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).

Thanks everyone, this has been SO helpful!! I really appreciate the time people have taken to reply! 🙏

I used to use Wise a lot a few years ago and found it was excellent. You could just open a EUR account with Wise then convert into GBP when you want. I also did side-by-side fx comparisons between revolut and wise and Wise always came out on top (but it was close). Compared to high street banks there is no comparison.

Thanks @JunePri thought Wise wasn’t a bank but do you leave your money with it until you want to convert it? And when you convert it are you transferring it to a regular bank account? Do you pay conversion fees for that bit?

Another vote for 'Wise', here. https://wise.com/gb/send-money/ Very easy, very efficient.

@PersephoneMary I don't think Wise has the banking licence but the money will be held in a bank in your name. I'm not sure if Wise pay any interest but you are ok to leave your money there (I have left money in overseas accounts for months sometimes). When it comes to convert, you can simply convert it from (eg) your EUR Wise account to (eg) your GBP Wise account almost instantly and at very good fx rates. After the conversion if your want to move the money from Wise to another UK bank it is a simple transfer (same as any other UK bank transfer).

Brilliant thanks @JunePr!

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