Of course, many people don't necessarily want to upgrade in size and it is often more advantageous to buy a similar size property for a fraction of the sale price of their home in the UK.



This surplus cash can then be used as a nest egg to set up in France, and hopefully retire. Lifestyle then becomes the prominent feature and there is cash in the bank to back this up.

The cash savings don't end there. With the pound consistently stronger than the euro, more euros can be obtained when exchanging. Of course the exchange rate does constantly fluctuate, and depending on when you perform the exchange you can be lucky and end up with even more euros than you previously anticipated.

It is an idea to keep in mind “your ideal exchange rate” and try to use this as a standard by which you aim to exchange at. With “stable” currencies such as the pound and euro, this method works reasonably well.

The traditional method to transfer money is through your bank. The big advantage of this method is trust; you know your bank and you know they won't rip you off. Or will they? Generally, when transferring from an account in one country to another, you are quoted the rate on the spot. If you agree to it and arrange for your bank to transfer the money, you are then charged a fee to transfer (this amount varies from bank to bank).

So, the money is sent to your bank account in France. The bank receives your money, and then it takes a handling fee for itself too. Not only have you paid a fee twice, but the rate you had originally been quoted is not the best rate you could have got either. If you are exchanging large sums of money, the money disappearing could be in the thousands.

What many people do not know is that there are companies set up purely to exchange currency. It is their raison d'etre. Mostly, they offer exchange rates much, much better than the banks and furthermore do not charge a fee to do this.

Although, of course, not even they can see the future but they do have the ability and skills to assist you in attaining the best rate possible. As it is their business, their time and effort is put into helping you get that rate, whereas banks do not simply have the time (nor interest).

To sum up, you have selected a property to buy in France, you have negotiated a price (hopefully saved a few thousand there) and all that remains on the financial side of things is to join a currency exchange company and save thousands more!