Best way to buy sterling for buying a car

bs2014

What is the best way to pay for a car in the north. I'm assuming a bank draft or bank transfer will be the least favourable exchange rate. Has anyone used currency fair or revolut....these have been suggested to me? Any other recommendations? Thanks.

Rows Grower

bs2014 wrote: »

What is the best way to pay for a car in the north. I'm assuming a bank draft or bank transfer will be the least favourable exchange rate. Has anyone used currency fair or revolut....these have been suggested to me? Any other recommendations? Thanks.

TransferWise, very low rates and money is in the other account in seconds.

colm_mcm

How does that compare to paying with your debit card?

Rows Grower

colm_mcm wrote: »

How does that compare to paying with your debit card?

Big savings.

Alanstrainor

Depending on how much money we're talking, I had a friend use revolut for around 15k stg. Huge savings. There is a fee for larger transactions, but it's relatively small and still gave big savings over going through the bank.

colm_mcm

Rows Grower wrote: »

Big savings.

Do you know how big? I did just this and was happy with the exchange rate I got on the day, how much % extra do you think you’re charged for using visa debit in uk?

Rows Grower

It should actually show you on the transaction page how much you have saved if memory serves me right.

Ferris

I recently used revolut for this - found it very good. The transfer from euro to stg was instantaneous and the transfer into the car dealers bank was minutes. The exchange rate is the interbank rate and there was no charge up to 5k per month and 0.5% after that, cost me ~20quid so not mad. The only issue was delays in transferring from AIB into revolut which took days - but thats a problem with Irish banks in general.

Chartsengrafs

+1 on Transferwise, used without a hitch last week. Revolut also good, particularly handy for deposit etc.

Casati

Xe.com better again for large amounts, ie 15k plus

dubrov

Debit cards tend to have a maximum currency exchange fee of about 11 Euro. So you'd get charged 11 euro on a 1k or 50k transaction. There are limits to the maximum transaction size though. Check with your bank.

Revolut has a 5k currency limit cost month after which fees apply.

Currency fair is another option if you can do a bank transfer

Yourmama

dubrov wrote:

Debit cards tend to have a maximum currency exchange fee of about 11 Euro. So you'd get charged 11 euro on a 1k or 50k transaction. There are limits to the maximum transaction size though. Check with your bank.

It's not about fee but about unfavorable exchange rate

dubrov

Yourmama wrote:

It's not about fee but about unfavorable exchange rate

You get the fair rate now and the charge is completely separated into the fee

Yourmama

Yourmama wrote: »

It's not about fee but about unfavorable exchange rate

The exchange rate is set by visa and MasterCard and is a good rate, don’t be mistaken thinking it’s the banks own crap exchange rate. The transaction fee is also capped at fairly low figures, it’s 11.43 on a boi debit card.

For example spending 15000 sterling today would be 50 euro cheaper with my boi visa debit than using trasnferwise so hit only is there no big saving it would actually cost me to use transferwise..

I’m a massive fan of Revolut, trasnferwise etc but people blindly think they are always the best option, they usually are but there are exceptions.

zilog_jones

Simone Ugly Gnu wrote: »

The exchange rate is set by visa and MasterCard and is a good rate, don’t be mistaken thinking it’s the banks own crap exchange rate.

Are you sure about that? I thought this was only the case for credit cards? I've seen pretty crappy exchange rates using my Visa Debit card in the past (Ulster Bank).

zilog_jones

zilog_jones wrote: »

Are you sure about that? I thought this was only the case for credit cards? I've seen pretty crappy exchange rates using my Visa Debit card in the past (Ulster Bank).

Positive, visa/MasterCard debit cards use the same exchange rates as credit cards (except for the likes of Revolut etc who has interbank rates which are better but on large transactions fees can kick in).

dubrov

I think it was driven by an EU ruling aimed at ensuring FX charges by banks are more transparent.
So I think it only applies to EU issued debit/credit cards.

bs2014

Hi I set up my revolut last week and now when I go to use it it's letting me down....cost me 500e yesterday alone in an unfavourable currency swing.

I keep getting this msg here saying it brings me over my 24 hour card deposit limit. Can't fine a number of or any contact in revolut. Anyone help? Cheers

bs2014

bs2014 wrote: »

Hi I set up my revolut last week and now when I go to use it it's letting me down....cost me 500e yesterday alone in an unfavourable currency swing.

I keep getting this msg here saying it brings me over my 24 hour card deposit limit. Can't fine a number of or any contact in revolut. Anyone help? Cheers

You need to have a record of regular smaller top ups and using the card before they allow big top ups or big transactions.

bazz26

You contact Revolut through live chat on the Revolut App, not by the phone.

kerten

I couldn’t even buy a macbook for 2799 euro in harvey norman with boi and kbc debit cards in single transaction so I had to divide it to two cards.

