MONEY - Here or there?

06/16/2010 - 08:30

Hello everybody, and welcome to the newcomers - it looks like we will be meeting more Stranieri on our next visit. Advice needed - we usually transfer money to our bank in Italy in sterling - and get whatever the rate is over there on the day. Any thoughts on whether it might be better to send it as Euros, from our bank here in England - might the rate be better? Also, does anybody know if the second hand place on the eastern outskirts of Lucca is still there? That's all for now from Fabbriche

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We use a currency broker, Tor Fx (Douglas Palmer is our chap) we get a pretty good rate for 3000 euro or so. Give it a google! Also keep an eye on https://www.interchangefx.co.uk/

Thanks bunterboy We will check both of these out. Fabbriche

Sorry Bunterboy, I meant to do this sooner. We used Torfx and they were great. Let them know that you recommended them and they might give you a cornish pasty, or something! Regards Fabbriche

caio bunterboy..............I'm intrigued to know what is a 'pretty good' rate. I'm not unhappy with my regular £2000 payment through Moneycorp. My last payment was July 31st.........£2,000 + £4 fee (total £2,004) left one of my UK accounts. Amount received here in my Italian Bank account = 2,239.20euros. (exchange rate 1.117) If I had upped that to £3,000...........it would have cost me £3,000 = £4 fee (total £3,004), Italian bank account would therefore increase by 3,358.80euros. Is this 'good' or not? IF there is a major difference via other suppliers around that date..........., I'd be happy to hear ! ciao S

My last payment was July 31st.........£2,000 + £4 fee (total £2,004) left one of my UK accounts. Amount received here in my Italian Bank account = 2,239.20euros. (exchange rate 1.117)

I use HiFX, and they send me a daily email showing the previus day's rates. Looking at 31 July their rates were LOW 1.1928 and HIGH 1.2043. Let's be pessimistic and say you bought at exactly the low point of the day, you'd have got 1.1928. Now, that is not the rate they give you, but for larger quantities (£10,000) they usually come in about 1 cent less. So for that sort of amount you'd have got something like 1.18 to 1.19, as opposed to your 1.117 - a big difference in my view. Oh and on these larger sums, no charges whatsoever. I exchanged money on 23 June, when there was LOW 1.2061 and HIGH 1.2192, and I got 1.2018. So, is there any way you can do fewer but bigger transfers?

Thanks Serrano, I like to have a comparative value to work with, I may consider the larger sums and with less frequency. I'm very happy with the Moneycorp service, but hundreds of euros extra would buy quite a bit more wine (!) Cheers, S

As far as I know 'MercatoUsato' was still open, went past the other week.

... as long as you are ok with them not being under and FS control. Any of the big FX companies should be ok, hifx , moneycorp. You can fix a rate for regular transfers for up to a year or so and no matter what anyone else says on here, it's far, far better than any bank (even if a little more risk, no more than the likes of northern rock of course...). The rate currently is 120.32, so I reckon you would get around 1.17 at best from any bank , for smaller amounts Nationwide card would probably be the same or better... for an FX company you would get around 1.19.... On a large amount of money it makes a big difference... :)

Thanks to, Bunterboy and Stevegw for your input., I have been on to Tor fx. I hadn't realised it was so easy. And thanks to Tinker - we will look in to MercatoUsato on our next trip.

I use XE.com - much better than the transfers offered by the bank. Takes a day or two to get set up, but worth it IMHO. I'm sure other companies are good too. Alex

Sorry, I was away and I missed your question about Mercatino dell'Usato, which is still open every day, except for Mondays. There is also the Vintage and Antique Fair in Lucca, inside the walls, on the 3rd Sunday of each month.

To give another comparison - on July 13th we transferred £8500 (approx) ie it was €10,000 that arrived in our Italian bank account via HIFX so no fees and the rate was 1.1737 HIFX always used to say they would refund any bank charges (from receiving end) if the transferred amount was below €12000, not sure if this continues and we never put it to the test

sprostoni. Average spot rate on 31 July was 1.20. (little intraday fluctuation). Dealing at 1.5% away from spot (including any charges) which pretty much any foreign exchange broker would have been able to achieve for you would have yielded an effective rate of €1.182. I would go back to Moneycorp if I were you and ask them to justify their rate.

I have used the site: http://www.comparemoneytransfer.co.uk/personal_money_transfers/ which I find useful. I have accounts with smart currency and Interchange, both of which worked well. I also have an account with Crown Currency for fixing rate in advance. all of which gives a variety of options. All three are registered with the FSA.

Just to pass on the bad news. The golden days are over. From the 1st November 2010 cash withdrawals are subject to a £1 charge per transaction and a fee of 2%. It still seems this is the cheapest transaction fee from figures on their website. Here is the link. http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/flexaccount-changes.htm