If you are buying a Valencia Property, or property anywhere in Spain really, and you are coming from outside the eurozone you want to make the best use of your money of course. You can save when you negotiate the price, by negotiating the furniture perhaps, by choosing the right bank account and most importantly by choosing the best way to transfer your money. Over the years we have seen many clients who have had to reduce their budgets because of bad choices made on the timing of their transfer, where they are transferring to and most importantly by choosing the right company to transfer their money.

But, I hear you say, you transfer through your bank, foreign bank to Spanish bank right? Unfortunately not. Banks are rip off merchants of the highest order. We use a combination of methods for to get the money here for our clients’ purchases and together they make sense and make a huge saving for them.

Transferwise/Revolut

The initial deposit is often around the 3-6000 euro mark and a very quick and effective way of doing this is using a service such as Transferwise or a card such as Revolut. Both give very good rates and are excellent for smaller amounts such as deposits. The best part is the rates they give are extremely competitive and much better than your bank will give. However they do not have the two main advantages that Currencies Direct have when working with your own bank account.

Currencies Direct

We work exclusively with Currencies Direct on the larger amounts required to complete purchase. There is a very good reason for this as you will see in a minute. Their rates are comparable to all of the other transfer companies but they beat them all on one very important facet… But first why not your bank?

Banks are effectively rip off merchants legitimised by their position in the financial system. If the pound euro rate is 1.20 for example the bank will give you 1.15 to sell you euros and charge you 1.25 to buy them. The margin is huge when you are transferring large amounts. Even when they promise you market rates then they will still keep a large margin away from the official rates as they have large overheads and need to earn from every transfer.

Currency companies will have a much lower margin as they do not have such large overheads so they can give you a better rate. Currencies Direct are one of those currency companies but with one very important extra advantage…

Currencies Direct have an agreement with La Caixa bank here in Spain. This gives you two advantages over other currency companies and also over services such as Transferwise on larger amounts. La Caixa doesn’t charge for receiving the funds if you as a client are registered as a client of CD. This can save you a lot of money. Not only do you get a great rate but also the receiving bank in Spain can charge you up to 1% for receiving the funds normally. An average transaction of 200,000 euros received can cost 2000 Euros to appear in your account.

Within Valencia Currencies Direct will arrange your visit and introduction to the bank so you are registered as one of their clients, they will introduce you to the English speaking person who will be responsible for your account and help you to open your account. We use the Caixa branch in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento in Valencia for this service. (Also it is one of the few branches of any bank to be open until late afternoon, most branches and banks close at 2pm)

But that’s not all…

When you complete on your property purchase in Spain you usually raise a bank draft or two to pay in the notary (The full amount may be split in two to pay off a current mortgage with the rest going to the owner for example or there may be two or more owners) La Caixa has an agreement with Currencies Direct’s clients that the bank draft will never cost more than 200 Euros, whatever the amount of the draft. Banks in Spain generally charge up to 0.75% for a bank draft although some charge up to 1.5%. Using our typical purchase as a guide this means just emitting the bank draft can cost you 1500 Euros for a 200,000 Euro draft or even 3000 Euros! By being a client of Currencies Direct at La Caixa you avoid this cost, and it can be huge. So allied to a good rate you get no charge for receiving the money and a maximum of 200 euros for the bank draft.

Another final reason that we use Currencies Direct is that they have an office here in the city, across the road from Ruzafa market so it is extremely convenient for our clients to talk with Toni and Pablo in the branch. Take a look at how Pablo introduces them in the video below.

So, friendly people, excellent service and saving you a lot of money, what’s not to like? Contact Currencies Direct and open up your trading account with them and if you have any questions about any of the services mentioned above just contact us on twitter @grahunt or by mail. Meanwhile take a look at some of our recent posts below to know more about buying Valencia Property in 2017.

A Story From a Valencia Property Finder

Coming to Valencia in 2017

The New Valencia Property Community Facebook Page

And remember to sign up to the irregular newsletter below

[wysija_form id=”2″]