That said when I was buying I transferred amount to a friends account in UK and he used his debit card for paying 15k stg in single transaction.

How do you buy cars with your irish debit cards in UK ?

kerten

kerten wrote: »

I couldn’t even buy a macbook for 2799 euro in harvey norman with boi and kbc debit cards in single transaction so I had to divide it to two cards.

That said when I was buying I transferred amount to a friends account in UK and he used his debit card for paying 15k stg in single transaction.

How do you buy cars with your irish debit cards in UK ?

Boi debit cards have no limit, the only one in Ireland that doesn’t as far as I know. I have put almost 10k in one transaction on a BOI debit card and I was with a friend when he paid 35k sterling on his boi debit card with no issue.

Most cards have a 5k limit so what happened you sounds strange even for non boi cards.

colm_mcm

Simone Ugly Gnu wrote: »

Boi debit cards have no limit, the only one in Ireland that doesn’t as far as I know. I have put almost 10k in one transaction on a BOI debit card and I was with a friend when he paid 35k sterling on his boi debit card with no issue.

I believe there’s a €25k limit

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

I believe there’s a €25k limit

No, it’s unlimited in theory. As I said I was standing beside a friend do chip and pin on his boi debit card for 35k sterling.

kerten

Simone Ugly Gnu wrote: »

Boi debit cards have no limit, the only one in Ireland that doesn’t as far as I know. I have put almost 10k in one transaction on a BOI debit card and I was with a friend when he paid 35k sterling on his boi debit card with no issue.

Most cards have a 5k limit so what happened you sounds strange even for non boi cards.

I just remembered that i have had same problem in same harvey norman branch when I tried to pay 2000 euro in single transaction with same boi card in 2016.

Still doesnt make sense though.

I have stumbled upon web site below confirming what you say regarding boi debit cards. Others seem to have daily limits.

http://www.moneyguideireland.com/debit-card-limits-on-spending-and-atm-withdrawals.html

California Dreamer

colm_mcm wrote: »

Do you know how big? I did just this and was happy with the exchange rate I got on the day, how much % extra do you think you’re charged for using visa debit in uk?

I bought a new van in the north in June. I compared the exchange rates using my bank and currency fair and the difference was about €600 on £14k.

California Dreamer

California Dreamer wrote: »

I bought a new van in the north in June. I compared the exchange rates using my bank and currency fair and the difference was about €600 on £14k.

Don’t confuse your banks exchange rate and the exchange rate you would get with your banks visa or MasterCard debit card. The banks exchange rate is if you buy sterling (either getting cash or getting them to do a transfer to a uk bank account etc). Your debit card will use visa or MasterCards exchange rate plus a fee. The fee is normally capped though so I’m very large transactions it’s not as big an issue as it is on day to day transactions where the fee really adds up.

Transferwise is likely to be a small bit cheaper than using your visa debit or MasterCard too though but it won’t be 600 euro different.

California Dreamer

Simone Ugly Gnu wrote: »

Don’t confuse your banks exchange rate and the exchange rate you would get with your banks visa or MasterCard debit card. The banks exchange rate is if you buy sterling (either getting cash or getting them to do a transfer to a uk bank account etc). Your debit card will use visa or MasterCards exchange rate plus a fee. The fee is normally capped though so I’m very large transactions it’s not as big an issue as it is on day to day transactions where the fee really adds up.

Transferwise is likely to be a small bit cheaper than using your visa debit or MasterCard too though but it won’t be 600 euro different.

My banks debit card limit is €3000 per day. Or €5000 a day transfer from my account. I could opt for a swift transfer by going into my bank.

Currency fair suited my needs and yes I did save around €600 making the exchange by CF over my bank.

But sure by all means, call me a liar. I am not that bright but I know how to count!

dubrov

I assume you mean you could have saved 600 euro vs a bank transfer.

Debit cards in the EU now use a fair exchange rate with the fee charged separately. The fee is normally carried around 10 euro per transaction.

California Dreamer

California Dreamer wrote: »

My banks debit card limit is €3000 per day. Or €5000 a day transfer from my account. I could opt for a swift transfer by going into my bank.

Currency fair suited my needs and yes I did save around €600 making the exchange by CF over my bank.

But sure by all means, call me a liar. I am not that bright but I know how to count!

I’m not saying you’re a liar and I know most banks have limits on card transactions, I would guess you are with Ebs as I also have an account with them and they are the limits. The online 5k limit is madness.

I also have no doubt you saved 600 compared to your banks exchange rate however the point I was making is that the banks exchange rate and the exchange rate on your debit card are not the same and if you have an unlimited debit card like BOI then the difference between using transfer wise and using your card is much smaller compared to using a bank transfer vs transfer wise.

doh1988

I used currency fair before and saved a fortune on a big transfer.

