am Post subject:

Same here .
AFAIK there aren't many alternatives . Your bank can send it electronically or they can write you a Bankers Draft . There is/was about £10 difference in the charge ( £30 - £20 ) but there is a big difference in speed & security . I think I am right in saying that the Draft is just like a cheque except that it cannot be "crossed" ie absolutely anyone can cash it .
The conversion charges made by the banks are a rip-off IMHO . As far as I can see , even the "no commision" services take 0.05 percentage points off the international rate so eg today's 1.47 international rate only buys you 1.42 . Make sure you negotiate a special deal for any large transfers . There are other players on the net but I reluctantly decided to stick with the devil I know . But having glanced at these links while I was looking them up for you I might well think again .
www.moneycorp.com
www.xe.com
And don't overlook the ATM withdrawal fee of 1.5% which seems to be standard in the ROI . Evil or Very Mad

As I am sure you know , fluctuations in the exchange rate can have a far greater impact than that any of those charges . You can monitor it via several free daily update sites . I use www.xe.com ( as above ) but sometimes I think it would be better not to know !
Still , that is another problem which will sort itself out pretty quickly --- you will loose interest in sterling as soon as your own little stash runs out , and that won't take half as long as you might think Wink

Moonwaves · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 80 Location: Dusseldorf

ATM withdrawal fee of 1.5% is surely only for foreign ATM cards used to withdraw money from ATMs here? I don't pay any ATM withdrawal fees at all. But if I go abroad and use an ATM I know that I will also pay a fee.

To the original poster, you might find www.askaboutmoney.com useful. I haven't posted there for a year or so really but I remember there were a few discussions around this and similar topics. If you can't find anything with a search post a new question and if someone else can point you to an existing thread they'll do so fairly quickly as they're not keen on duplicates.
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roiphil · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 118 Location: Co. Limerick

you got PM
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wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

This can be a bit of a can of worms. You have to consider the exchange rate. and anything below 68p is worth doing. What are you going to do with your cash over here?. Irish interest rates are nowhere as good as the UK. You may find it better to keep your cash as sterling for as long as possible. We opened an off shore current account in the Isle of man which gave us better interest than the UK and was exempt from UK tax. You will have to pay EU tax though. We did this last year for a while and watched the exchange rate untill we thought it time to transfer to euroes.
If the sum you have is substantial then you would be advised to invest it in blue chip stock and the banks offer a range of products to suit your needs. Will you be going to buy over here straight away or are you going to have a place built? Your answer here will deturmin how long a bank will hold on to your money, you will obviously want to earn as much as you can in the way of interest while you are going house hunting etc. It may well take longer than you think. Things move at their own pace over here Confused

It takes a while opening an Irish bank account and I would advise you to do this as soon as possible. Open it with just a few euroes. I would advise you to leave your cash in the UK untill you have opened your Irish one. The reason for this is because you will get a much better exchange rate from the Irish bank than from your UK one. The Irish want sterling!!!!!, but get a quote from your UK bank first and then go to your Irish bank and do a deel. Thats what they do alot of over here Laughing

Once your cash is in your Irish account it will not earn much interest so you should see a financial adviser and get it invested somewhere else. Your bank will offer you a deel of say three months at X interest which will be much better than the standard account. If you do take up one of the investment plans, and this is worth doing even for just a few months, you will not be charged any fees for closing it early. The banks are not allowed to do this. The regulator told the banks that if they offer a good service then who would want to leave it. If they give a service that is not up to scratch then why should their customers pay to end it. If I can help with anything give me a shout.
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rool · Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 14 Location: South Limerick

All good advice above and I'd like to add my couple of thoughts.

My outlaws recently followed us over and used an intermediate company to transfer their cash and got a better exchange rate as a result. I'll find out the name of the company and let you know.

I moved over here four years ago and initially had my money in an offshore account with first active who had about the best rate with immediate withdrawal at that time. I had to leave it in sterling though as the euro interest rate was much lower.

I believe though that Rabodirect are giving 5% interest on anything over €1 with no notice period or penalty for withdrawal which isn't bad.

The other thing to look out for is that not all banks give free personal banking. I don't know if everyone agrees but IMO Permanent TSB probably gives the best free unconditional banking service as some of the others make you do stuff like so many internet transactions a month etc.

Finally, don't make the same mistake I did, when a builder says he is going to start don't rush and transfer the money across immediately. I did and it was at a poor time exchange rate wise. My experience, and others sadly, is that the building will start late and finish even later.

rool · Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 14 Location: South Limerick

It was www.smartcurrencyexchange.com , but I believe there are similar companies offering the same service

To qualify this all I will say is that they were happy with the service and their money arrived

wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

In regard to your new home you will get far more for your money if you have one built. This is what we are in the process of getting sorted out. We have been here nearly a year and are renting a property at the moment. Rents are much cheaper here. The reason I am for the investment of our cash is because ours has made far more than our living expencies and can be watched closely on the net. I can get out at any time. The buying of houses over here is much the same as the UK and will be subject to contract. The buying of sites is far differant and the unknowing may get cought out. You may well see "For Sale Subject to Planning". This means that a farmer etc has decided to try and sell some land for housing. You can agree on a price with him but all the planning process is up to you. If you get planning granted, this planning belongs to the land owner and not to you, he may well decide to not sell to you and let his son build the house. Most estate agents have a kind of formal agreement to cover this so be warned. There are some counties that will not grant planning to someone who does not live in the area or has relativies near by. This was to stop those who only want to buy or build a weekend cottage. In Ireland there is a rule 47. This means that who ever gets his name on the planning consent form has to live in the dwelling for five years. This rule is a good one because it stops the land owner from selling the plot to a third party. Which does give us a bit of security when buying subject to planning. It is not unusual to have to wait a year to get all the legals done with buying a site. The buying of a site with "Outline Planning or Full planning" must be regarded as perhaps not quite as it seems. You would think that you would be quite safe if you try to buy a sit with full plans. This is where I am now. Confused

The rule 47 applies to the planning applicant and I needed to have the paperwork changed to mine. They only way this can be done was for me to reaply. Which gives the planning office a chance to refuse me. They did because the regs regarding water treatment has changed and dispit the fact that the origional applicant can still build to the old rules I cannot Evil or Very Mad

So if you find that you can get exactly what you want already built then you may well have a much easier time of it. I am not trying to put you off the build idea. It is just that it may well not be quite as easy as one would think. Good Luck. Wink

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