Best Currency Traders?

First topic message reminder :

Who have you found the best currency traders to be especially for large amounts ie a house purchase?

modicasa wrote:A couple of points if I may......
 To be perfectly legal your cheque has to have cleared by the time of the atto. 
.....

Ah, so by "cleared" you mean a bankers draft (cashier's check in the USA?) where the money is held by the draw down bank.... That I totally agree with and was the conclusion we came to and conducted when we bought. Only difference for us was the account we paid from was a UK off-shore Euro a/c, specifically opened for that sole purpose (and paying 3-4% interest at the time). The cheque was made out to the vendor and guaranteed by the Bank of Milan (I think that was the name). As far as I understand, this is not like carrying cash around and at least we knew where the money was and that we would hand it over at the final act... Oh yes and whilst waiting for the event we could move money at our leisure when the rates suited us and gain interest at the same time... Whatever you do, look at it long before the event...

I think that the correct Italian translation of the type of payment I am talking about is "assegno circolare non transferibile". It is non-transferable, can only be deposited into the beneficiary's bank account and it is considered better than cash as the issuing bank certifies that they are holding that amount in trust for the beneficiary. In Australia it is called "certified bank cheque". We have used that type of payment in Italy when we purchased our property and it was issued by the then Banca Toscana. Perhaps Modi can confir that I am using the correct Italian translation.

Yes, un assegno circolare is a bank draft or cashier cheque - ie your account is debited with the amount the moment the cheque is issued.  Having said that, it wil lstill take a receiving bank a good few days to credit your account, even though it should be by the next working day.  Banks in ITaly are very good at earning interest on your money!   All cheques in Italy are now non trasferibile including current account cheques.

I think that all banks try to delay the clearing process. I have seen it quite a few times. That's the way they make money... with our money 

Back to my original question - have any of you actually used a currency trader to buy a house?  If so, which ones?  My thought is to buy euros through a currency trader and then possibly park it in a euro based account.  I would then have the funds sent as per notaio instructions.  Don't you save a lot using them rather than having the bank do the conversion?

Lisa C. wrote:Back to my original question - have any of you actually used a currency trader to buy a house?  If so, which ones?  My thought is to buy euros through a currency trader and then possibly park it in a euro based account.  I would then have the funds sent as per notaio instructions.  Don't you save a lot using them rather than having the bank do the conversion?

We used MoneyCorp, but they are all much the same, oh but yes, far better rates than banks... Today we would have used CurrencyFair as their rate is far better than any FX company. Mind you that's without phoning one of these to see if they will better them... From what I understand for a one off large transaction they may well do so. But be careful they don't have subsequent expensive transfers, with CF you pay €3 Euros to transfer any amount, hard to beat... Not the best of economic times for interest, but shop around (Google) for the best interest Euro a/c... Oh and Google "compare FX companies" for more information...

In my experience, banks will trasnfer money as and when they want at the rate they prefer.  A FE company will give you a guaranteed spot rate and it remains valid for 3 days. You nominate your receiving account and thats that.  I use different companies depending on the currency.  If you want a list of the ones I advise to clients, drop me a line.

We are not italian residents but our estate agents helped us set up a bank account when we bought our house and it was set up by them as a resident or normal account.  If ever I go into a different branch of my bank and ask if I can deposit or withdraw money there, they assume from our accents that we will have an account for stranieri (which apparently would restrict us to using only the specific branch where our account is held) but after checking, the clerk always says " oh no you nave a normal account, so ok".  I suspect this also allows us to have free online banking as our friends checked with their bank and were told they would have to pay for the privilege.  

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Oh, and on the subject of currency trading I agree that they are fantastic for large sums, but we've more or less finished our house purchase and renovation so we no longer need to transfer sums in excess of €5000 (thank god!) but we often do need to top up our italian account with smaller amounts.  

We've found that we can get excellent rates using http://travelmoney.moneysavingexpert.com/ which compares all the various trading rates and regularly find that the rate for, say £1000 - £2000 worth of Euros is far better with one of the listed companies than with, say, HIFX.  So we just take cash over with us and deposit it in the bank.

That looks like an interesting solution Carciofo, well worth trying out !

