Work continues apace with masters of every trade visiting this week. We’ve had an electrician, a carpenter, ENEL (the electricity provider), and we’re expecting the plumber shortly.
All this progress means I’ll need money in my Italian account and soon.
There are several currency transfer options and I’ve learnt the benefit of shopping around. I started with those suggested by www.moneysavingexpert.com. When I bought the house, I was in a hurry to secure the sale, so I chose the company that responded to my email fastest. To transfer the money for the works, I decided to ask more than one for a quote.
The trick is to open an account with each in advance – so you can get an instant quote. Sounds easy... until they ask for a lawyer-verified copy of your passport and a recent bill and goodness knows what else. Having just moved to the new area, I don’t have any bills at my address. And paying a lawyer to sign a copy of my passport would probably negate any benefit in using the transfer company over my own bank!
I scraped through the bureaucracy with a couple of the firms. Both gave keen service. Best of all, they matched each other’s quotes, getting me about EUR 300 more than the first offer. Nice one.
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