How to pay a Sterling invoice?

Banking & Financial Tax & Social charges
1

Hi everyone, I’m hoping someone can offer some advise.
I need to pay a UK Sterling invoice, my bank has said it will cost 60Euro+ for them to do the transfer which is a lot considering it is a smallish bill. The company I need to pay don’t have paypal and don’t accept credit cards and don’t want me to estimate the price in Euros (plus a bit) and do the transfer as they think it will cost them fees at their end (I’d be happy to pay the fees but they won’t find out what they are).
I have not had to do this before and I am a bit lost ?

2

Open a Revolut account

1 Like
3

Do you have a UK bank account?

5

No - BREXIT - Barclays finally closed my account :frowning:

6

If you have a Wise (formerly Transferwise) account, it’s very simple to pay in an amount in Euros, convert it (at a very favourable rate) to £ and then make the payment.

1 Like
7

Hi Mat - Would that let me pay a set sterling amount from my french bank account ?

8

Hi Porridge, I looked at Wise but was a bit put off by their recent bad reviews ? Have you found this a safe way to pay ?

9

Easiest way is to get a Brit friend with a UK bank account to pay it and then you reimburse them.

2 Likes
10

I certainly have found Wise to be excellent and reliable and I’m fairly sure you can do regular payment with them. I shall go and check.

EDIT: Right - I’ve been on there and it’s easy to set up a direct debit (and also to cancel one) if that’s what you need.

2 Likes
11

Thanks Angela, this is just a one off payment

12

Thanks Angela

13

In that case it’s even easier - you don’t need to set up a sterling account with them, you get a basic account, pick a day when the Euro to Pound exchange rate is acceptably favourable and transfer the money in Euros from your French bank account. If you get stuck, please PM me :smiley:

14

Just checking - it is wise.com ?

1 Like
15

I have never encountered any problems. Last used them last month.

Yep

16

Just to add that they use the current declared exchange rate (as in poundsterlinglive.co.uk) and then apply charges (declared upfront) and to give an example, I transferred around £900 from UK to France last week and the charges were £3ish.

17

Thanks Angela - Wise.com?

18

Yes - I agree with @Porridge (not for the first time :rofl: )

19

I havn’t seen those. I’ve used (Transfer)Wise for, literally, hundreds of thousands of euros. Though I’ve nothing that drastic in plan, I do have about €10K with them and just transferred another €1,700 to my Wife’s Wise A/C to pay a UK bill.

Can you point me to the reviews in case they do a Silicon Valley Bank or First Republic with my hard earned loot :scream:

20

I think there may be two problems here. One is the (very reasonable) concern that Wise was going to become nasty when it was floated and there were certainly some problems around that time. The other is a sort of rivalry between Revolut users and Wise users and that can muddy the waters a bit.

I think you are “wise” to keep and eye on things as they are now at the mercyof shareholders and could change but at the moment they are fine. I wouldn’t use them for holding large amounts of money and mainly use them just for transfers. I do have a small balance in both euros and pounds in case I have to use their debit card in an emergency though!

2 Likes
21

I am using TorFX following a recommendation on here and I have been very happy with them but I don’t keep money there, just make transfers which I am sure can be made in both directions. They don’t charge just take a profit from a lower rate which for £1000 amounts to about a fiver I think. :grinning: