Hi,

Could anyone advise me on the cheapest way to do an international bank transfer? I had to do one a few weeks ago from the UK to Germany, standard transfer, and I lost approx £150 through the exchange rate the bank offered.

I need to make another one, and have got a few exchange rates from several banks and again I stand to lose between £150-200 due to the exchange rates offered, which to me makes it a ridiculously expensive transaction. The fees themselves are next to nothing, ranging from £8-25. I've asked at Barclays, Natwest, Co-op and Nationwide.

Before you ask, there is no real alternative, the business in question does not except cards, cheques or any other form of payment, though I suspect these would have probably attracted the same costs.

Thanks in advance

Nathalie

A currncy specialist would give you a slightly better rate but comes with the risk of dealing with a small company who you've not dealt with before.

Two Foreign Currency firms I have used a few times which have a reasonable spread are Hargreaves Lansdown for transfers over £10,000 and Smart Currency Exchange for transfers over £5,000. Both firms don't charge a transfer fee above these amounts and have better rates than the scamming banks.

When you ring you will be asked to complete ID checks as with opening a bank but they are quite easy, also try asking to improve the rate they offer you. (If offered 1.1620 Euros you may get 1.1650 Euros just for asking.

There are many more firms about who offer this service but these are the only 2 I have used so far.

Thanks for the replies, sorry I only just got a notification of them... I will definitely remember that in the future, I shopped around a little and in the end lost around £90-100 which was better than before. Still so much for globalisation... you would think in this day and age and especially with the euro, we shouldn't be ripped off so much for simple transactions.