transfering money

yossarin

Hey the ex-pats,

does anyone have any experience of transferring money from the UK to ireland? I know it seems stupid, but its surprisingly difficult at short notice.

I have some money that i want to bring home this weekend (more than I'd be happy carrying in cash). However, I'm stuffed as english banks won't allow me transfer the money to my bank of ireland account. If i go to BofI here in london, they'll do it but it'll take an age and its hard to get to them inside working hours.

has anyone got any ideas ? I'm thinking about a bank draft cheque, but I'm not sure if an irish bank would accept an english draft...

A Dub in Glasgo

Are you trying to send sterling? If you are, I would convert the lot of it at the Post Office (get 100Euro notes) and bring it over with you.

I had 3,500Euro that I needed to send to my brother in Dublin. I have an AIB account in Dublin. I go to the AIB branch in Glasgow, the only way to do it was to convert the money to sterling, pay a fee to transfer and then convert the sterling back to Euro. It was going to cost about £150 for me to do this (convert/fee/convert). I then went to the BofI branch and they were no use whatsoever. I could not buy a Euro draft because I did not have an account with them in Glasgow. Useless shower.

I ended up booking a day return flight to Dublin with Ryanair for £40 and I brought the cash (all in 50Euro notes).

fletch

Haven't thought of Western Union Money Transfer....it'l cost a few quid tho

grumpytrousers

yossarin wrote:

Hey the ex-pats,

does anyone have any experience of transferring money from the UK to ireland? I know it seems stupid, but its surprisingly difficult at short notice.

I have some money that i want to bring home this weekend (more than I'd be happy carrying in cash). However, I'm stuffed as english banks won't allow me transfer the money to my bank of ireland account. If i go to BofI here in london, they'll do it but it'll take an age and its hard to get to them inside working hours.

has anyone got any ideas ? I'm thinking about a bank draft cheque, but I'm not sure if an irish bank would accept an english draft...

Assuming you've an account with a UK high st bank, just toddle in, ask for a euro draft (payable to yourself) for the amount, pay for it, walk out...

i know that on t'other side of the fence and my current job in Ireland, we constantly send drafts that are 'as good as cheques' to people in the UK.

to be honest, no matter what way you do this, it's gonna cost you money. The only 'free' way is to carry it on your person from A to B. Think of paying bank charges as 'insurance'...

ChipZilla

yossarin wrote:

has anyone got any ideas ? I'm thinking about a bank draft cheque, but I'm not sure if an irish bank would accept an english draft...

When have you ever known an Irish bank to turn down money?

I do it all the time - get a sterling draft, post it back and get someone to lodge it in the bank for me. No probs.

According to the AIB, a sterling draft takes 10 days to make it into your account. But it's usually been 4 or 5 days for me, which is highly unusual as we all know how banks like to hang onto money... :rolleyes:

yossarin

thanks guys,

I'm divided between the euro draft and carrying cash. I'll see what the fees are i suppose. Thinking about it, I might just carry the cash in tens and twenties and feel like a big shot

If anyone is is in dublin airport on saturday, I'm the guy in the dark clothes (lets see if theres a mass mugging )

ChipZilla

Carrying cash is fine as long as
(a) you don't get searched, and somebody thinks it's for a drugs buy or something. Low probability I know, but...
(b) you don't get mugged.

At least with a draft, it can only be lodged in your account. If it gets lost, it's an absolute pain in the tits to get a replacement, but it can be done.

RuggieBear

yossarin wrote:

If anyone is is in dublin airport on saturday, I'm the guy in the dark clothes (lets see if theres a mass mugging )

"....and in other news, a priest was savagely beaten and mugged by a mob at dublin airport on Saturday.....GARDAI are at a loss to explain...."

A Dub in Glasgo

The thing I found when I was looking to convert the money to Euros is the fact that most banks do not give a good rate of exchange therfore it will cost you more money to convert using a bank than say the Post Office. I found the post office to offer the best rate and just carried the money to Dublin. I had receipts to prove it was converted money and good reason to bring large sums to Dublin. As for getting mugged... a tiny probability that can be ignored,

ChipZilla

Depends on how much you're carrying I suppose... I transfer £5000 every couple of months (~€7300 according to xe.com). I'd prefer to take a hit on the bank commission and get a bank draft rather than risk carrying nearly 7.5K in 50s or even 100s. And I'm not a cautious person by nature either...

grumpytrousers

ChipZilla wrote:

Depends on how much you're carrying I suppose... I transfer £5000 every couple of months (~€7300 according to xe.com). I'd prefer to take a hit on the bank commission and get a bank draft rather than risk carrying nearly 7.5K in 50s or even 100s. And I'm not a cautious person by nature either...

Don't suppose you fancy telling us which bank branch you use for converting 5K cash per time to a draft and...er...your times of visit

it's for a friend, like....

ChipZilla

Wouldn't you like to know Nah, I build up the £5000 gradually in a deposit account - it would look too dodgy strolling in off the street with a big wad every few months, wanting a draft on the spot. It's still way under the money-laundering limit where the bank has to report the transaction, but I suppose could still appear dodgy to some...

Not that I'm up to anything dodgy or illegal BTW...

