What’s the best way of changing £100,000 to Euros?

Bank or nearest car wash

https://transferwise.com/

Just used it to pay for my Enduro2 place. Seemed to work well and cheep’

set up a € denominated bank account at your UK banking provider – Barclays e.g. can link a € a/c to your £ current account.

DO NOT tranfser the £ to that account through the bank!

Use transferwise.com to move the money by BACS from your £ a/c to your € a/c. Befor eyou do so, dro me an email and I have an introd code which should save you some fees.

transferwise fees are 0.5% and the rate is at the mid market price. So you pay v v little for the exchange. Your bank will say something daft like “no fees” but then transfer at a really crap spread on the mid market rate equivalent to nearly 5% off.

You will save something like £5k.

I did the same earlier this year, before I set up my french € a/c

I dont use my Barclays €, but having it was the best way of holding € in time for a transaction, but the french a/c is much more useful for day to day.

I have a friend who can help – he’s very good…

for example, transferwise, today, will turn £100,000 into €136,760, having charged a fee of £497.

Barclays on the other hand will turn £100,000 into €129,700 but do it for “FREE”!!!. Arent they nice?!

Only €7,060 difference in the rate…

I’ve used OZForex to move AUD$ to UK£ and the rates are much closer to market rates and they do not impose a fee above X amount (£3k UK i think). They have a sister company UK Forex based in london which if I need to I would likely use in future if I needed to. http://www.ukforex.co.uk/

You transfer them the money to their UK Account and they use a account in the country of receipt to transfer it on. Also avoids pesky receiving foreign funds charges.

What @Stoner says, I used HIFX.co.uk many years ago. Also more I found my banks weren’t toooo bad, my UK bank is HSBC and they are fairly good for multi-currency accounts and getting you setup abroad. You need to know and have a plan as to what you are going to do with the money, eg transfer to account abroad, euro account in uk etc and have all the details sorted and confirmed. You will have to provide a reason for the exchange and transfer.

As an aside when in Singapore I stood in a queue at the money changer (tiny shop in the middle of the market) whilst the guy in front changed €50,000 in cash ! My bank accross the street had told me they where better rates and no need to pre-order.

Transferwise, really. New kid on the block, cheap, fast. Use the promo code to get a cheaper transfer and get grum one notch closer to a kickback 😉 I used ozforex and xe.com and they were more expensive recently.

Jamba, did you ever have the old guy on the ancient Indian bike pointed out to you? He does the catch in transit for all the families’ booths, and has everything in a medieval leather satchel wrapped around the handlebars. “No-ones going to rob him when he carries everyone’s money…”

We change £ to $ all the time for work. We use HiFX, Money Corp, UKForex and TorFX. All depending on which has the best rate. For £100,000 you should be able to get a very good rate. Might be worth speaking to your bank as for that amount they will probably do you a special rate.

I’ve used Transferwise to pay for holidays but I’m not sure I’d use it to change £100,000. That’s too much money to loose if Transferwise goes belly up – it’s very unlikely but that’s what the people in Iceland/Cyprus thought. Might be an idea to do it in £20,000 chunks – the charges will be more but at least you can’t lose the whole lot.

Transferwise, really. New kid on the block, cheap, fast. Use the promo code to get a cheaper transfer and get grum one notch closer to a kickback

My post got deleted it would appear. 😕

Pretty weird when it genuinely does get someone a free transfer (and me closer to a kickback 🙂 ).

Might be an idea to do it in £20,000 chunks

I do that to “hedge” over a period of a few weeks/months anyway,

*it’s not real hedging, but it spreads the rate risk.

As an FCA registered payments institution, Ive never had any concerns about transferwise’s security to complete a transaction.