Sending Money Overseas article discussion

dzug1

bleeper999 wrote: »

For some years now I've been sending travellers cheques to my relatives in Australia for Xmas presents.
You have to sign in both places, but if you put their name in the "Payee" space, it acts just like a cheque without all the hassle.
Travellers cheques are free, you only pay for the value of it, and are so light they dont add anything to the weight of the card you are sending it with! The recipient just pays it into their bank like an ordinary cheque.... Simples!
Sadly, banks are trying to do away with travellers cheques.
:beer:

I would suspect that the cheques are not insured (by the issuer) against loss in such circumstances. But ICBW.


And they are not, strictly, free. There will be a doctored exchange rate involved.

korny88

Surprised Currency fair are not mentioned on the email. Was recommended them on here, and have not looked back since. Always the best and cheapest and so easy to use.

johnfthetraveller

As a seasoned recipient of Martin's normally accurate emails, I'm surprised that the "Sending Money Abroad" advice page seems to be deeply flawed.

As the article mentions, there are two elements to transfer "fees" - the usually visible upfront fee, and the usually hidden exchange rate loading. Currency firms often rely on people not noticing that they are being given a poor exchange rate.

With the Peer to Peer (P2P) companies like Transferwise (and people have mentioned CurrencyFair, but I don't know about them), they ONLY have the upfront fee, and do NOT load the exchange rate. As far as I understand it the P2P's also give competitive upfront fees, which means that (contrary to the advice given on this site) Currencies Direct, FairFX and Travelex are unlikely to ever give a better deal than the P2P's (for those currencies they do) - for small OR large sums. If I've misunderstood something, could someone please point out my error?

Also the article suggests you look at the Travel Money Maximiser to find a rate you should try to beat. I believe it would be better to find out the mid-market rate, and then you can see how much the company is "skimming" off you with a poor rate. See this link to find out:
https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/index.html

Last time I looked, you can find out the rate historically to see how much a company has skimmed off old transactions. I've used this before to successfully challenge the exchange rate used on credit card purchases! But that's a different story.

ItsMikeE

Anyone tried a company called World Remit?
Read about them last week http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30192220

grumbler

johnfrith wrote: »

With the Peer to Peer (P2P) companies like Transferwise (and people have mentioned CurrencyFair, but I don't know about them), they ONLY have the upfront fee, and do NOT load the exchange rate. As far as I understand it the P2P's also give competitive upfront fees, which means that (contrary to the advice given on this site) Currencies Direct, FairFX and Travelex are unlikely to ever give a better deal than the P2P's (for those currencies they do) - for small OR large sums. If I've misunderstood something, could someone please point out my error?

No, you haven't misunderstood. I guess for big amounts some other factors have to be taken into account as well besides the costs.

Also the article suggests you look at the Travel Money Maximiser to find a rate you should try to beat. I believe it would be better to find out the mid-market rate, and then you can see how much the company is "skimming" off you with a poor rate. See this link to find out:
https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/index.html

It's Mastercard rate, not interbank, although normally they are very close. For interbank http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/ or fx.com are better.

ricktravers

Does anyone know a way to make a payment to a USA credit card from a UK current account?

grumbler

Online or over a phone - by a UK debit card?

johnfthetraveller

grumbler wrote: »

No, you haven't misunderstood. I guess for big amounts some other factors have to be taken into account as well besides the costs.

Agreed, there are many considerations. If the person can receive to a bank account or not, speed of the transaction.

grumbler wrote: »

It's Mastercard rate, not interbank, although normally they are very close. For interbank http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/ or fx.com are better.

Thanks, I hadn't realised the Mastercard site doesn't give live rates, so your link would be better. Another (which I think has no bid / offer spread) would be: http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=FOREX_GBPEUR&v=i

johnfthetraveller

ItsMikeE wrote: »

Anyone tried a company called World Remit?
Read about them last week http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30192220

Thanks for this. I've not used them, but on the currency I looked at (under £100 to Uganda), the fee was £4.99, and the exchange rate load was 3 to 4%. This seems better overall than Western Union, with more payment options. I will try them next time I need to transfer to Uganda.

Archi_Bald

ItsMikeE wrote: »

Anyone tried a company called World Remit?
Read about them last week http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30192220

Just looked at them from a €30K-odd transfer to the UK.....max they do is €5K per transaction. Their rates for €5K are not competitive, so that's when I lost interest.

£5 cashback via Quidco though if they are the right outfit for your requirements.