Transferring house sale money to UK

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brightonion
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Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby brightonion » Tue Feb 11, 2020 11:35 am

I would be grateful for advice of the best way to transfer the money from a sale of a house in Spain to the UK. I have a Spanish bank account but at the moment no UK account, I believe that I would have to be in the UK to open an account so the sale would have already taken place before I was there.

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costakid
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby costakid » Tue Feb 11, 2020 12:15 pm

I suppose you could get a bankers draft and take it to the uk with you. Once your uk account is open which can happen very quickly then deposit the draft. Overseas bank drafts do take a time to clear.
Another thing you will need to registered on an electoral register in the UK to open an account with proof of address.

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Wicksey
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby Wicksey » Tue Feb 11, 2020 12:41 pm

What about one of the money transfer companies that have been recommended on here in the past, or is that too risky with a large sum? They would hold it and then transfer it to the new UK bank once opened. When I have used them in the past they held the money then kept me up to date with the exchange rates and told me the best time to actually do the exchange.

I once took a bankers draft from here to France and it took 3 months to clear, even though it was all in euros. Paris blamed and Madrid blamed Paris. The reason I took a bankers draft was that the Spanish bank wanted such a huge sum to transfer it to the French account .... I thought I was saving money .... ha!

Beachcomber
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby Beachcomber » Tue Feb 11, 2020 1:03 pm

If you use use a company like Currencies Direct the money can be paid straight to them by-passing your Spanish bank account and saving several hundred euros in bank charges. Then you can open your UK bank account and have the funds paid into it when you are ready.

Currencies Direct hold the money of clients in separate accounts which are protected in the unlikely event that they get into financial difficulty.

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gerryh
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby gerryh » Tue Feb 11, 2020 1:44 pm

As the above two posts say, use a money transfer company.
You can pay in your money in Euros and, usually, set a minimum exchange rate for it to be exchanged into GBP. When your rate is reached it is exchanged in GBP
When you have a UK account you can transfer the money into your account.
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brightonion
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby brightonion » Tue Feb 11, 2020 2:08 pm

Thanks for your answers, I will look into currency direct, I used them when I came here 16yrs ago and was very satisfied

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costakid
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby costakid » Tue Feb 11, 2020 6:44 pm

I would want some guarantee of where the money is held. Barings Bank went skint so you can't say it won't happen.

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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby Miro » Tue Feb 11, 2020 7:12 pm

Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

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Beachcomber
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby Beachcomber » Tue Feb 11, 2020 7:25 pm

Currencies Direct use Barclays.

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peteroldracer
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby peteroldracer » Tue Feb 11, 2020 8:13 pm

Be careful that you know which transfer firm you are signing up to - I found the process onerous and not helped that I lost track whether it was Currencies Direct or Currency Direct that I was intending to use.
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elusive
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby elusive » Tue Feb 11, 2020 8:50 pm

When transfering from spain to the uk using currencies direct it went into i think caixa bank then to my uk account

katy
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby katy » Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:24 pm

costakid wrote:I would want some guarantee of where the money is held. Barings Bank went skint so you can't say it won't happen.
Good point, especially if hundred thousands is involved. One currency firm that folded had raided the client account!
Are bankers drafts still used? We had them when we sold. Was shocked to find out that if paying it into our Spanish account they would have been a charge of 0.5% which can be thousands. We paid the drafts into Nat West and got business rate. Took ages to clear though. the bank of Spain holds on to them for ages, spoke to them a couple of times in Getafe.

brightonion
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Re: Transferring house sale money to UK

Postby brightonion » Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:26 pm

Many thanks for all the replies, I have been in touch with Currencies Direct and they still had my name on their list so I will stay with them.


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