Talk Quesada forum

Benjy wrote:I think if I had 100k lying around, I wouldn’t be worrying too much about bank charges.

Well, Benjy, given that a bankers draft can incur a charge of several hundred euros, I think one would need to be really well off ( eg a multi millionaire) not to be concerned about it. And then again people don't end up being well-off unless they are careful not to be ripped off in ways like that...

We used currency direct for house purchase. We transferred to our Spanish bank ( bankinter) in 30000 lots as advised by the estate agent. TransferWise for smaller amounts but not for large transfers.

We used uk forex and they sent money straight to builder so this avoided any fees from bank. Very good service and good rates!

I found it worthwhile to use currency services such as TorFX and Caxton (there are others) with "no cost" transfers to Spain and offer much better FX conversion (£ to €) rates than any of the main UK banks.
As others warn - be "wary" of Spanish bank receiving charges (it is worth investigating & understanding SWIFT/CEPA payment & receiving costs as well - some Spanish banks add "small" charges that are not found elsewhere)

I use Currency Fair. They charge 3 euros per transfer. Never a problem.

Transferwise today would charge £369 to transfer £100k . . . . nobody does it for nothing, they are businesses . . . other currency transfer companies may "charge" less but their exchange rate could not be so good so ends up similar . .what you need to see is what amount ends up at the other end for your £100k. Almost without exception a UK Bank will charge significantly more to transfer the money into Euros to Spain. I believe Sabadell don't charge for receiving money from EU accts including the UK.
We used Smartcurrency Exchange for our villa purchase as they offered a guaranteed future rate, for say 3 Months, so we knew what it would cost us regardless of exchange rate fluctuations (as it happened we saved several hundreds of pounds as the rate dropped when it came time to pay) . . .who knows what will happen after the general election, it could drop like a stone!
We also paid our money directly into our Solicitors acct (Abaco) and had no fees at all for that or for them to transfer remainng money into our bank acct at the end.

The amount you are charged is not that important as charges and exchange rates vary so much! It is what you end up with in your Spanish bank so you need to know the bottom line is! We found transfer wise beat the rest when we did our last big transaction but always check, as for banks can't say about all but Caxia charge for anything over 24,999 euros and it can work out to be a lot! As has been said get the right account with Sabadell and you dont pay anything, they do try to nail you with the home insurance so again check out what they are offering against say Liberty Seguros etc and make a decision but don't let them bully you as they often try to do!

Good luck.