# Moving money for house purchase



## nanita (May 27, 2013)

Hi

I will be buying a house in Mallorca. I am opening an account with Lloyds TSB but they informed me that it will cost 0.4% to do a banker's draft which seems to me greedy and a lot of money for a small service.

Does anyone know of an alternative? What about transferring directly to the Notario's account from the UK?

Also, if you have a good Forex, I would love to hear about it.

Adriana


----------



## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Don't use a Bank, they will rip you off. Use a currency exchange firm, I use Foreign Money & Currency Exchange Services, Euro Exchange, UK Currency Converter :: SmartCurrencyExchange.com but there are many others.

Smart buy me currency and transfer it to my Spanish account, over 3000 GBP does not attract commission and the exchange rates are excellent


----------



## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

When you say Lloyds TSB, I assume that must be in UK so WHY? Lloyds don't exist in Spain anymore - they have been bought out by Sabadell.

So, what I'm saying is that there is NO advantage openiny Lloyds in UK in the belief that you will get a better rate by transferring to Lloyds in Spain.


So, wherever your money is in UK, use a DOREX company to transfer to your bank in Spain.

I do this probably twice a year and have yet to be charged. Depending who you use, and we all have our favourites, the rates of exchange are very good.

I use World First but then that's because I've had good experiences with them.


DO NOT transfer the money to anyone else's account!


----------



## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

nanita said:


> Hi
> 
> I will be buying a house in Mallorca. I am opening an account with Lloyds TSB but they informed me that it will cost 0.4% to do a banker's draft which seems to me greedy and a lot of money for a small service.
> 
> ...


Don't know if it is still the case but you might well need a letter from the bank manager , as well as the cheque, stating where the money came from & that it is all legal & above board. 
Always used to be the case with money coming from abroad. Letter ends up in the escritura as well.


----------



## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

nanita said:


> Hi
> 
> I will be buying a house in Mallorca. I am opening an account with Lloyds TSB but they informed me that it will cost 0.4% to do a banker's draft which seems to me greedy and a lot of money for a small service.
> 
> ...


im not quite sure of the logistics and possibilities, but if there is someone in Spain trying to send € back to the UK of a similar amount, how could that be done at a mutually beneficial r/ex and no bank charges.


----------



## CapnBilly (Jun 7, 2011)

Stravinsky said:


> im not quite sure of the logistics and possibilities, but if there is someone in Spain trying to send  back to the UK of a similar amount, how could that be done at a mutually beneficial r/ex and no bank charges.


You could probably do it through Currencyfair, which is peer to peer exchanging. You can't transact until the cash is in your account with them. Once you both have funds there, make contact by telephone, one person places order and other matches it. No commission, minimal transfer charges €3 or £3..both parties will need sterling and euro accounts.


----------



## Aron (Apr 30, 2013)

nanita said:


> Hi
> 
> I will be buying a house in Mallorca. I am opening an account with Lloyds TSB but they informed me that it will cost 0.4% to do a banker's draft which seems to me greedy and a lot of money for a small service.
> 
> ...


Just do an electronic transfer from Lloyds UK to Spain. I doubt it would cost you £50. You an do smaller amounts through Internet banking. That is time consuming and more expensive, but not excessive


----------



## ptrclvd (May 26, 2012)

Aron said:


> Just do an electronic transfer from Lloyds UK to Spain. I doubt it would cost you £50. You an do smaller amounts through Internet banking. That is time consuming and more expensive, but not excessive


Like others have said I would never use a bank LLoyds or otherwise. It is not the transfer cost that should deter you though that sounds excessive it is the exchange rate they will apply. That could cost you a four figure sum on a large transfer. 

I have transferred a couple of hundred thousand this year using a forex company. They do not charge a fee at all and just make their profit by taking just a couple of tenths from a spot rate. A couple of weeks ago I transferred some at 1.17 when the banks were doing tourist rates of 1.10. 

I use Central FX but there are lots of respectable companies offering this service.


----------



## kezar (Oct 28, 2012)

We are about to transfer pounds to euros and waiting for the exchange rate to improve from the recent drop. Quite a stressful experience as a small currency movement results in big impact on the transfer value!

A crystal ball would be very handy!!


----------



## ptrclvd (May 26, 2012)

If you have a good currency firm looking after you whilst they do not have crystal balls they will advice you of the best time to exchange. A couple of weeks ago I was on my roof when my broker rang and said that if I needed to change any money in the next month or so then was a good time to do it. I took is advice and I got a better rate than anything seen since.


----------



## happy_dude (Nov 16, 2012)

Hi,

I completed a purchase last March and used MoneyCorp. I got a decent rate for the time and the transfer time was only 2 hours even though it was quoted as 1-2 days.

Anything over £100,000 you will have to do over the phone but they are very good. Less than that you can do online. They had a deal with CajaMurcia bank in Spain at the time that if I opened an account with them (Caja) I would only be charged €100 for the currency coming into the account. Other banks were charging a percentage of the transfer to accept the inbound transfer so I would have been stung big time. Caja gave me an English speaking agent to deal with directly and arranged for a bank draft to be collected from any bank. All in all it was a really simple and painless experience...except from the 3 hours spent with the Notary  If you need any more info feel free to PM me.


----------



## TheGent (Sep 5, 2008)

happy_dude said:


> Hi,
> 
> They had a deal with CajaMurcia bank in Spain at the time that if I opened an account with them (Caja) I would only be charged €100 for the currency coming into the account. Other banks were charging a percentage of the transfer to accept the inbound transfer


Charging for money coming into an account is something I have trouble understanding! My bank (CaixaCatalunia) charges me nothing for the monthly amounts I transfer from the UK. As I am in the process of buying a motorhome over here, I suggested to the dealer that I transfer the money (in euros) direct from the UK to their account.

Their bank has charged them 80 euros for accepting the money, now the dealer wants me to pay an extra 80 euros to cover the cost of paying for the motorhome!

Double Dutch or what?


----------

