Using wise account to purchase property

Hi Dave 

We bought our house not far from you 3 years ago.

I tried to pay using Wise, but came up against a brick wall at the solicitors - who insisted that we had to get a bankers draught, which Wise don't support.

So, for us, the process was to deposit our GBP into my Wise account, then convert to euros, then transfer the euros to our Spanish bank account. Our solicitors then took us to our branch of that bank to get a bankers draught, which also involved brown envelopes stuffed with cash! 

I moved the money in smaller chunks because (I think) a single transaction would have generated annoying money-laundering checks (but I'm not sure about that).

There has been previous discussion on this matter on this forum, with suggestions that the money could be placed into your solicitors client account, so people who don't have/want a Spanish account can get a bankers draught through their solicitors account instead.

It's worth asking Wise if you can transfer the money all in one go, and asking your solicitor about their client account if you don't already have a Spanish account.

Hope I've helped!

Cheers 

Steve 

Yes, agree with Steve, that property has to be paid by bankers draft. Our money was in our Spanish account, but if we’ve transferred more than 40k we would have incurred bank charges, so our money too was deposit in numerous transfers. Our solicitor organised the bank draft and came with us on the day. We too had numerous brown envelopes stuffed with money. I made the solicitor take charge of the money as I didn’t feel comfortable carry that much cash around.

So you also need to check with your solicitor how much cash you will need on the day, as I think some Wise accounts either don’t permit large cash withdrawals or charge you for the privilege.

Lynn

When we bought our house we transferred all the funds from our Wise account to our Spanish Lawyer who paid for the house as we had given her power of attorney. No bankers draft required. 

Hi Dave. We transferred £80,000 in 1 go. I have attached some info from wise that should explain it better than me!

The photos may be in the wrong order but I am sure you can work it out. 

No, you are correct. The whole point of wise is that you will get some of the best exchange rates around so the extra you gain on the exchange out weights the fee. If you have already converted then you maybe better with Sabadell. Are all the euro’s in your wise account? If so then you won’t be charged hardly any thing for moving it to a lawyer. 

  I used a company called IFX, a gentleman called Graham H. was fantastic. Personal service and managed to secure the rate at over 1.2 before it fell.

And the transfer fee was just £10

Can anybody explain the "envelopes stuffed full of cash"

 referred to in a couple of the posts above? I don't understand...