Money transfer from UK to Europe cheapest

[Chara]

Has anyone got any advice as to the cheapest way to transfer money from the UK to FT?

It is very hard to compare banks may only charge £25 but the rate may be rubbish and vice versa.  Has anyone done the research into this?

[Charlotte_W]

Hi, I'm based in the UK and going to Facial Team in September and will hopefully be using Transferwise to send the money. I have already paid the €2,000 deposit using them, as well as my accommodation for when I'm out there.

The only issue I can see is that I will have to ask Facial Team if I can pay it over 2 or 3 days as there is a £10,000 per day limit on my current account. If that is okay with Facial Team then I'll be saving upwards of £600 compared to what I'd pay with my bank.

For what it is worth I've had UK based friends who've paid Dr Bart van de Ven and Dr Spiegel through Transferwise too :-)

[Chara]

Thanks for that.  Have you any idea how much they charge and the rate?

Just need to wait for the Grexit now before sending the money 

[Charlotte_W]

Haha, I too find myself checking the exchange rate on a regular basis hoping it stays around 1.40ish in mid-July/early-August time. It did go as high as 1.42 a month or so ago!

I've just done a quick check and my bank has the exchange rate at 1.3468, whereas Transferwise has it at 1.3941, which is much much muuuuuch closer to the actual rate.

So an example transaction of $15,000 would be £11,137.51 with the bank (+ any transfer fee) and £10,759.63 with Transferwise, as of 11.15am UK time today.

Obviously the exchange rate changes during the day and you pay a small refundable % based deposit with Transferwise to allow for any movement in the rate. They automatically pay the refund into your bank account, so there's no issues with that at all.

[StartingOver]

I'll second the recommendation for TransferWise.  I've used it on numerous occasions and they're efficient, cheap, and the rates are fair.  Very easy to deal with too.