best way to convert euros into piunds sterling?

[eslteacher]

Hi all. I live and work in France, and get paid in euros into my French bank account. But I regularly go back to the UK for visits and need sterling, for general spending, plus I have to pay my student loan installments out of my UK bank account, which has finally dwindled down to zero.

Does anyone have any tips on the best way to sporadically convert a few hundred euro into sterling? Bank transfer (but with charges), bureau de change, straightforward cash withdrawals in UK using French card, or something else?

I am currently with Barclays in France, but willing to change for a bank that's more expat friendly. Barclay France's charges for transfers to or withdrawals from the UK seem very high...

Argh, POUNDS sterling, obviously...

I use currency fair . com and it works really well. You can chose your own rate and wait until it reaches that before it will convert. Low fees too, can't remember exactly.
It will only work if you've got a bank account in both currencies which sounds like you do.

I'm not best placed to answer, and someone else more knowledgeable will come along soon.

But it seems to me that you know how much all of these options cost you on a per transaction basis. So, being rational, you need to transfer as much of your euros into your uk bank when the exchange rate is favourable, as you can afford.

I don't know if you mean you are in the UK on a weekly basis, or whatever, but you need funds here, so seems sensible to make one transaction rather than many.

Thanks Super - will definitely look into that!

Squirted - in theory you are right but I have never sat down and actually worked that out! I should really get off my arse and make a spreadsheet showing different fees and rates for different types of transaction...which means getting to grips with the French small print of my bank acvount! I am just hoping for a lazier solution from this thread...

I go to the UK every two or three months fwiw.

We are also in France and bank with HSBC. They set us up with a Premier account in France, and two accounts in the UK (one in GBP and one in Euros). We pay no charges for transfers between the two and the internet banking is set up really well so you have a "global view" of your accounts. So before your trip home, you could transfer money into your UK HSBC account and then withdraw using your UK HSBC bank card etc.

Ironically, we have a barclays current account in the UK, but are so much happier with HSBC that we will probably shut it down when we return!

Avoid all the banking costs and use Transferwise As you have your bank details you can easily se it to make direct transfers. I have used it to make payments to Spain and Ireland from the UK and it worked brilliantly - really cost effective for small £100 ish amounts in particular. I got it recommended by the moneysavingexpert.com site which I trust for all this type of information.

I always used to take several hundred euros over and change it at the post office, but then discovered it was cheaper to use my Austrian bank card to make withdrawals at cash dispensers in the UK. (Quicker and easier too, especially when the woman at the PO started huffing and puffing about my 100 euro notes.)

I sometimes withdraw a little extra to pay into my UK bank account when it gets low, but make sure that most of my spending money comes from my Austrian bank account (which has money going into it regularly) rather than my UK account (which very rarely does)!

We use currency fair, too, and have found it much better. Previously we had used hifx and world wide currencies.

The main advantages are their rates and the speed of the transfer. We can either pay €3 or €8 for the transfer, and with the dearer one it can leave Lloyds bank in the morning, and be with Crédit Agricole in the afternoon. The charges are covered by the better rate. Before it used to take at least 3 days.