Having gone a little further towards the possibility of buying a house in france I was dismayed to note that the rate of exchange for sterling when transferring from my current account to a euro account in france is usually 3 cents lower than the average buy/sell value at any one time. It seems that to make life easier the UK banks typically set a rate in the morning and this one rate is used for all the days transactions even while the money markets are lurching this way and that - hence 3 cents which is presumably seen as a safe margin. In sharp contrast there are any number of agencies advertising on the net which will transfer money at remarkably tight margins and at a rate continuously reflecting the real trading picture, e.g. 1.457 today when the rate showing up on teletext was
1.460. Of course these outfits are not regulated by the FSA and have only Customs and Excise to answer to - and that only because of potential money launderers.Has anyone used a service like this and felt 100% comfortable about it?