Send money from Ireland to the United Kingdom
People move freely between Ireland and the United Kingdom under the Common Travel Area. Money does not. Euro and sterling are separate currencies and someone has to convert between them. On Grey that happens once, at a rate you fix before you confirm, and the pounds land in an ordinary UK bank account.
EUR
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One open border, two currencies
Hardly anyone on this route is a stranger to the other country. Households run across the border between Donegal and Derry, between Dundalk and Newry. A family in Cork has a daughter at college in Manchester. An engineering firm in Limerick settles a supplier invoice in Birmingham every month. The travel is the easy part.
The currency step is the part that costs something. Grey converts your euro to pounds sterling once, at a rate fixed when you confirm, and pays the sterling into the recipient's UK account through Faster Payments, where it typically arrives within minutes. All you need from them is an account number and a sort code. They open nothing, download nothing and sign up to nothing.
Sterling is also one of Grey's own balance currencies, alongside euro and US dollars provided by Lead Bank. If you pay into the UK regularly, you can hold pounds on Grey between payments and convert when it suits you rather than on the morning a bill is due.
Three steps from euro in Ireland to sterling in the UK
Sign up
A Grey account is free and opens in about five minutes with a valid identity document, a passport or an Irish driving licence. Nothing is asked of the person at the UK end.
Fund
Top up your euro balance by SEPA transfer from AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, An Post Money or your credit union. The euro stays on Grey until you decide to convert it.
Send
Enter the UK account number and sort code, read the euro to sterling rate and the fee on the confirmation screen, then send. The pounds go out over Faster Payments.
What a euro to sterling payment actually costs
This is a crowded route and you very likely already have some way of paying into a UK account, quite possibly the app half the country has on its phone. The useful test is not which one feels quicker on a single payment. It is what sits in the account in Newry or Nottingham afterwards, on a transfer you repeat every month for years.
Where Grey earns its place here is on the pounds you are not sending yet. Because sterling is a balance you can hold, the conversion and the payment become two separate decisions. Rent due on the first does not have to be converted on the first, and a school fee agreed in September does not have to be bought in September.
The rate is fixed the moment you confirm
Euro and sterling move against each other all day. Grey shows you the rate before you confirm and fixes it there, so the sterling amount on the screen is the sterling amount that lands.
That matters most when somebody else set the figure in pounds. A rent, a term bill, a solicitor's invoice, a standing monthly amount to a parent in Derry. You cover the euro side and the pound side does not move between your tap and settlement.
Grey against your Irish bank's euro to sterling conversion
An Irish bank treats a payment to Britain or the North as an international transfer. It converts euro to sterling on its own terms, with the cost of that conversion folded into the rate rather than set out beside it, and you often see the sterling figure only after the money has gone. Grey separates the fee from the rate, fixes the rate when you confirm, and sends the pounds over Faster Payments so the credit behaves like a domestic UK payment at the far end.
What lands in the UK account
A sterling credit in the recipient's normal banking app, delivered over a UK payment rail. There is nothing for them to accept, claim or install.
Account number and sort code
Those two details are the whole requirement. Grey pays into Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Bank, NatWest, Santander UK and any other bank in the United Kingdom.
Faster Payments
Sterling sent from a funded Grey balance typically arrives within minutes and shows up the way a domestic transfer does.
GreyTag
If the person in the UK also uses Grey, send to their GreyTag instead. Those transfers are free and instant, in any currency.
Getting euro into the account before you send
Funding and sending are separate steps on Grey, and on a corridor you use monthly that separation is the point.
Payday top-up
Move a month of euro across in one SEPA transfer and take the UK payments out of it as they fall due.
Income in another currency
Dollars held on Grey, in a US account provided by Lead Bank, convert to sterling without a detour through euro.
Whatever is already there
A euro or sterling balance left over from last month can go out to the UK in the same session.
Recipients are saved once, so the second payment to the same UK account is a few taps rather than a fresh set of details.
What crosses from Ireland to the United Kingdom
Households split by the border
Rent, childcare and nursing home costs paid in sterling by somebody earning euro a few miles away in Donegal, Louth, Monaghan or Cavan.
Property kept on in Britain
A mortgage, a service charge or a repair bill on a flat in London or Manchester that stayed in the family after the move home.
Students at British colleges
Rent and living costs for Irish students in England, Scotland and Wales, where the amounts are quoted in pounds and the income behind them is in euro.
Suppliers and contractors
Irish businesses clearing sterling invoices with UK suppliers, hauliers, agencies and freelancers, often on thirty day terms.
Four patterns account for most of this corridor, and three of them repeat on a fixed date every month.
Five reasons Irish senders use Grey for sterling
Nobody switches provider for a single transfer to the UK. The reason to move is the twelfth one: the same rent, the same fee, the same standing amount, priced the same way each time and landing in the same account without anybody chasing it.
Euro in from your Irish bank, sterling out over Faster Payments to an account number and sort code. Rate and fee shown first, nothing deducted after.
FAQs
Does the Common Travel Area mean I can send euro to a UK bank account?
No. Free movement of people does not extend to currency, so euro has to become sterling. Grey converts once and pays pounds into the UK account.
What details do I need to pay someone in the United Kingdom?
An account number and a sort code. Grey pays sterling into Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Bank, NatWest, Santander UK and every other UK bank.
How quickly does sterling reach a UK bank account?
Transfers sent from a funded Grey balance travel over Faster Payments and typically arrive within minutes, appearing like an ordinary domestic UK credit.
I work in Derry and live in Donegal. Can I move my earnings that way?
That direction is a payment into a UK account, so yes. Many cross-border households run a euro balance and a sterling balance side by side.
Can I hold pounds on Grey instead of converting each time?
Yes. Sterling is one of Grey's balance currencies, so you can convert when the rate suits you and pay the UK bill later.
Does my landlord or solicitor in the UK need a Grey account?
No. They receive an ordinary sterling credit in their own bank and never interact with Grey or sign up for anything.
Is the euro to sterling rate fixed before I send?
Yes. The rate and the fee both appear before confirmation, and the rate is fixed at that point, so the sterling figure does not move afterwards.
Can I pay a UK supplier invoice from my Irish business account?
Yes. Sterling invoices from UK suppliers, hauliers and agencies are one of the most common uses of this corridor from Ireland.
Is Grey a bank if it holds my sterling balance?
No. Grey is an authorised financial services provider working with regulated partners in the EU, and it holds euro, sterling and US dollar balances.
What if the person in the UK also uses Grey?
Send to their GreyTag instead of their sort code. GreyTag transfers between Grey users are free and instant, in any currency.
Which Irish banks can top up the euro I convert to sterling?
AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, An Post Money and credit unions all send euro by SEPA to your Grey account details, ready to convert.
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