Sending Money Overseas article discussion

grumbler

https://www.fxcompared.com/money-transfer/UK-Indonesia?amount=1000&bType=1&aDir=0&ref=filter
http://www.mycurrencytransfer.com/money-transfer-to-Indonesia/1000-GBP

For WU 'business solutions' I see much better deal than 2.5%, and there are better options, although Azimo with their 21746 rate looks unrealistically good as today's rate is 21490.

Janeen

NatWest wanted to charge £10 to pay £145 into a German Bank for a purchase. Azimo charged £1.

I transfered £350 to South Africa - bank to bank transfer from my bank to my Dad's bank. Azimo only charged £2.99 Lloyds wanted to charge £15.

The exchange rate was:
1 GBP = 19.63474 ZAR
Exchange rate trading day closed at 19.93

The money was in the recipient bank account within 3 hours.

Go to Azimo.com

thelawnet

grumbler wrote: »

https://www.fxcompared.com/money-transfer/UK-Indonesia?amount=1000&bType=1&aDir=0&ref=filter
http://www.mycurrencytransfer.com/money-transfer-to-Indonesia/1000-GBP

For WU 'business solutions' I see much better deal than 2.5%, and there are better options, although Azimo with their 21746 rate looks unrealistically good as today's rate is 21490.

Mostly these rates seem bait and switch.

UKForex - quote, 21,351: actual 20,749 (3.65% plus fees)
Azimo - quote 21,636, actual 21,054 (2.25% plus £1 fee - so 2.45% on a £500 transfer) (Only barely better than western union cash)
World First - quote 21,243, actual - doesn't quote rupiah
The FX firm - quote 21,135 - actual - doesn't quote rupiah
Western Union Business Solutions - quote 21,191 - actual 20,687 plus £10 fee
Prime Fx
GlobalWebPay - quote 21,168 - actual doesn't quote rupiah

So not great really.

Scooby12

After a fair bit of digging I found that Transfer Wise was the best bet. Good rates and fee free with this code - transferwise.com/u/091ea

The process took 3 days from UK to Germany for several thousand Euros.

Forumnewbie

There are several countries they unfortunately don't send to, but I used them to send my sister in America some money and it worked.

Bromley86

bonniedingo wrote: »

In approx. five weeks I will need to send a large (£500k) money transfer to Australia. There seems to be a lot of currency companies out there offering the same thing and most seem to be FCA authorised. I need to get the best rate I can. Can anyone give me a recommendation based on past experience of a large transfer ?

Belated, but for someone else in our position (NZ in my case).

(1) As recent events have shown (GBP:NZD falling from $2.45 to $2.28 in 3 weeks!), don't worry too much about finessing the rate by $0.01, as the market shifts should be your big worry.

(2) That said, in my experience Transferwise (who I have used) and Currency Fair (who I haven't, but who I've spent a deal of time looking at) are inferior to forex brokers (specifically the two that I've looked at, HiFX and TorFX).
(2.1) Transferwise are doubly irritating because they have limits (NZD 85k, in my case). So, comparing £35k you get with HiFX online (i.e. you haven't even tried bargaining with a real person yet) $79,974 vs. Transferwise $79,728.
(2.2) Currencywise are quoting a rate now of $2.2824. HiFX Online (again, no bargaining yet) $2.2851.

(3) If you sign up with just one broker, it should be HiFX. Their online quoting system is far more competitive that TorFX's (not hard, as TorFX's online quotes are awful). 2.2843 vs. 2.2312. Never use their online system for large transfers, but it's pretty damn close to the best they'll offer you, so it's good for a quick reference.

(4) Do not sign up with one broker! If the market isn't volatile, you want to be able to call two brokers (and tell them that that's what you're going to do). Be reasonably quick, or have 2 phones, and you'll get their best rate. In my case, I called TorFX, got the quote from the broker, told him that I was going to call HiFX as their online rate was better, and he bettered it by so much that I didn't bother calling HiFX.

(5) Remember to have both brokers in the same timezone. You might want another broker in the other timezone, just in case you need to move quickly.

(6) Set up a stop loss (i.e. the lowest rate at which you want to exchange), otherwise you're just gambling. Don't forget that you've done this, as otherwise you'll find yourself getting an email asking for £500k a couple of months later . You'd only have to pay their exchange losses, but they could still be considerable.

