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Do you have euros in Malaga, Spain (appx. 30,000) which you would like to have as pounds back in the UK? Don’t really want the banks to take a large slice?
I have sold an asset in the UK for pounds but would like euros over here. If anyone would like to exchange please pm for full details.
The intention is that we would meet in the UK and in Malaga at the same time to complete a handover, and we would choose a rate midway between the bank’s buy and sell rate on that day so we both achieve a better rate.
My pounds are in Gloucester but can travel within roughly 200 miles.Am leaving this post up because I feel the comments could be of interest – however, I managed to arrange for the transfer through a currency broker to my account in Spain so I am no longer looking for an exchange myself…thanks to all for the comments and offers.
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Why dont you just use a currency exchange broker – they are a lot cheaper than banks are and they give you pretty close to the spot rate, on this sort of amount you probably wont even have to pay the Telegraphic transfer rate (usually 15) and the amount of money they make on such a transaction wouldnt even cover the cost of your 200 mile round trip (on 30,000 pounds they would make about £35)
They make their money because they exchange Millions of Euros to pounds per day (whereas banks surprisingly exchange very little money on behalf of clients) so when you make £35 per 30,000 and transfer millions per day it adds up
And it is a lot safer than carrying £30,000 to somewhere you dont know meeting someone you have never met.
Stick your hand in a fire – its a lot safer
Vince
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Wow, I take about 10 hours to return to the forum and so many replies 😆
Anyway, the story goes like this:
I sold a motorhome in the UK. I no longer have a bank account in the UK. It was sold for me by a friend via ebay. He will collect the cash from the buyer tomorrow (all going well).
Now the problem – for it to go to a currency broker, it MUST arrive in the form of a cheque, or BACS/CHAPS – check it out – I did and there doesn´t seem to be a way around it.
I actually have an account with xetrade.com and have used them before, when I moved back to Spain a couple of years ago, saving a few hundred pounds on what the banks charge!
However, as you can only send them funds via the banking system and I don´t have an account, I´m a bit stuck. My friend doesn´t really want to deposit the funds in his account as he is concerned about tax issues. Ideally, he wants to walk into a high street branch and deposit into my account – but I haven´t got one in the UK.
So eventually I came up with the idea that there must be people who have sold something on the CDS and have a similar problem in reverse.
I felt if we met up the solution could save money for both of us, by splitting the “spread” that the brokers use.
The plan is for me to meet the other party on the CDS at the same time as my friend meets a relative or friend of the other party in the UK. I was thinking of suggesting we met in a bank or some other secure area. Then, via mobile texting or phone calls we can all confirm that we have met up, that the funds are there both ends, and do the exchange.
I know all about the large amounts of criminals on the CDS, but I feel that if I stick to dealing with british people, over a certain age, in a secure area, then the other party will really have no interest in screwing up the deal as it´s a win-win for both of us and a LOSE for the banks!!! (how often do us mere mortals find ourselves in that position?)
In any case, I´m grateful for comments and suggestions as it will be a first for me also, who knows, maybe we could start a new trend? -
Personally I would (or get my friend to) open a bank account in UK.
Showing proof of where cash has originated from.
Printout of sale of goods from Ebay should be sufficient.
Bank will issue cheque book within the week and sent to you in Spain
I often use British cheques to transfer funds. Get on spot rate, as good as good as from Brokers, and only charged 9€ commission regardless of amount.
Suggest you leave a few £ in bank in UK incase you use Ebay again.Arranging meeting people, even in a bank, to exchange any amount of cash is asking for trouble.
As an aside
Do you know that it is common practise in UK for employees from financial institutions and from local to main Government to daily monitor newspapers and websites etc looking for and collecting seemingly innocuous info for their records that can , if nothing else, be used to see how truthful people are.
This has been going on,to my knowledge, since 70’s.
A rate evaluation office tried catch me out this way, but failed miserable because when asked the pertinent question, I told the truth, I was then shown a 5 year old newspaper cutting he had in his folder.So be warned BIG BROTHER is watching us all avidly.
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I think Vince was right its safer to put your hand in a fire. Apart from the fact that it could be construed as money laundering, I believe that depositing the 30,000 euros would prompt some questions as to where the money came from, I stand to be corrected but I believe all cash deposits over a certain level are reported for the very purpose of finding money laundering.
Aside from all that a friend of mine recently sold his 12,000 euro 4×4 the buyer insisted paying cash, about 2/3 of the cash turned out to be forged 500 euro notes.
Jim
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I sold a car here in Spain and I had problems depositing the cash (only 9500 euros). When I went to put the money in my bank account I was told it is illegal to carry more than 6000 euros in cash! and that if I wanted to pay in more than that I would have to fill in a form to the Bank of Spain. Even in Gibraltar is virtually impossible to get rid of cash although you may have held accounts for years. So if you arrive here with this amount of euros ensure that you have a good safe in the house.
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Thanks again for the comments. There is certainly food for thought.
I´m not particularly worried about questions re where the cash came from, since as was kindly mentioned, I can keep the auction page where sold as proof. I also have proof of the original purchase of the motorhome in 2004 and, since it sold at a MAJOR loss 😥 there are no tax implications on the non-existant profit.
As for depositing the cash in a spanish account, I would probably need to split it into smaller amounts and deposit into a couple of different accounts – I´d need to think about this.
As for the comments re the false euro notes, that IS an issue I hadn´t considered and it does create a worry – I´m not sure how to work around it so if anyone has any suggestions I´d be grateful.
I´ll also continue to check with friends and family in the UK to see if I can talk someone into using their account, this would bring the currency brokers back into the equation and, to be honest, would be the solution which would make me feel the most comfortable and allow me to achieve the least-cost transfer (aside from a direct exchange with someone).
I´ll keep working on it, if anyone has any more thoughts feel free to post them, constructive criticism and ideas are always welcome 🙂
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