So it’s the start of the French tax season, Taxe foncière is due now and Taxe d’habitation very soon. So I am once against faced with the problem of moving money from my UK bank account into my french bank account. This usually involves a trip to the bank because no UK banks seem to have managed to implement international funds transfers in their online banking systems.
This week I opened a moneybookers.com account and managed to transfer cash into my french account a)quickly, b)cheaply and c)online!!
Much cheaper that the £17-£25 that HSBC/Santader(Abbey) have charged in the past and online.
I tried to move money to France using Paypal, I created a seperate French Paypal account and moved money from my UK Paypal account to the french account, but unfortunately Paypal held on to the money for 6 months! They did eventually move the money into my French bank account, but they have now blocked my French Paypal account.
When you have transferred your money to your french bank account you can pay your tax foncieres and tax d’habitation online at http://www.impots.gouv.fr
Another way of sending money abroad, that you may find useful, is prepaid cards. I work for Escape MasterCard Prepaid Card which is the cheapest way to get money to friends or family abroad – done in 60 seconds and it’s for free. Escape also brings financial inclusion with no bank account needed. It’s very useful if you need to send money to friends and family abroad on a regular basis.
Anna, using a pre-paid mastercard or visa is ok if you are just travelling to another country, but it is much better to use moneybookers to move money to your french bank account when you need to pay bills. French companies and tax offices are going to want to be be paid by a french cheque in Euros, you need a french bank account. The point of this post was that money bookers is the cheapest and fastest way that I have found to move money from my UK bank account to my french bank account. It is also the ONLY way that I can do this online because none of the online banking systems that I have seen support international transfers.
transferonlinemoney.com is another service you can use to send money into a foreign bank account.
Matt – the original construction of your barn is almost identical to that of the property I am renovating.
Mine is near Fontenay, sud Vendee – is yours anywhere near?
Mark
Fontenay-le-Comte? About 34 miles
Interesting – I am actually north of Fontenay close to a village called Serigne – is that any closer to you?
The roof of my house is made of, what look like branches for the rafters and larger logs roughly sawn for the beams, covering that are thin pieces of sawn tree (still with bark!) overlapping each other then the roman tiles on top. Your original roof looked the same – why did you demolish it – was it completely rotten?
email me at barn@askmatt.co.uk and i’ll tell you all about it!
Most of the original barn roof collapsed!
Cost to transfer £350 from UK bank account to french bank account with moneybookers = £3.12. HSBC charge £17, Santander £25 and Paypal, well paypal just keep your money for 6 months!
So presumably you set up a sterling moneybookers account, paid into it with a bank transfer (how long did it take for the sterling to transfer in?). Then transferred the money in Euros into your French account.
How long did this part take and did moneybookers let you know when the transfer had completed and the money was in your French account?
I paid it into my moneybookers account with a maestro card, which didn’t cost anything. The withdrawal into my french Banque Populaire account cost £3.12. The cash leaves the money bookers account straight away but it takes a few days to show in your french bank account. The moneybookers exchange rate is 1% over the real exchange rate so thinking about it the transaction actually cost £6.57! It’s still much cheaper/easier than transferring direct from your uk bank account.