The BIG Money Transfer (& Translating the Act de Vente) (April 2018)

Money Transfer 

So, the main job today was to to finally decide which FX company we were going to use to transfer the outstanding funds for the house, the Immobilier's fees and the notaire's fees. This was the big one (well not that big,by many people's standards , considering what we're paying for the house, but still probably the biggest lump sum transaction I have ever done with my own money).

My working week makes sorting this sort of thing difficult, but Fridays are a non-working day at present and so perfect for this. What is great, and unusual for us, is that the £ has been modestly but noticeably improving against the € for a few days. It had even recently broken through the 1.15 level that had seemed to be foiling it for a while.

I had three FX options I was considering:

• Britline
• Foreign Currency Direct
• Currencies Direct

Research had already identified that any of these would give me a better rate than a high street bank, what I now need to know was the exact deal I would get from each at this precise moment.

I checked Britline online and phoned the other two. All were pretty good but there was around £250 to be saved by choosing the best option which, in this case, was Currencies Direct (CD). I'd spoken to Reaz there before and he was very helpful and informative. He quickly walked me through the process and followed up quickly with a couple of emails.

Once the emails had arrived I sent CD evidence of the reason for the transfer (to keep their compliance people happy) and logged on to my account to set up two recipients - the notaire and myself (as I was also  transferring some funds into my French Britline account).

All I had to do now was transfer the money from my HSBC account to CD. Here's where the problems (albeit minor) started.

As luck would have it couldn't leave the house as my Britline cheque book and debit card were being delivered by DHL - sometime "before the end of the day" and needed to be signed for. Of course, they arrived at twenty to five, so there was no way I could get to the bank and sort out the transfer before it closed at 5pm. Tomorrow was Saturday so even a trip to the branch then probably meant the money wouldn't go till Monday.

No worries though - we'll use telephone banking - except it turns out there is a £10,000 limit on telephone banking transfers.

I'm not sure if online banking would have helped but it is academic since we don't currently  use that facility (that may change now!).

So, the only option was to go into the bank on Saturday morning - which we did first thing (and were charged £30 for the privilege). 

Hopefully things now go smoothly as the money needs to be in the notaire's account on Wednesday.

Translating the Act de Vente

The other big job for Friday was translating the 23-page, draft, Act de Vente. We'd asked for a draft copy for this very purpose and the notaire had kindly provided it. Normal practice would have meant we saw it for the first time, in all its French glory, at the time of signing. Getting it early meant I had the chance to translate it, read it and, hopefully, get some understanding of it.

I have to say I am very impressed with the job Google Translate has done this time. A credit to the tool and to the clarity of language the notaire has used. There are still a few things I don't understand but these tend to be due to the legalease used rather than the French. So, I've just fired off a number of questions to the notaire in the hope she will enlighten me in advance or at the signing.

I would strongly recommend requesting sight of a draft copy of the Act and getting a basic understanding in advance of the signing.