V

Carciofo wrote:Oh, and on the subject of currency trading I agree that they are fantastic for large sums, but we've more or less finished our house purchase and renovation so we no longer need to transfer sums in excess of €5000 (thank god!) but we often do need to top up our italian account with smaller amounts.  We've found that we can get excellent rates using http://travelmoney.moneysavingexpert.com/ which compares all the various trading rates and regularly find that the rate for, say £1000 - £2000 worth of Euros is far better with one of the listed companies than with, say, HIFX.  So we just take cash over with us and deposit it in the bank.

Carciofo,

I just went on-line to travel money and see that it is UK based only.  Does anyone know of a comparable site in the USA?

We used a company called Smart Exchange - have bought in italy twice - the first time we transferred the euros through Smart Exchange to our italian bank account who then issued a bankers draft.  We are non - residents.  The second time we again used Smart Exchange and transferred our money to our UK HSBC euro bank account and had a bankers draft issued which we took over with us.  At the time of getting close to the purchase we shopped around for the best rates and did an on the spot purchase ie best rate at that moment in time and both times Smart exchange were the most competitive.  Always worth a shop around

I don't exhaustively follow exchange rates, but Sterling seems to be tanking just now. Might seem to be not a good time to be transferring into Euro, but Yen is looking tempting. (Usual disclaimers)

Sterling is getting worse (v Euro). In the ATMs it's about parity.

And the Euro is not as strong against the USD as it used to be... The Aussie dollar is also weaker...

You can still get 1.1539 Euro for GBP, ok not quite as good as it was, but still ... This shows the variation up well and the reason you need to be able to "fix" a rate at which you can afford when buying (or wanting to move a large amount) else you are at the mercy of the markets....

I use the 50/50 method which is to buy 50% of what I need on one occasion and the other 50% some time later.

If the rate improves then I know I was wise not to buy 100% on the first occasion.

If the rate drops then I know how wise I was to buy 50% when I did!

A win/win solution!

Not really off topic as this is bound to be of interest if people are wanting to buy (or smaller amounts) for that matter. I've noted(this being our 4th summer here in Italy) that in the holiday period Stirling 3-4 points, starts around mid July and lasts  until the start of September. Of course this could be because of other factors and I've not looked for actual historic figures, but it's worth noting... By the way the pound is at 1.1840 last I looked...

Hmmmmmm.  Last summer (2012) the £/€ exchange rate was 1.2636 - heady days!!   http://www.exchangerates.org.uk/GBP-EUR-24_08_2012-exchange-rate-history.html

My understanding is that the exchange rate varies as a result of lots of currency traders around the world sitting in front of their computer screens and gambling millions of pounds/euro/dollars etc.  

ghiro wrote:Hmmmmmm.  Last summer (2012) the £/€ exchange rate was 1.2636 - heady days!!   http://www.exchangerates.org.uk/GBP-EUR-24_08_2012-exchange-rate-history.htmlMy understanding is that the exchange rate varies as a result of lots of currency traders around the world sitting in front of their computer screens and gambling millions of pounds/euro/dollars etc.  

Like I said I had not investigated actual rates as I know by experience this has been "generally" the case. In point of fact if you look prior to your summer 2012 rate, on the 30th of July the pound was at 1.2818. I believe, as mad as it might sound, it's something to do with us brits going on holiday and selling lots of pounds for Euro...

Then, perhaps you should have joined the Euro...

Gala Placidia wrote:Then, perhaps you should have joined the Euro...

... and end up like Greece or even worse Argentina   

Argentina, as far as I know, never joined the Euro   Their problems have nothing to do with the currency. 
And Greece did some "creative accounting" to be able to join in. As for the rest, we are doing quite well, thank you.

Gala Placidia wrote:Argentina, as far as I know, never joined the Euro   Their problems have nothing to do with the currency. And Greece did some "creative accounting" to be able to join in. As for the rest, we are doing quite well, thank you.

... The Euro is on the brink of disaster as a currency of a failing (euro)empire.. As for Argentina, they did very well initially after defaulting on their debit, trouble with that is that no one trusts you for a few decades or so... I don't personally think the UK should have stayed out of the Euro as I strongly believe the closer people are to each other the less likely chance of conflict... But the fact they did is a BIG plus from a financial point of view of the UK government....

The Argentinian problem is a very complicated one. The defaulting on their debit is just an episode in a long history of bad economic management, rampant corruption and too many other disasters to list here. I lived for quite a few years in Argentina and I think that I know a bit about those problems that come from a long way back. I also think that the UK should have joined the Euro. Furthermore, I would like to see a sole international currency... but I am afraid that I will not live long enough to see it... if it ever happens