Moving Euros from Spain to the UK

[peter49]

A friend of mine accepted an offer for their flat in Spain on impulse.
The buyer paid in full by cheque which has been deposited in my friend's Spanish account. All of the legalities have also been sorted.
They returned home to the UK with 10k of Euros in 500 denomination notes. They have found these difficult to convert into Sterling due to fears over money laudering and/or counterfeiting.
The issue they now have is transferring in excess of 100,000 Euros back to the UK.
Does anyone have experience of this? What is the most cost effective method?

 

[jotter22]

Cant your friend open an account in this country and simply transfer from one to the other?

Tony.

 

[BTB 500]

Should be able to just do a BIC/IBAN transfer?

 

[Vilus]

To keep the money in Euro's , then you would need to open a 'Euro Account' in the UK. The charges with most banks are prohibitive. They usually charge a 'fee' for paying in of 2-3%! plus other charges. Otherwise the transfer will be exchanged into £ Sterling at the current exchange rate. Moneycorp and other currency exchange comppanies usually offer you far better rates than the big banks. provided third party payments are legal, ( ie the money would arrive from Moneycorp on behalf of Joe Bloggs etc. ) Spain to UK shouldn't be a problem. Lucky he was not caught at customs with the 500 euro notes. They would have confiscated them for sure, and you would have a 3 month fight to get your own legitimate money back. I know because it happened to me with just 5K Euros!

 

[Satch]

Service to retail banking clients in this country is utterly ****

One way is to open Citibank online accounts in UK & Spain.

Yes there is AML nonsense attached but once sorted you can send up to £35,000 in Sterling or currency equivalent cross border every day unless some local law knackers that.

International Banking | Citibank Global Transfers | Citibank

 

[219]

I know it would be tedious , but can your friend get a cash card from the Spanish bank ?

He could then go to an ATM in the UK and draw out £500 each day - this would give him cash to spend or pay into a UK account .

I realise it would take a while to withdraw the full amount but presumably would not cost .

Alternatively , is there a branch in Spain from his UK bank he could pay the money into ?

 

[peter49]

Thanks for your replies.
She has tried numerous banks to convert the 10k of Euros.
Only Halifax showed interest after some coaxing and she achieved less than £400 per 500 Euros. Quoted rate without charges should be £438!
I have passed on the Citi Bank info to her, hopefully she will be able to achieve a better outcome.

 

[Chrishazle]

Cater Allen, the private banking end of Santander, offer a Euro denominated account in this country (I have one!) that also gives you an ATM card that is also a delayed debit Visa card - like a credit card, but any use is automatically deducted from your account at the end of the month. No cheque book though, and a requirement to maintain a minimum balance of 5k euros to avoid monthly charges.

As Santander are a Spanish bank, I would imagine it would be easy to transfer from a Santander account in Spain to a Cater Allen account here.

 

[Darrell]

Surely the banks can sort this out easily enough.

We transferred 120,000 pounds from the Halifax to our Greek account with no fuss.