EDIT: I should say that all the HiFX online quotes above were from the NZ website. For some reason, the UK HiFX online quote system is currently over 1 cent lower than the NZ online quote system (peanuts on a small transfer, $5k on a £500k transfer). This may be a blip, but it's been that way for a couple of days, so I'm assuming it's systemic. Short story - if you're using the online system, either to trade or to bargain with a real person, use the NZ one. But check first, as it may have changed a year from now.
Incidentally, you can use either system from either country. You will need to register/jump through ID hoops twice and a different username for each though, which seems a shame.

Yummymummy69

Hi all!
We are at the early stages of buying a home in Ireland. We just wondered if anyone out there had any helpful tips for the whole buying process?
1. As we have a property to sell in the UK can we buy there at the same time or does it have to be done separately?
2. Smart Currency Exchange - are they worth using?
3. Is there a bank we can get accounts with here and over there so we don't have to have several different accounts?


Any advice gratefully received, thanks in anticipation!

grumbler

Yummymummy69 wrote: »

1. As we have a property to sell in the UK can we buy there at the same time or does it have to be done separately?

What sort of question is it? If you have money nothing stops you from buying first.

2. Smart Currency Exchange - are they worth using?

Define 'worth'. I don't remember them ever mentioned here, and the fact that you can't see the rate until you request a quote doesn't inspire much confidence.

3. Is there a bank we can get accounts with here and over there so we don't have to have several different accounts?

Even if it's the same bank how can you avoid having several accounts if the currencies are different? And opening a € account in Ireland before you move there can be a problem.

monkeyspanner

My daugher is travelling to Canada on a working holiday visa and I am trying to help her set up finances for the trip. (up to 2 years)
- She has applied for a Halifax Clarity credit card which should give her fee free overseas card purchases at a rate of 1.99. Her current bank debit card fees have bad overseas transaction fees.
- She intends to take a small amount of cash. It appears John Lewis gives one of the best rates (1.97) for high street foreign currency cash at the moment although this does not appear on MSE travel money comparison.
-She will start a cheqing account in Canada when she gets there which will also give her a local debit card. I was looking at ways of transfering a lump sum to her canadian account to give her an initial buffer. Options found so far.
Bank transfer- Rate 1.929 plus £10 international transfer fee.
Western Union- Rate 1.979 plus £9.90 international transfer fee
I am not sure about the WU option as this is using a bank account in UK and she may incur additional bank fees using this method. Also it appears different banks use different foreign exchange rates for international transfers does anyone know which bank is best?

Does anyone have any experience of how long cleared funds might take to transfer from a UK bank to Canadian bank account?

If anyone has any other suggestions to reduce her costs please reply.

Voyager2002

monkeyspanner wrote: »

My daugher is travelling to Canada on a working holiday visa and I am trying to help her set up finances for the trip. (up to 2 years)
- She has applied for a Halifax Clarity credit card which should give her fee free overseas card purchases at a rate of 1.99. Her current bank debit card fees have bad overseas transaction fees.
- She intends to take a small amount of cash. It appears John Lewis gives one of the best rates (1.97) for high street foreign currency cash at the moment although this does not appear on MSE travel money comparison.
-She will start a cheqing account in Canada when she gets there which will also give her a local debit card. I was looking at ways of transfering a lump sum to her canadian account to give her an initial buffer. Options found so far.
Bank transfer- Rate 1.929 plus £10 international transfer fee.
Western Union- Rate 1.979 plus £9.90 international transfer fee
I am not sure about the WU option as this is using a bank account in UK and she may incur additional bank fees using this method. Also it appears different banks use different foreign exchange rates for international transfers does anyone know which bank is best?

Does anyone have any experience of how long cleared funds might take to transfer from a UK bank to Canadian bank account?

If anyone has any other suggestions to reduce her costs please reply.

There are plenty of cards that offer fee-free purchases (such as Post Office): the great advantage of Clarity is that it also offers fee-free cash. Assuming she gets this (or another card that offers fee-free cash) then she can use it as soon as she arrives and not worry about getting currency before she travels.

You quote exchange rates: remember that these change all the time, so if you are using them to see which providers give higher or lower rates, make sure that the quotes relate to the same time.

As for bank-to-bank transfers: this will only work once she has a local bank account in operation. By that time the need for an 'initial buffer' will probably have passed. So it is crucial to make sure that she has the right ATM cards. The best way to get money from an account in the UK to an account abroad is to use a Currency Broker: these have been discussed on this board. The one that I use is https://www.xe.com, which does not charge any fees at either end but my give a worse exchange rate than some other brokers. Transfers with xe generally arrive in about a week.

The fastest bank transfers that I have experienced (a matter of seconds) were with Citibank global transfers, but in order to use these you need Citi accounts at both ends. (These transfers are free, but the exchange rates they use are not particularly good.)