Best way to transfer euros to pounds?

Withdraw from your German bank account with a cashcard in UK.

Alec

The best/cheapest way would be to find someone who wants to transfer pounds to euros in Germany, and come to some private arrangement them.

That way you bypass the whole system, and just agree an exchange rate. Mr X opens a euro account in Germany or elsewhere, you transfer your euros to his account, and he transfers his pounds to your pound account. Easy, and probably totally fee-free.

Sounds like a very good idea - but is there a standard banking way to do this that incurs the least costs ?

Given that a man's word may no longer be his bond isn't this fraught with risk? How does one guarantee simultaneity?

Sure. So what? If you want to eliminate risk, just pay the bank their fees and rotten exchange rates.

One way to minimse risk is not to do the whole transaction all at once, but to do it in increments. It's a bit like drug smuggling - you know you're doing business with a crook. How do you trust a crook? :-)

Why would one need to? But it could be done without accounts by meeting on neutral ground and exchanging briefcases full of used fivers.

lol.... this is exactly the scenario I had in mind with all the accompanying suspicious eyeballing and attendant heavies in the background. With my luck, wads would be blank paper topped with just one genuine note or my heavies would stiff me on the way to the deal. Yep, it's got to be the bank for me. Seriously though, I'm thinking of buying a holiday home in France if anyone has any legal/safe recommendations for keeping the rates fair and commission minimal. Actually the installments trust-building idea isn't bad - any idea how one might seek out ones euro-counterpart?

How about the OP?

Now why didn't I think of that?

I assume I need to set up a bank account in France - is this straightforward for us in the UK? Any ideas on arriving at an agreed rate on a particular day, e.g. does ceefax show the exact rate as reflected elsewhere in Europe at any one time (give or take 10 minutes)?

for us in the

In Belgium you have to have a Belgium address to set up an account, AFAIK this is the same for France.

I use the BBC website for exchange rates which updates every 2 minutes.

Andy

If you have a sizeable amount, and are prepared to wait a week or so to get things set up, check out

This is xe.coms foreign exchange service. I use it frequently to pay my USA supplier. I generally get within 2c of the full inter-bank rate, which is as good a rate as I've found anywhere, and there are no other set-up or transaction charges.

There is a bit of a rigmaroll involved in setting up your account, including faxing back a form and waiting for an account to be set-up.

I've done 30+ transactions using this system and found it painless and just about the chaepest way I know of getting money from my UK sterling account, into the USA dollar account of my USA supplier. They do most major currencys.

Regards

Ian