Highly recommend

Yourmama

Nasir Fast Minority wrote:

No, it’s unlimited in theory. As I said I was standing beside a friend do chip and pin on his boi debit card for 35k sterling.

There is a limit of €50k, at least this is what I was told by boi Helpline. Never had a pleasure of spending more than this in single transaction so can't say how true this is.

zilog_jones

kerten wrote: »

I just remembered that i have had same problem in same harvey norman branch when I tried to pay 2000 euro in single transaction with same boi card in 2016.

Could the limit be some remnants of it being a student account, or other previous restrictions?

zilog_jones

zilog_jones wrote: »

Could the limit be some remnants of it being a student account, or other previous restrictions?

My boi account is still a student account so don’t think that impacts the spending limit, hasn’t on mine anyway having spend high 4 figures in a single transaction.

Maybe some other type of legacy limit?

toby2111

What's the best way to transfer just over 11k sterling? I have Revolut but max transfer on my card is around 3k I think. I'm with Permanent TSB for debit card and credit card. Is there a way to compare what PTSB would charge versus Transferwise?

User1998

I paid with my Revolut card using a chip and pin machine for £12k. No transfers involved

toby2111

User1998 wrote: »

I paid with my Revolut card using a chip and pin machine for £12k. No transfers involved

I only have the basic Revolut card so there's a limit of something like 3 or 4k per month on mine. I used it to pay the for my wife's car in April from a dealer up north but could only use it for 3 or 4k. Has to use transfer wise for the rest. I'll ask on revolut chat if I can use it for chip and pin transaction for 11k...

User1998

I have the standard card as well and was able to do the chip and pin.

toby2111

User1998 wrote: »

I have the standard card as well and was able to do the chip and pin.

Did you just top up? Or did you do a bank transfer into your revolut card?

User1998

Transferred euros from my AIB to my Revolut. Changed the euros into pounds in the revolut app

Edit: You should upgrade your Revolut account to pay less fees (or none?) for the exchange.

toby2111

User1998 wrote: »

Transferred euros from my AIB to my Revolut. Changed the euros into pounds in the revolut app

Edit: You should upgrade your Revolut account to pay less fees (or none?) for the exchange.

OK. Do you reckon there's much of a saving to using revolut as opposed to transferwise.

User1998

I’ve never used transfer wise and I’m not aware of their fees unfortunately

travist

User1998 wrote: »

I’ve never used transfer wise and I’m not aware of their fees unfortunately

Likely a little more, but better customer service and support.

toby2111

Out of curiosity, I went into revolut app and it will cost me €13170.21(incl fee of €37.16) to exchange to £11,150.....I wonder is that the same rate as a bank transfer?
Transferwise will charge €13,115.61(incl fee of €54.05) to transfer the same amount of sterling.. And it was around €13090 this morning. So maybe transferwise will be at least €50 cheaper than revolut?

dubrov

The FX markets are closed at the weekend so Revolut add a premium (1% I think) to cover the risk.

Try again tomorrow morning

toby2111

dubrov wrote: »

The FX markets are closed at the weekend so Revolut add a premium (1% I think) to cover the risk.

Try again tomorrow morning

OK, but would that mean that transferwise would also be cheaper tomorrow?

dubrov

toby2111 wrote: »

OK, but would that mean that transferwise would also be cheaper tomorrow?

Possibly. I am not sure how Transferwise charge.

toby2111

dubrov wrote: »

Possibly. I am not sure how Transferwise charge.

OK. And would that exchange figure I got on revolut app be the same for doing a bank transfer using revolut? Or do they use a different rate for that?

User1998

To be honest I’d just forget about Transfer wise and bank transfers. Just upgrade your Revolut for like €12. Transfer € from your bank account to Revolut, exchange it for £ and pay using chip and pin. Its the easiest and cheapest option. You can just cancel the upgrade afterwards and you won’t have to pay the €12 or whatever it is

Chip and pin is instant, you don’t know how long a bank transfer could take

bilbot79

I use currency solutionstions in the uk

travist

User1998 wrote: »

To be honest I’d just forget about Transfer wise and bank transfers. Just upgrade your Revolut for like €12. Transfer € from your bank account to Revolut, exchange it for £ and pay using chip and pin. Its the easiest and cheapest option. You can just cancel the upgrade afterwards and you won’t have to pay the €12 or whatever it is

Chip and pin is instant, you don’t know how long a bank transfer could take

revolut is a 12 month contract, so 8 or 14 a month, 12 months.

With a big transfer, if there’s a problem good look with Revolut. TransferWise is similar price but you can call them If needed. TransferWise weekend prices don’t seem to have that +1% at weekend.