Sending Money Overseas article discussion

jonesMUFCforever

Davehyp wrote: »

I live in Spain and want to transfer a lump sum back to the uk. My Spanish bank are going to charge me 1.2 percent just to put the money into my account. A huge fee. I have been contacted by currencies direct who inform me that they can cash my bankers draft with zero fee and transfer all my money to the uk at a better rate than my Spanish bank. Can anyone recommend if this is the correct way to go and what they have done. I’m worried in case the money gets lost with currencies direct. Thankyou in anticipation of the replies.

How did they know you wanted to transfer funds? Does this not strike you as odd?

elbon

They're not on xompare.com either. Looks like they should be!

silvercar

I've just used TransferWise to make a 4 figure transfer, cost me just under £8 and the exchange rate was very good. I've saved nearly 4% compared to what my bank offered me. Took 2 days and there were no deductions at the other end.

buglawton

Just a reminder tha a FX transfer company can be authorised by the FCA but your money isn't protected.
Detailed article in todays Telegraph where someone lost their life savings that they'd apparently decided to transfer in one step with Premier FX.
"The case serves as an alarming reminder that not everything is covered by the FSCS or completely protected by the FCA"

Do your transfers in small steps!

hairypitz

I’ve returned from Australia and a lot of my savings are in Australian dollars in a Citibank account.
I’m looking at buying a house and need to turn the money back into pounds if my offer is accepted.
I had a look at xompare.com and at the moment OFX is the best bet.
Is there any reason I shouldn’t go with this company? Apart from it being a lot of money I’m transferring and the risk that something could go wrong.
Transferwise would give me around £150 less overall. Is it worth me going with them instead as they have a better Trustpilot rating for not a massive amount difference?
Any advice appreciated. Not done this before and a pretty large amount of money to exchange so I want to do this right.

Consumerist

hairypitz wrote: »

. . . Is there any reason I shouldn’t go with this company? . . ..

As posted earlier, if you're not in a great hurry, it might be wiser to transfer in tranches rather than all in one lump, whichever company you select.

hairypitz

I think if I use OFX I have to transfer £50K for that rate. So I can’t do it in stages with them.
Also I know the rate could go up, but what if it goes down? I’d be kicking myself.
How much would I be safe transferring in one go? A really small amount, just to see that I’m doing it right?
Cheers

Consumerist

hairypitz wrote: »

I think if I use OFX I have to transfer £50K for that rate. So I can’t do it in stages with them.
Also I know the rate could go up, but what if it goes down? I’d be kicking myself.
How much would I be safe transferring in one go? A really small amount, just to see that I’m doing it right?
Cheers

The rate could go up or down at any time. Would it make any difference if the rate changed (either way) after your transfer went through?

By splitting the transfer you are also hedging your bets and averaging the rate and overall cost. A sort of insurance.

You might also like to compare with other comparison sites to check that results are consistent. I use <monito> but this is for relatively small amounts from UK to the Euro zone.

robatwork

I contemplated making a new thread, but as a (happy) Transferwise and other money transfer services customer, it could be useful kept in this megathread.

Here's what Transferwise say about their newish borderless account:

TransferWise is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

However, we are required by law to keep all our customer funds in bank account in low-risk financial institutions. Your money is kept completely separate from any of our operational accounts. This means that if TransferWise ever became insolvent for any reason, your funds would still be safe and returned to you.

What would be a problematic scenario is if our relevant partner should become insolvent (that’s Barclays UK in Europe). It would of course be highly unlikely but not impossible. The lack of FSCS would in this particular scenario mean that the return of your funds would not be guaranteed.

I read this as they keep ALL client money in a Barclays account. They are also saying that if they go bust while you have funds held with them, those funds are ring-fenced and Barclays (or the administrators) will return them to you at some point. Not sure if that covers employee fraud however.

Anyone else read it differently?

londoninvestor

robatwork wrote: »

I read this as they keep ALL client money in a Barclays account. They are also saying that if they go bust while you have funds held with them, those funds are ring-fenced and Barclays (or the administrators) will return them to you at some point. Not sure if that covers employee fraud however.

Anyone else read it differently?

I agree with your reading.

Now Premier FX also had a duty to segregate client funds, but in that case there's a strong suggestion that they didn't do that, and the firm - or individuals within it - were up to no good with the money. To quote the FCA:

FCA wrote:

We are very concerned that there was criminal activity taking place at Premier FX in relation to missing funds. We are investigating the business undertaken by Premier FX and will take action against any individuals we find to have broken the law in order to return money to customers of the firm.

However (as I think you're getting at with your point about fraud), customers don't have an unconditional guarantee of being made good for their loss, in the way they would with an FSCS-protected deposit.

So you do need to repose an amount of trust in Transferwise (and Barclays) in the way that you wouldn't for an FSCS-protected deposit. I have no trouble trusting them with a holiday or two's worth of money, but it makes sense to be aware of your position.

(By contrast, I didn't have a lot of trust in Kaupthing by autumn 2008, but I didn't really care because I knew I was backed by the FSCS.)