International bank transfer charges

[PersephoneMary]

Hi, I’m going to receive an inheritance from my late mother, and it will be bank transferred to me in the UK from Ireland. I bank with Barclays and they say their currency conversion charge for personal customers varies but can be up to 2.75%. That seems a HUGE amount of money, and will equate to several thousand pounds. Does anyone know if all banks would charge similar? Or if there is another less expensive way of doing this? I no longer have any Irish bank accounts, and I’m not sure I can open one now as I live in the UK, and whether that would even help the issue. (By the way, I know this might seem like a nice problem to have but my mam was a single parent and lived frugally, saved hard, etc, and I’m gutted that the bank is going to take so much of what she struggled to save).

Depends on who is sending it over and the amount.
I used Wise for smaller amounts and UK based company for larger ones. Bank fees are extortionate sometimes!

Thanks @Ihavepandassurvivalinstinct it will be over €100k.

Not sure if it helps but Monzo is 1% capped at £1000. Still not ideal but would be less than Barclays and very quick to set up a monzo current account on your phone.

Probably worth googling each bank and international transfer rates to see if any are less.

If whoever is sending the money is happy to transfer via FX company rather than simply bank to bank, I can PM you email for the one I am using

Actually scrap that..

• "No fee for GBP or Euro payments: If you receive an international payment in GBP or euros, there are no fees. "

Double check but monzo may be the answer.

https://monzo.com/legal/plus/fee-information/

Fee charges there.

Would it be worthwhile opening up an EUR account so you can exchange the money when you have more control

Use a specialist FX company. Wise charge from .33% depending on currency and their currency rates always beat the banks. Their limit is over €1M so you should be fine. Unsurprisingly, rates have been quite volatile recently, so keep an eye on them and transfer when favourable.

Thanks @AntsinmypantsneedtodanceMonzo sounds like a good option - cheers!

@WolfpaI don’t know, can you open a EUR account in the UK?

@unsyncgod I wouldn’t know where to start with something like that!

You can just call them up and speak to them. Wise are excellent. They are listed on the Stock Exchange so perfectly reputable. Richard Branson was one of their early investors. Before I used them, I used Caxton FX, also perfectly reputable and British owned.

Using a specialist for moving large sums of money will save you hundreds if not thousands. Why give a bank your money when you don't have to?

You could also look at revolut. I use it for cross country transfer, the fx rate is cheap on weekdays and I’ve used it for much larger usd cross border transfers and I aid 250 usd swift fee only.
You will probably have to do kyc though, setting up is fast but if you make larger transfers they will need to check your identity ( probably same for monzo)

I have family abroad and we regularly send money back and forth using Wise. It's much cheaper than bank transfers and we've had no problems in what must be 100+ transactions now.

Barclays offer them as long as you she a current account with them. Looks like they will. Charge £6 to receive the money. www.barclays.co.uk/current-accounts/foreign-currency-account/#howtoapply

I use Wise
You can transfer it in and then convert and immediately out to our own Barclays account. Very simple and I've been using them for years

Charges for transfers from abroad vary from bank to bank. FX companies are more risky, one we used to use closed down and anther went bust (luckily not while they had our money)! We found Halifax very expensive for foreign transfers and now use Nationwide to transfer our foreign pension payments as they are cheaper - we opened an account specifically for that reason. Basically you just need to shop around and do your research. Good luck.

Wise here as well, very transparent fees and good rates. They have an app.

Get the money paid into a EUR account you get set up, then transfer via Moneycorp (you'll need to set an account up too) and then transfer the EUR to that account. Moneycorp EUR/GBP exchange rate will be much better than Barclays plus really low fees for the transaction. Will save you loads. I do this frequently when receiving payments in USD.

Very useful information here, hope it's helping OP. It is helping me!

Sorry about your mum

I’ve no idea if this is the case with Monzo but make sure to check what exchange rate is being used. My bank has very low “fees” for moving money around but uses a terrible exchange rate so ends up costing more.

I also have found Wise to be the best bet overall when I’ve been moving money overseas/home.

Thanks @unsyncmy thoughts exactly! I will look into this!

Thanks @Wolfpa I didn’t know that! The only trouble is Barclays customer service is beyond bad and so you just don’t get the answers you need from them to make decisions. Would I just ask them if I can set up a ‘EUR account’? Is that what it’s called?

@Barleysugar86 that’s so good to know, thank you!!

Thanks @Jabtastic🙏