# Transfer Euros out of Spain



## stevesainty (Jan 7, 2011)

We know two sets of couples who have sold their properties here in Spain for personal reasons and need to transfer their sales proceeds elsewhere, not necessarily into Sterling.

One couple are not residents and do just less than 6 months here and just more than 6 months in UK. They have a Spanish bank account, Sabadell, and a euro account in Germany. Sabadell are asking for 4% per transfer for them to send euros from here to Germany.

The other couple are resident here but are planning to repatriate to UK and will need to transfer the balance of euros here to UK and convert it to sterling along the way.

We are resident here and have bank accounts here and in UK and are willing to be intermediaries in the transactions, if required, for no financial gain.

What are the most cost effective solutions to these transfers please?


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## Juan C (Sep 4, 2017)

I just googled "transferring money abroad"

There is a lot of advice


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

stevesainty said:


> We know two sets of couples who have sold their properties here in Spain for personal reasons and need to transfer their sales proceeds elsewhere, not necessarily into Sterling.
> 
> One couple are not residents and do just less than 6 months here and just more than 6 months in UK. They have a Spanish bank account, Sabadell, and a euro account in Germany. Sabadell are asking for 4% per transfer for them to send euros from here to Germany.
> 
> ...


Are they sure Sabadell is charging 4% commission for such transfers, or is it 0.4%? 0.4% on a large sum is still a lot, but 4% seems extraordinarily high.

I would imagine the most cost effective way would be for them to open an account with one of the currency exchange companies (Transferwise, Currencyfair, Currencies Direct, etc) and do it that way.

If by acting as an intermediary you mean having the funds transferred into your own account, I would be wary of doing that as it could look suspicious and if your affairs were ever looked into by the tax authorities for some reason (unlikely I'm sure, but you never know) you could have difficulty explaining why a large sum of money had come into your bank account and you hadn't declared it.


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## tebo53 (Sep 18, 2014)

stevesainty said:


> We know two sets of couples who have sold their properties here in Spain for personal reasons and need to transfer their sales proceeds elsewhere, not necessarily into Sterling.
> 
> One couple are not residents and do just less than 6 months here and just more than 6 months in UK. They have a Spanish bank account, Sabadell, and a euro account in Germany. Sabadell are asking for 4% per transfer for them to send euros from here to Germany.
> 
> ...



Never use Bank to Bank they will rob you!! Transferwise is an excellent and highly recommended money transfer company.

Don't be an intermediary as it might look like money laundering.


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

stevesainty said:


> We know two sets of couples who have sold their properties here in Spain for personal reasons and need to transfer their sales proceeds elsewhere, not necessarily into Sterling.
> 
> One couple are not residents and do just less than 6 months here and just more than 6 months in UK. They have a Spanish bank account, Sabadell, and a euro account in Germany. Sabadell are asking for 4% per transfer for them to send euros from here to Germany.
> 
> What are the most cost effective solutions to these transfers please?


I thought that within the Eurozone banks are not allowed to charge for transfers from eg. Spain to Germany. They are only allowed to charge the same as internal transfers. I transferred money from Spain to Holland without charges some years ago.

Agree with Lynn, don't get involved.


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## fhanrah (Feb 16, 2017)

stevesainty said:


> We know two sets of couples who have sold their properties here in Spain for personal reasons and need to transfer their sales proceeds elsewhere, not necessarily into Sterling.
> 
> One couple are not residents and do just less than 6 months here and just more than 6 months in UK. They have a Spanish bank account, Sabadell, and a euro account in Germany. Sabadell are asking for 4% per transfer for them to send euros from here to Germany.
> 
> ...


This is from their web site.


No commissions for transfers (domestic transfers and transfers within the EU).(2) Small print. 
(2) Free receipt of transfers within EU without limit (Euros or Pounds Sterling) and sending of transfers within EU of up to 50,000 € (in euros).


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I've now had the chance to check the schedule of fees I received when I opened my Sabadell account (although mine is an Expansion account so I suppose for non-resident accounts they might be different). There are no charges for international transfers in euros by electronic banking, to countries within the EEAA. For international transfers in other currencies (eg sterling) by electronic banking, again to countries within the EEAA, the charge is 0.6% with a minimum charge of €20.


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## stevesainty (Jan 7, 2011)

Our friends who are non resident and bank with Sabadell tried to transfer 20,000€ into Transferwise´s borderless account, in euros but a German bank, and before confirmation it advised that there would be a 800€ transfer fee, 4%.

This must be because their account is non resident as I tried the same exercise, resident and have an expansion account, and was advised of zero transfer fee.

They are now looking at FX companies that have a Spanish bank account and this might get around the transfer fee.


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## ss-suffolk (Apr 3, 2017)

I use TransferWise and find it excellent for EUR to GBP, GBP to EUR and £ to CHF. Both fast and cheap compared to other methods I've tried. The largest transfer I made was €87k, with no questions asked (I did email to check if this was ok and received a quick positive reply).

Bank to bank Eur to Eur I don't know, but surprised it costs a lot.

As a matter of interest, I've found Azimo good but a little more expensive. However from GBP to USD, from UK to Latin America they have been excellent.

Hope this helps...


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

stevesainty said:


> They are now looking at FX companies that have a Spanish bank account and this might get around the transfer fee.


If they find one, please could you let us know here? I have a friend who may be in the same position and who also banks with Sabadell, so it would be helpful to her. I'm grateful to you for flaggiing this problem up as I had no idea the process would be so much more expensive for non-residents, and at least I can forewarn her.


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## Phil Squares (Jan 13, 2017)

I use XOOM on a monthly basis when transferring from the US to Spain, the US to the UK or visa versa. If you transfer the equivalent of $10000-$1000 the transfer is free. Generally from within the EU, including the UK, the transfer takes a matter of minutes. From the US to Europe, it can be done within 24 hours depending on when you initiate the transfer. From the EU to the US it will be done on the same day. 

Have had absolutely zero problems at all. They are owned by PAYPAL.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Phil Squares said:


> I use XOOM on a monthly basis when transferring from the US to Spain, the US to the UK or visa versa. If you transfer the equivalent of $10000-$1000 the transfer is free. Generally from within the EU, including the UK, the transfer takes a matter of minutes. From the US to Europe, it can be done within 24 hours depending on when you initiate the transfer. From the EU to the US it will be done on the same day.
> 
> Have had absolutely zero problems at all. They are owned by PAYPAL.


Do you have a resident bank account, or a non resident one? The problem seems to be the initial transfer to the currency exchange firm (if the funds are going to an account outside Spain) which is what attracts the high charges in the case of a non resident.


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## Phil Squares (Jan 13, 2017)

I have a resident account with Sabadell, Expansion Plus account. We did have a Caixa account which was a non-resident account and neither accounts attracted a fee. The funds are deposited as Euros into the Spanish accounts so I am not sure why there would be a fee. IIRC Xoom uses an EU bank for transfers in the EU, so there are no charges applied for incoming transfers for the receiving bank.


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## Norton642 (Jan 15, 2018)

we have used Transferwise for a few years now and for quite large amounts while we were buying (pounds to euros). They were easily the least expensive and did exactly what they said that they would.


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## Norton642 (Jan 15, 2018)

I looked at xoom but they dont do UK to Spain?


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