Sterling from Spain to UK

[patonjea47]

My partner wishes to take £9000 from Spain to the UK in order to deposit in a UK bank account. Does this pose any problems with Spain / UK authorities?

[ummmm]

I think the back informs HMRC if anything over 5k is deposited in one go.

Why can't he transfer it?

[jomifl]

He could transfer £25000 per day by bank transfer if he wanted to. He might have a problem explaining why he has £9000 in cash on him though.

[patonjea47]

No problem with legality of money. It's in a Spanish sterling account but he wishes to transfer to UK. He has, however no UK account and can't get one as a non-resident. Can he transfer to another person's UK account?

[shoota]

I have twice recently been asked by Chunnel customs if I am carrying 'large' amounts of money.
I have simply replied 'No' and they havn't asked any further questions. (One time I was......woohooo!!)
Quite what they define as large I don't know, nor do I know what they would have done had I said yes but there does seem to be some kind of concern over the movement of currency.

[ummmm]

Money laundering I think....

[patonjea47]

Thank-you all. We've decided to change into euros and invest here in Spain. It was just a thought, given that we'd prefer to have Sterling than euros - please no debate on the wisdom of this decision!

[dzug2]

You are supposed to declare to customs any sum over £10000 - or it may be €10000. It's still perfectly legal to import it though.

They are entitled to ask how you came by it - for any amount.

[Buenchico]

Further to Dzug2's post:
You are required to declare cash brought in from outside the EU if the amount exceeds the equivalent of €10,000. There is no restriction upon the movement of cash within the EU:
http://customs.hmrc.g...tentID=HMCE_CL_001734

[jomifl]

Of course you can transfer money so someone else's account by bank transfer. There is no reason why an account cannot be opened by a non resident as long as that person can prove there identity and have an address somewhere. Some Banks such as Santander will not do this as they are too witless and inflexible. I had an account with Santander and moved to France, but they don't allow non UK residents to have an account so I cannot have one but I do.They will not accept my change of address so cannot correspond with me about the closure of my account as the post office will not do mail forwarding for more than 2 years. Silly or what?

[boxtops]

Given that Santander are a Spanish bank - yes, daft.