Hello,
I have a few ££ I want to send to French account. Its a few thousand.
I have wise but don’t feel completely comfortable sending a chunk like that.
Is bank to bank better? Is there another good option?
And, are there any implications of sending all at once, or should i send in smaller amounts?
Sorry for all the questions.
Thank you
(I use Revolut rather than wise). You shouldn’t have any problems, but send a smaller amount first to gain confidence.
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Where are you resident? If in France, Revolut is a bank and covered by the European Deposit Protection scheme up to a balance of €100,000. If in the UK it’s a fintech, and not any safer than Wise.
Some people have recommended Torfx.
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I am in France since this summer. My uk bank are being awkward so i just want to move my money to France and be done with it.
I advise not to use bank to bank because of high charges. But yes, they are the safe option if you are nervous.
Personally I use TorFX because they are also safe but easy, quick and minimal charges. I move multiple thousands with each transaction and sleep very easily!
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Then my vote would also be for Revolut. I’ve never had any problems with it. If you exchange €750 or more you get a slightly better rate.
You may have to explain to your French bank where the money came from.
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Is it quite simple to show where money from? Its just my savings for the past couple of years.
I presume showing statements would be enough proof?
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My bank (Credit Agricole) just accepted my explanation without proof.
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About 25 years go my CA asked where a large sum of money had come from.
I explained and showed them the UK statement showing the transfer…
Since then, they’ve never queried anything.
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It depends on your bank, surely? RBS does it for no fee.
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I use Wise. I have often moved large sums and the money arrives in seconds. My French bank also uses uses them for its international transfers.
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Be very careful though with this as it’s potentially a terrible idea. Clearly you don’t necessarily want send a few thousand to a new recipient in one go in case you’ve put in the wrong details or such, but nothing upsets the machine learning that most banks have to look for fraud more than a lot of the cliches; send a penny/ pound/ tenner/ 99p/ round figures (100, 500 etc). These are all classic way fraudsters use stolen cards or make transactions; make a small test one first before repeated larger ones the same value.
Your advice is good, it’s just something to be careful about or you could end up with cards/ accounts being frozen for doing what is really quite a sensible thing.
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I use Wise. Transfer solid chunks maybe twice a year.
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Another happy Wise user here.
I wouldn’t use it as a place to keep large amounts of money on deposit for an extended period, and you might get a slightly better rate with a specialist money transfer firm for larger amounts (e.g. when buying a house) but for quick and easy transfers of smaller sums it’s absolutely fine.
Since you have a Wise account already I would have thought it’s a no-brainer to use it.
I keep a few hundred Euros in my Wise account for spending money when I’m in France, with the associated VISA card it’s a simple way to pay and better value on exchange rates than traditional banks.
Although Wise are not a bank and therefore not covered by government indemnity schemes, they do keep clients’ money separate from their operating funds, and held in easily accessible deposits such as short-term Government bonds, so I feel the risk of losing your money with Wise is extremely low.
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Any tips how to avoid that? I have sent a few smaller amounts already over the past few months. But now need to close uk bank account so wondering if should send remainder all at once.
If you’re transferring money from one account in your name to another account in your name, I would be surprised if that triggered any fraud alarms.
if you were receiving several million dollars from a Nigerian friend in order to invest it for him, that might be a different matter. 
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Its my married name to maiden name so the surname is not the same.
Bank won’t allow me to change it back without going in to branch so cannot make them the same without going to uk.
A friend used RBS because of their ’ no fee’ deal. The trouble was that the exchange rate they offered was several percent lower than the likes of Revolut or Wise. She needed to get 1500€ to France. Using RBS the cost to her would have been about £60 more than it would have cost me with Revolut.
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I have used Currencies Direct . Although I have not transferred any money for a few years, these guys gave a good rate and I had no issues at the time
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Kirstie’s warning is valid but I really don’t think you’re going to have a problem.
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