Transferring Money To A Foreign Account Help!

[tigwig]

I have got myself very confused! I need to pay a deposit for a villa to a bank account in Lanzarote. The amount in sterling should be £570. However if I do this in sterling from my bank it is going to cost me £25 to do so. If I transfer the amount in euros there will be a £4 cost. But the villa owner says the rate today is 1.19 and is expecting 678 euros and this differs from 2 bank accounts I have who are saying it's either 1.15 or 1.16 meaning I am going to have to pay more to get the amount in euros the owner is asking for! So which is financially the better option? I bank with First Direct, Natwest & Halifax or I also have a paypal account too. There fees differ slightly and I cannot get my head around the best way to do it. Help please!!

[Prudie]

We've done this several times paying for villas and found for ease and least hassle it was best to pay the bank to do it. We used Halifax and they charged £9.50 for the transaction (although this was us doing it online, don't know if that makes it cheaper).

[tigwig]

Thanks I have looked at that and it appears the cheapest option but it does also say the recipient may have to pay fees to get the money. I dont want those costs passed onto me! Did you pay in sterling?

[Prudie]

Yes we did but as said we did this online banking from home with the bank details of the recipients. We pay in sterling, the bank converts to euros at their rate and then the money (exact amount of euros requested) goes into owner's account within 3 days. We did need quite a few numbers/codes for the Spanish account. I can't find out now what they were called but could check when I get home tonight if you wanted,

[tigwig]

Thanks but I have all those already its just the amount of euros that differed to the rate I was given. I will try with the Halifax. Thanks for your help.

[society]

Please excuse me tigwig while I ask Prudie a question.

Prudie, did you meet-up with Sqad? Haven't been on here for a while, don't know if I missed your post, that is, if you posted about it.

[Prudie]

Hi society :-), yes I did, twice in fact in July and again last week with Mr & Mrs Sqad. I've not posted about it and neither has he so I've respected that.

[Sqad]

LOL.....

[ck1]

I do these transfers with Globalwebpay, works out pretty cheap and you decide how much you want to send or how much you want the other person to receive to take away any confusion