What is the cheapest way to send money regularly to France?

Question

I am going to live in France but need to transfer payments regularly to my french bank account from my UK account?

Answer 1

I have an HSBC account in England, and another one in France. But the two accounts are completely separate and follow the fact that the banks (respectively Midland and CCF) were taken over by HSBC.

Even so, transfering money from one to another is a rip-off, best avoided.

The cheapest way is indeed to use the UK bank card while in France. But not suitable for large quantities (like buying a flat).

I have used Paypal in the past too for small quantities.

Answer 2

find a bank that is common to both countries to transfer payments.  deutchbank is in many countries for example so you would bank online from the same account.

Answer 3

A friend of mine found that the cheapest way for him was to get a Paypal account in both countries and transfer money that way between his two accounts. But that's between the US and France I don't know if it's the best option between the UK and France.

What I was doing to transfer money from my French account to my US account was use my French ATM card in the US and deposit the cash immediately on my American account, that was definitely the cheapest way I had found at the time. But if you need to transfer large amounts or do it very frequently it might not be practical.

Otherwise do as suggested above and find a bank present in both countries or at least compare all 3 options.

Answer 4

xe.com has a good service for exchanging money.  It just requires a wire transfer.  The PayPal idea sounds excellent, though, depending on the fees.