Kernel32

What about converting the cash to travellers cheques. When you get to Ireland you can convert them back to cash with no delay. Last year I needed to transfer a few thousand dollars to Ireland but I needed it right away for a rental deposit and other stuff so I brought it all in travellers checks. One thing to keep in mind, Irish banks will only cash a certain amount at a time, the money laundering stuff. The amount seems to vary based on which old biddy behind the counter you get. I had to do mine in $500 blocks. She wouldn't cash more than that in a single transaction, so what I did was cash $500, leave the bank, walk straight back in and do another $500, each as a seperate transaction. You will pay a little commision of course for putting up with that bull****e but you get your money right away.

Actually if you have an Irish bank account, which I didn't at the time, they would most likely allow you to deposit the travellers cheques right into the account.

yossarin

I went with the draft in the end - it cost £20 but was worth it as the money *had* to go through and I didn't have a lot of time. In the future i think i'll just carry the cash and dress like a pimp so no one messes with me.

A Dub in Glasgo

Did the bank give you a competitive exchange rate?

yossarin

nope. got screwed.

The Sweeper

A few months ago I lodged a Euro draft with BOI to clear a loan. The draft was bought in a UK Bank and I paid sterling out of my account for it.

I checked my bank account about two weeks later, and a loan payment had come out. "Ah", thinks I, "for some reason they've not cancelled the direct debit when I asked them to".

So I phone up, happily requesting that the debit be refunded etc., and I get "no sorry, you still owe us, your cheque was returned unpaid."

"Excuse me? What cheque?"

"The cheque you sent to clear your loan, it was returned unpaid."

"It wasn't a cheque, it was a draft. It was a Euro draft."

"Yeah, but it was returned unpaid."

"They can't return it unpaid, it has a cash value. I bought it with sterling. The money's gone from my account."

"Okay, I'll make a call." Makes call. Calls me back. "Hi, listen, what you need to do, is go to your bank and cancel the cheque and reissue it."

"It's not a cheque."

"Sorry?"

"It's not a cheque. It's a draft. I can't cancel it. I already paid for it. Now, tell me, where is it? Have you just lost a draft that I paid two and a half thousand pounds for?"

Off she goes to investigate... Basically, we were back and forth for about three hours in the afternoon. She still insists that the bank have returned the draft unpaid. When I rang the UK bank she told me they hadn't returned a draft unpaid in 28 years. It's virtually unheard of, because you actually have to pay for the draft before they'll issue it, it's not a credit facility.

Turned out some moron had sent my Euro draft to the UK bank on which it was drawn, attaching it to a cheque processing form, requesting payment. They'd returned it, not unpaid, but as a "we can't process this as a cheque, it's not a cheque muppets".

International banking sucks.

A Dub in Glasgo

The muppets who work for some of the banks suck. Basic training for international banking does not appear to happen.

Kahlan

Hey,
I am in my final year of college and have just got word that I have a job in england waiting for me after my final exams. I am wondering, I have a loan I have to start paying back in BOI in September, how do I go about making the fortnightly repayments??? Unfortunately, I will not be going back and forth with drafts so how do I do it without it costing me a fortune???
Also, which bank would people recommend in england to open an account in?

Tks a mil

Heineken Helen

and that's why it's usually a good idea to take a copy of these things

I usually just bring my bank card and withdraw the money when I'm there... although daily limits and all that but you can go into your OWN bank and withdraw any amount... all the major British banks have branches in Dublin.

Heineken Helen

Kahlan wrote: »

Hey,
I am in my final year of college and have just got word that I have a job in england waiting for me after my final exams. I am wondering, I have a loan I have to start paying back in BOI in September, how do I go about making the fortnightly repayments??? Unfortunately, I will not be going back and forth with drafts so how do I do it without it costing me a fortune???
Also, which bank would people recommend in england to open an account in?

Tks a mil

You might wanna start another thread for that I opened an account with Lloyds... just a basic current account and I've had problems with them already. e.g. you can only use the card in a Lloyds atm for the first three months :eek: talk about impractical... we went to Wales for a weekend and there wasn't a Lloyds bank to be found so I'd to get loans from friends all weekend:mad: but I signed up with them cos they have the visa debit card :)which is wonderful... but so do Halifax and probably every other bank at this stage

small

I'd reccomend HSBC, been banking with them for a few months and have had no problems. A friend of mine is having serious issues with Llyods. I started out with HSBC as a mate of mine said they have a facility for you to transfer money to Irish accounts, I've never had a need to use it though, and I think it might cost about £15 a go....best of luck!

Kahlan

small wrote: »

I'd reccomend HSBC, been banking with them for a few months and have had no problems. A friend of mine is having serious issues with Llyods. I started out with HSBC as a mate of mine said they have a facility for you to transfer money to Irish accounts, I've never had a need to use it though, and I think it might cost about £15 a go....best of luck!

Thanks a million everyone, that is really helpful, will definitely look into HSBC, though if it costs 15 a go, I might see about changing my loan payments to monthly or quarterly.

cooper38

should have tried currency.ie , their transfers are free unless its same day which is 15 euro, shop aruond for quotes but they beat the banks