Sending Money Overseas article discussion

Nannalyn_2

I needed to make a payment in Euros for the balance of my holiday. When I paid the deposit, I made the payment through my bank to their Euro bank account. I had to send my request in writing with a certified copy of my passport and 2 proofs of address. I got a lousy rate of exchange and was also charged £25. The transfer took 4 or 5 days to go through once all the paperwork had been received.


I decided there must be a better way to pay the balance. Having consulted the MSE website regarding Sending Money Overseas, I also had a quick look through the forums and came across a posting from Aramo in March last year recommending CurrencyFair.com. (I had previously looked at the websites of all the Companies recommended by Martin Lewis and had actually already registered with two of them.)


I checked CurrencyFair's website yesterday lunchtime, gave them a quick call, registered on-line and then transferred money from my bank account to theirs about 3pm yesterday. A very short while later I had an email telling me that the transfer had been successful so I completed the Euros part of the transfer. (I needed to call them again whilst completing this part because I got a bit confused!)


The transfer was completed around 5pm yesterday evening and I've just received an email from the Company I was paying to say that the money was credited to their bank account this morning!


The exchange rate was a little over €1.37 to the £ and the charge was just €3. It has cost me almost £100 less than the transfer of the same amount I made through the bank for the deposit and was very much less stressful. (I was also impressed with all the security checks made during both CurrencyFair transfers.)


I will certainly use CurrencyFair again and will recommend them to anybody I know who has to send money abroad. Brilliant! (I've just telephoned them to say thanks and well done.)


Lyn

waribai

[FONT=&quot]I am also a big fan of Currencyfair having used them for a number of transactions.
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Crucially, unlike some other peer to peer currency networks I've used there are never problems matching the advertised currencies with Currencyfair.

On transfers over £1000, I think Currencyfair’s rates are unrivalled and their unique marketplace option offers even better rates than those advertised.

At Currencyfair , you can set your own rate but the average exchange rate fee is a low 0.35% (with a €/£3 transfer fee) which is considerably cheaper than say Transferwise.




I think it is definitely worth your while considering them for your next trade and if you use this link you can receive your next transfer free of charge

Rexway1

Looking to send my son £3000 to help with wedding expenses in the next month or so. Wedding is not till late August. I have a Lloyds bank account here in UK and he has a German bank, not sure which one or any details yet. What is the best, most cost-efficient way to send him this money? My first post, having joined the forum specifically to find help with this.

grumbler

You did read the MSE article being discussed in the thread and looked through the thread before asking, didn't you?

https://www.fxcompared.com/money-transfer/UK-Germany?amount=3000&bType=1&ref=filter

http://www.mycurrencytransfer.com/money-transfer-to-Germany/3000-GBP

eDicky

AislingB wrote: »

I sent $150 dollars to a college in the US as a deposit for a course but they only received $130 dollars. The company I sent it through clearly stated that there was no fee and that the amount I was sending to the college was $150. I need to send the rest of the course fee at some point so I need to know how I can avoid being ripped off like this again and also being in the embarrassing position of not paying the correct amount.

eagleeye wrote: »

I had similar issue when transferred money to US through a broker.The broker later on claimed that this is not under their control,etc.
I had to transfer another amount and used different broker . This time no charges were deducted .All these charges depend on your american bank relationship with the intermediary used in the transaction.

The first broker was torfx and second broker i used was smartcurrency exchange.The smartcurrency exchange used bank of america to transfer money into the local american account .

You can check with american bank about their foreign exchange intermediary bank and see which broker/bank in the uk is using the same intermediatory /agent. I hope this way you can avoid hidden charges.

I suspect that the shortfall in the received amount is due to the beneficiary's US bank deducting a charge for receiving an inward transfer from overseas, even when it is in USD. This of course should not happen, and one of the reasons for using these transfer agents is to avoid bank charges, when the agent has accounts in every country to receive from the sender's bank and pay out to the beneficiary's bank locally, free of charge. The money only moves internationally through the agent's internal accounting.

So, for some reason, with some agents, this $20 or so is taken by the receiving bank, and the agent can truthfully say that they did not charge it or that it is not under their control, etc. I can only imagine that this agent does not actually have a local account in the US, or as Eagleeye suggests, there is a mismatch of the intermediary banks.

I am certainly no expert, but if I am vaguely correct in my suspicion it would be useful to know which agents should be avoided when sending relatively small sums to the US which need to be received exactly, such as the college fees of AislingB. He does not mention which agency he used the first time, Eagleeye lost out when using TorFX.

badger09

I've also very recently used CurrencyFair for the 1st time.

The Uk side was extremely quick. I'm not able to comment on the Greece side as my recipient has only confirmed receipt of the deposit, but not date of receipt

WMikeD

Is it possible to use one of the many pre loaded cards for this purpose.


I envisage giving the card to the recipient who lives abroad and then topping it up here in the UK.


Any downsides?


Thanks,
WMikeD

ChrisFManchester

I have had a similar experience this week - I had to transfer a deposit on behalf of my daughter who will be studying in Australia in July. I specified the amount in AUD that I needed to transfer and Currencies Direct made the transfer, but the recipient found that AUD 25 had been deducted. Currencies Direct have apologised and say that they did transfer the full amount, but the beneficiary bank has deducted a fee over which they have no control. The have offered to refund the AUD25 in sterling but of course I still owe that amount ...

I have absolutely no idea how I can find out whether the beneficiary bank will deduct a fee and the currency brokers apparently don't know either.

I will shortly have to transfer another accommodation payment and am wondering whether just to pay by credit card and accept the 1.95% charge that they levy ... any suggestions?

MoneyTips

With regard to the last few posts above regarding receiving fees, some smaller and less established brokers do not hold local bank accounts in every country. Therefore you are charged a receiving fee when the funds arrive, as all bank will charge international receiving fees. e.g. Currencies Direct and Transfer Wise do not hold local AUD and NZD bank accounts (advised on their respected websites). That would have probably been the reason ChrisFManchesters' funds came through short. HiFX, World First, TorFX, and UKForex are established foreign exchange brokers with bank accounts in AUD. It's best to check before registering with any broker that they have a local bank account and who with.

The acceptation to this is the USA, as unfortunately many of their banks still charge for receiving domestic wire transfers (typically 5-20 USD). They charge higher fees for international wires (typically 20-35 USD) and again many smaller or less established broker do not hold local bank accounts. As eDicky advised, there is no receiving fees if they are with the same bank.

Cheers,

Ed

With full disclosure, I work for OzForex Group (UKForex is part of that) and happy to answer any other questions relation to foreign exchange.

AMG762

I send small amounts between £300 and £1000 to Thailand on a regular basis.


I don't think transferwise send to Thailand yet.


I have started using HiFx who have so far been very good. Good exchange rates and £9 fee for less than £3000 transfer.


Has anyone else had experience with HiFx ? Or any other suggestions that I could try?