What’s the best way to send money to Spain? Here are your top tips to choose the best way to exchange your currency and send it to Spain either as a lump sum or your monthly pension. Find out how to get the best exchange rates and service.

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What’s the best way to send money to Spain, whether you’re moving here, buying a house here or getting your monthly pension or investments transferred?

The more money you have, the more important it is to choose the right way. 

But what is it?

And why does everyone have a different answer? 

Well that’s because there are some nightmare stories on the internet about people losing out on a good exchange rate, or losing some of their money in extreme cases, and it’s fair to say that it’s the nightmare stories that get shared the most.

So let’s look at all of the options first, then I’ll give you my opinion on the safest and best way to make the most of your hard earned cash and get it safely into the place you need it.

First, you could stuff all your cash into a suitcase and change it at the kiosk at the airport. 

This is not only the most expensive way, because the exchange rates at the airports are terrible, but there are also limits on the amount of cash you can carry across the border. So only use the airport kiosks if you’re exchanging small amounts and you need immediate cash when you arrive.

Next option, you could make a bank transfer directly from your present bank to your new Spanish bank account. This is safer, but the banks exchange rates are notoriously not very good.

The next way, and this is one that a lot of people suggest, is to use one of the online accounts like Wise or Revolut. 

Let’s look at the pro’s & cons shall we?

The pros:

Their exchange rates are usually very good, and that’s because they’ve slimmed down their service to the essentials, it’s all done with an app, you can do your exchanges any time you want, it’s all relatively simple.

The cons:  

Some of these online services limit the amount of money you can exchange per day, so if you want to buy a house for example, you might have to do it in many payments. And it also means the exchange rate will be different each time you exchange a new amount so you won’t know how many Euros you’re going to have in the end. On top of this, a lot of banks can only transfer a certain amount per day to your online bank, which makes it even more of a hassle.

These kind of accounts also tend to have an IBAN number that’s based in a different country so you might experience difficulty using them to pay utilities or taxes or you might be charged to transfer into certain banks

Some people have experienced difficulties with customer service when they’ve had transfers go missing, and that can cause untold problems when you absolutely need your money to be somewhere urgently.

And finally, some services just aren’t available, I’ll tell you about those in a moment.

So, my opinion is, if you’re someone who’s great at reading exchange rates and can afford to spend a huge amount of time waiting for the right moment to click the button, and you’re prepared to gamble your savings on waiting for that elusive ‘best exchange rate’ and risk losing thousands of Euros in the process, then go for it. You’re a braver man than me. 

I’d use them to go on holiday like a pre-paid credit card, but not to buy a house or get my pension every month with one. 

There are better ways. So to the final and my favourite option. 

Use a currency exchange broker. 

These are companies that specialise in buying and selling currency in huge amounts, so they can afford to give much better exchange rates than the banks. 

Before we look at the pro’s & cons, HERE is a link to my favourite broker, I’ll tell you why they’re my favourite in a moment, but if you’re in a hurry, just click on that to get all of the services I’m going to tell you about right now.

Here are the pro’s and con’s. 

The pro’s:

You get free access to your own personal broker, so you get free advice from someone who’s job it is to watch the exchange rates and buy the currency you need, and not just some inexperienced customer service person who’s just a glorified switchboard operator. (No offence meant, I used to be one!)

Next, your money is very safe with them, there are guarantees that even if the company goes bankrupt, you will get your money back.

There are some extra services that I mentioned earlier that you don’t get with all of the online companies, for example, you can fix a forward rate, which means at any time you can say ‘I’ll take the rate that it is now’ and the deal is done at that moment at that rate but you don’t immediately have to pay the whole amount, just a deposit. 

This is perfect if for example you’re selling a house in the UK and buying one in Spain, you don’t have to wait for your house to sell before making the deal later when the exchange rate might not be so good. So you’re not at the mercy of the exchange rates at the time of completion and you also know exactly how much you’ll have to spend in Euros on your Spanish house, and how much savings you’ll have in the bank. 

You can also use this ‘fixing a forward rate’ to guarantee the monthly pension you’re going to get at a fixed rate for a year or two instead of watching your Euros decrease when the pound falls a lot against the Euro, which is what has happened from 2015 to the present day.

You can also ask your broker to wait for a higher exchange rate before making the exchange; they have computer systems which will automatically do it, day or night, so you don’t have to be watching or phoning your agent. 

You can also have your money paid without fees into your Spanish bank. And you can pay regular money to utility companies in Spain without the need for a Spanish bank account.

You could even try to negotiate the rate with your broker if you’re good at that kind of thing.

The cons:

If you were to compare the rates you get with one of those online accounts I mentioned earlier to the rates you get from a broker at the exact same second, you’d usually find the broker’s rate a little less favourable. 

However, you are paying for lots of extra services, and the advantages outweigh this disadvantage in my opinion. Being able to control and choose the particular second you make the exchange means you could ultimately get a better rate through your broker.

If using a broker is the best way to get your money in the right place, which company should you choose?

Again, you’ll find different opinions on this on the internet, you’ll see people saying ‘I tried a few different companies and got the best rate with …’ but the fact is that exchange rates can fluctuate from second to second, and they can move a lot, so unless you ask all of the companies at exactly the same second, you’re not going to get an accurate comparison

Also, individual brokers are buyers and sellers, they’re always going to try to beat their competitors. 

What I’m saying is that all of these companies are really much of a muchness when it comes to ‘getting a good rate’, for me it’s all about the service. 

And that’s why I use Smart Currency Exchange. 

Yes, like everyone else, I’m on commission, but that commission is paid by them, not you, it comes out of their cut, so it costs you nothing. And just because I’m getting a kickback doesn’t mean I’m not right. (P.S. I’m right!)

Anyway, the link is HERE again, clicking on it doesn’t tie you to a contract, it just starts a free account, there’s no obligation, give them a try.

I hope you’ve found this article helpful, there are plenty more where this came from and loads of helpful videos on our YouTube channel HERE. 

Peace & Love, see you in the next article, let’s dance!

Article by Skatz