One issue for some people who come to work in Ireland from abroad – is finding the cheapest best way to send money back home. The same issue also exists for workers who leave Ireland to work abroad.
If you have a Euro bank account in your home country – then sending Euros from Ireland will not be a problem – either by cheque or internet banking.
For non Eurozone countries – the poor exchange rates and extra charges from the main banks can be quite costly .
Transferring Smaller Amounts :
If you need to transfer money to a bank account abroad – in a different currency you can use online companies such as CurrencyFair
Currency Fair are an Irish online currency exchange service – and if you use them you could save as much as €200 on a €5,000 transfer to the UK compared to using one of the main banks. (They are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.) . (Special Offer – no fee on the first 10 transfers – which are usually €3 each)
CurrencyFair are based in Ireland and fully regulated by the Central Bank here. You can use your Irish debit card to send money to CurrencyFair or use a bank transfer. You can then convert the Euros to any one of 18 currencies and send it to your recipient’s bank account.
For larger amounts (say over €10,000) – it might be a good idea to use a specialist currency broker who will give you the best exchange rates – better than your own bank . They will also give advice on when is the best time to do the exchange and even allow you to reserve an exchange rate now for a transfer in the future.
By not using a mainstream bank to do your money transfer – you could save around 2c in every hundred euro – so on €5000 euro transfer you may save as much as €100 euro. Obviously on larger amounts – such as the proceeds of a house sale – you could save several hundreds of euro.
If you are moving to Ireland to work and have sold a property abroad in the UK or USA , Poland or Australia – or any country that is not part of the Euro – you would be better off using a currency broker to exchange your money into Euros instead of just letting your bank take care of it. Find out more here about International Bank Transfers