Money transfer companies

[alcanadakid]

I have read previously that some of you use money transfer companies when sending money from UK. There was an interesting article yesterday on Radio 4's "You and Yours" programme about them. Apparently a few haw gone bust recently and many people have lost all the money involved in the transfer. Currently there is no regulation of these companies and so there is no redress from the FSA. In November the FSA will require them to be registered over a 2 year period, but nothing more than that.

 

[Lorenzo]

That's useful to know - I've used a foreign exchange company in London twice recently to send money over to my bank PP. I think that I will start using the internal transfer system offered by Halifax/Banco Halifax from now on. Thanks for the warning!

 

[El Gordo]

Further to this thread on transferring money, do any forum members know if their are any advantages of banking with the Halifax (who now have a branch in PP) or one of the banks (Abbey etc) joining the Santander group via "Internal Transfers".

Has anyone any experience of these banks. What do they charge and what exchange rate do they use?

I tend to transfer money in PP by withdrawing from ATMs, from my Nationwide current A/c - it costs nothing and I think you are given the current Interbank rate, but you can only draw so much each day and you have to do it physically as against electronically.

Being able to do it on line would be great.

 

[pp ace]

One advantage of using the Halifax in Puerto Pollensa is they are such a great bank ........... the service is second to none

We have a uk Halifax account and have used the free transfer and are now set up to use the on line transfer which will be very convenient

But the exchange rate the Halifax offer is not always as good as other banks ( Abbey UK to Halifax Spain is often better ) ...... so I say use the service but use it only when the rates are good

By the way ...... my local Abbey tell me that despite being Santander , they can still not provide on line auto transfer services to Banco Santander ............ but it will happen one day

 

[El Gordo]

Thanks PP_Ace

Ive been a Halifax customer for 30 years but they could not compete with the specialist transfer companies who saved us more than £1000 through a better rate and charges when we bought in 2005. Halifax could not "negotiate" at that time, and the Halifax had not opened in PP.
The other problem is the high charges by banks in Spain in accepting transfers.

So, if this is now without charge, I may relook at their services now.

For small transfers the difference between rates may not be significant but at larger amounts its worth shopping around.

I'm currently with La Caixa in PP, where I negotiated a flat rate rather than a percentage for the 2005 exchange. This eventually saved me a lot, but only after a long battle with them to honour their offer!! I had initially only a verbal offer, then via email when I asked for confirmation, but it still took several months of emailing and phoning and then a phone call from my solicitor to get them to refund the percentage charge they first levied.

Just noticed there is useful info at Moneysavingexpert.com.

 

[alcanadakid]

We are with HSBC in the UK and La Caixa in PP. We also got caught with Spanish bank charges when we bought our property. Now we use HSBC's internet transfer and make sure that we say "Payer will collect all charges". The total cost for transfers up to £2000 is £8, and the rate seems good. The money arrives the same day

 

[pollensa]

We have always used Currencies Direct (which are on our site as well at Currencies Direct) They have been around for several years & regularly get mentioned in the press including MoneySavingExpert. But obviously you cannot tell how secure they are (as with the banks!).

The biggest advantage we found was that as well as the competitive rate, the money is transferred first to a Spanish bank, with whom they have an arrangement of no charges, & then to your bank so that it ends up as a domestic transfer. We got caught out the first time we transerred via Barclays & got hit with a 0.5 % charge!