Apple

Depends how much you're thinking of transferring but with a bit of haggling you might be able to get a better rate via currency dealers.

Have a word with Tim Sullivan at www.currencies4less.com - decent bloke who sorted mine out - remember you're dealing with live currency markets so may have to make a quick decision and you've only 5 minutes to accept via the fax or you lose the rate... Also, keep an eye on www.oanda.com for the FXHistory (foreign exchange) history data to see when to dive in if you've any choice on the timing...

When I got my import, I transferred (ballpark figures) £2.5K on a spot rate of 1.62euro for the deposit and bought forward at 1.60euro for the balance of 11 grand... oh happy days a year ago with a decent exchange rate

The balance was tagged onto somebody else's business deal going through for £100K+ so I got a better rate (economies of scale ) Reread your post and this might be one way if he's got UK & Belgian business - get him to add it to one of his big money transfers and get as close to the Interbank rate as you can (the rate the banks use when transferring tons and tons of dosh - i.e. the best you can get )

Keep well away from High Street banks as you can't find out the rate beforehand in my experience (transferring 200 quid to Germany for an Ebay purchase) and it becomes a leap into the unknown which you don't want with big money transfers

unfortunately I can't help you with anything definite about transferring sterling to euro in Belgium but unless your mate can get decent business rates and you know what the rate is going to be, I'd be thinking "better the devil you know"

If he banks your checque (sterling) in his Belgium account, the bank will give you the spot rate conversion on the day with a nice fat profit / fee going into their pockets . If you try to transfer it electronically from your own online personal account I doubt you'd be able to send it "abroad" so you'd be forced into using the UK bank transfer system (see above for my thoughts ).

You could try credit cards but that's another system with "unknown" rates until it's too late (if it's possible in the first place)

Sorry to sound negative / long-winded about this but hope some of it helps...

Apple

edited to add a bit about b2b transfers

[Edited by Apple - 6/1/2003 8:07:55 PM]

dsmith

Coming close to the time of paying for my Euro-Import and I'd obviously like to get the best exchange rate possible.

A friend runs a business in Belgium and the UK and therefore regularly has to move money between the 2 countries. He reckons you get a better rate changing in belgium than here.

Are there are any legal issues with me paying him in Sterling and him transferring money from his Euro account to the Belgian dealer, He can than sort the money via his normal route.

Deano

dsmith

Apple - Huge Help

Didnt do enough research and sent the deposit via my Normal Bank

And of course didn't buy a forward rate so have seen my potential saving dwindle :need a smily with bloke crying!:

Deano

Apple

yoikes - no forward rate

when I got mine, 0.01euro rate drop was 100 quid on top - that's over 2 grand - aaargh - bet you're wishing you got an end of line UK MY02

good luck

Apple

stevem2k

If it's any help, the euro is *expected* to continue to climb in value against the $ and £ over the next few months (Euro/$ @ 1.30 maybe ?). It may pay to put the money in a Euro account now if it's just sitting there...

What actually happens is down to the central banks and how they expect to cut interest rates. The European Central Bank has been slower than an athsmatic ant carrying heavy shopping to do anything about the economic slowdown, so this would increase the likelihood of the above happening.

Steve