P.S. I have been tolde to take a wad of euros out and deposit these in to our account but feel that this is a little unsafe?.

http://www.freewebs.com/dinastiatenerife

If you look on the El Mirador forum, page 10, you will see a company called http://www.currenciesdirect.com talked about, we have also used HIFX, put in currency dealers in google, but I can recommend the above two. Carole

Thanks Carole

I will check it out, glad you enjoyed your stay. Did you notice what was happening yet on the other side of Dinastia ie. in front of I block?.

Jane

I have used HIFX for transfers and they are very good. If you ask about charges and the best way to transfer they will explain everything to you.

When you transfer cash to a Spanish bank, be aware that the spanish banks charge a fee!! This can be as high as 0.3% of the total amount. One way around this is to speak with the local bank you use in Spain and ask then if they will negotiate a better rate. If the local manager knows when your cash is to be transferred, they can intercept it and then you could end up with only paying 0.1%. A big saving. All bank transfers have to go through head offices which are in Madrid and to them you are just a number.

Also, please be aware that the same principle is used from Spanish banks when you wish to transfer money from Spain to the UK. However, for the reverse transfer they charge a whopping 0.7%!!

HIFX can offer solutions on all these, as I am sure will other companies as they want your business.

Did you notice what was happening yet on the other side of Dinastia ie. in front of I block?.

Can you reply on the Dinastia thread, Carole, to keep this ontopic.

Thanks

Beautyrabbit,

Agree ! Best way is to transfer currency through either Currencies Direct or HIFX.I have always found Currencies Direct to give the best rate. Must remember also that there is a minimum amount that they will convert - off the top of my head think CD is £3000 but HIFX is much higher at £5000. We intend to transfer £3k which will then go towards mortgage,rates etc and just top this up whenever required.

Regards

Ann-marie b

PS Have sent you a PM

.....we recently transferred an amount to cover a year's running costs for our apt; our bank - Abbey - took the normal £25 fee...our spanish bank - Banesto - has not deducted anything for this transfer.....though perhaps it'll show up on the yearly charges.....and the transfer was completed the next day, at a competitive rate.
So for smaller amounts a bank can still provide a good service.

You will never get as good a rate from a bank as you would from a currency broker such as HIFX.

There is a good example of this at:

http://www.sunseekerhomes.com/foreign-currency.aspx

I have a Nationwide Flex-Account. As there are no charges for withdrawing currency from ATM's abroad, I just withdraw the cash whilst I'm over there to pay my bills or put in my account.

It's also the Bank Rate (not the Tourist Rate) of Exchange. It saves us a fortune on holiday currency too.

When we bought our apartment in 2004, the best deal was available from Foreign Currency Direct http://www.currencies.co.uk. With fairly large sums of money, it is always worth "negotiating" on the exchange rate, as there are quite a few companies out there vying for your business.

For smaller sums we've used Moneycorp http://www.moneycorp.com. If you transfer £5000+ they make no charges.

Following advice on this forum we've now got a Nationwide Flex-Account and provided the exchange rate is favourable we'll use that for top-ups for running expenses. I'm interested in what you say, Jan, about the exchange rate being better than Tourist rate.

i always use fxsolutions and have had no problems with them, and seem to get fairly good rates

When my aunty bought her house on the Costa del Sol, she used the Halifax and as she had an account with them in the UK there was no charge to transfer money. This also applied to account holders with affiliated banks (Royal Bank of Scotland etc) transferring monies into their Spanish Halifax account.

Not sure if they have a Halifax in Tenerife or not but maybe this would be worth looking into?

Always best to shop around.

.....this Nationwide Flex Account seems to be the one to have - but with no commision charged and a good exchange rate, where's the catch ? is it an account requiring a high minimum balance ? We don't have a branch near us, unfortunatly.

The Flexaccount is a current account but I don't have a salary paid into it.

The only catch is that there is a daily limit to how much you can withdraw through the ATM and I think it's about £300, but this is line with other banks and is an anti-fraud measure.

In August I was getting an exchange rate of around 1.47. The only thing I have found is that some ATM's have their own charge, I got stung using one in a supermarket and it cost me about £6 more! Again thats no different from here .

I think this is a good marketing tool for Nationwide

No minimum balance required I just top up the account a few days prior to any overseas holiday.

Just added a few hundred today as we are off to Lanzarote next Monday - wouldn't go anywhere in Europe without the Nationwide card.

I got 1.44€ a couple of weeks ago (10 Sept) when using a Bank ATM in Spain and when paying by VISA the rate was 1.4814 (just got the statement today !). As usual no other charges made.

Not sure about the daily ATM limit, I normally only go for 140€ at a time.

Regards, Chris

TFS1, Is the Visa you use a debit or credit card?

To clarify.

I applied for the Flexaccount card and receieved a blue Debit Card with Flexaccount printed in the middle of the card (for some reason this also has the Visa logo on the top right corner) - however, I use this in ATMs only.

I then applied for the Nationwide Gold Credit card, this has Visa logo in the top right corner (with Cash reward printed in the middle of the card) and I only use this one for Visa transactions only.

They both have different account numbers.

Chris

I am interested in this subject ( sad I know) because I travel on a regular basis to the Costa del Sol and so if I can find a better way of changing money in either small amounts for everyday use or large amounts for property then all the better.

So this morning I thought I would carry out a little test. I went online to the HSBC bank and the NATIONWIDE bank and looked at obtaining £500 for holiday money. Below are the rates they gave;-

HSBC; £1 = 1.404420 euros plus £1.99 added to £500.

NATIONWIDE; £1 = 1.397300 euros plus £3.50 handling charge.

HIFX currency exchange this morning base rate is £1 = 1.46 euros. So based on this, in Funegirola where I exchange my cash, the rate will be around 1.40 to the £1. Even at 1.43 the rate will be more favourable.

So common sense would tell me to take my £ to Spain and exchange over there with no fees. I presume to use credit cards will incur the same charges from the bank you use. The downside of all this is if you go on holiday, you will not really know where to look and so end up at a poor exchange booth in a tourist area.

If anyone knows a better way please let me know.

Are you sure you are comparing like for like ? The HSBC / Nationwide rates are tourist rates, isn't HIFX the interbank rate which will always be more than the tourist rate.

Not sure what you mean regarding bank credit card charges - Nationwide do not make any - but I believe this is only applicable for use in Europe may even be only EU countries. In my experience you always get a better rate using your credit card than taking the money from an ATM to pay.

Chris