Buying sterling to pay for a car

Yorky

I need to buy £14700 GBP to buy a car in the UK from a franchised dealership.

Can anyone advise the most cost effective way of doing this?

Thanks in advance

JTMan

(1) Open a KBC account. Almost all RoI banks will let you open a GBP account. KBC has some of the better GBP rates.

(2) Use an online currency broker to convert from EUR to GBP. Shop around. Options include Currency Fair.

(3) Wire the GBP to the person you are purchasing the car from.

Technique

+1 for CurrencyFair. You'll need to forward a copy of your passport, proof of address etc. so it may take a few days to get it sorted. You'll save hundreds though. I got 1.41 gbp/eur with them yesterday.

Yorky

JTMan wrote: »

(1) Open a KBC account. Almost all RoI banks will let you open a GBP account. KBC has some of the better GBP rates.

(2) Use an online currency broker to convert from EUR to GBP. Shop around. Options include Currency Fair.

(3) Wire the GBP to the person you are purchasing the car from.

Thanks for the replies. Is the above step by step? If so, why would a KBC account be needed when a transfer could just be made via Currency Fair or similar?

jaymcg91

Yorky wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Is the above step by step? If so, why would a KBC account be needed when a transfer could just be made via Currency Fair or similar?

Because where would you put the GBP? Straight into the account of whomever you're buying the car from?

JTMan

True, putting the GBP straight into the other persons account is another option.

NIMAN

Technique wrote: »

+1 for CurrencyFair. You'll need to forward a copy of your passport, proof of address etc. so it may take a few days to get it sorted. You'll save hundreds though. I got 1.41 gbp/eur with them yesterday.

UYse CurrencyFair myself, and find it good.

Problem is, do you not have a max exchange of £3000 for a while?

Overall, its a terrible time to be changing Euro to Sterling.

Yorky

Is opening an account with KBC the only way to avoid transferring the money to the dealers account prior to viewing and collection?

Is this the best way to process the purchase ? I'm buying the car 'unseen' based upon email / phone contact.

When I do go over to collect the car, I'd prefer to not have transferred the money in to the dealers's bank account until I''ve actually seen the car.

If opening a KBC sterling account, is it a speedy process? I used to have accounts with them if that makes a difference?

Any advice?

Thanks again

CiniO

Yorky wrote: »

Is opening an account with KBC the only way to avoid transferring the money to the dealers account prior to viewing and collection?

Is this the best way to process the purchase ? I'm buying the car 'unseen' based upon email / phone contact.

When I do go over to collect the car, I'd prefer to not have transferred the money in to the dealers's bank account until I''ve actually seen the car.

If opening a KBC sterling account, is it a speedy process? I used to have accounts with them if that makes a difference?

Any advice?

Thanks again

From what I recall, it takes only up to few hours (on weekdays) to transfer money from Currencyfair or Trasferwise to UK bank account.
So you send you money from Irish bank account to them (Currencyfair, Transferwise, etc). Have them exchange it to sterling and hold on to it.
Then you go to UK, view the car in the morning, and if you like it, you arrange transfer from your Currencyfair or Trasferwise etc to dealers account. Should be with them within few hours the latest.

If you open sterling account in KBC in Ireland, and transfer your sterling to it, you might not be able to do transfer (from your account to dealers account) within one day, as it's going to be international transfer.
That's my belief anyway.