FX Brokers Feedback

DC01

deviant_goof wrote: »

I got some useful info about dealing with these brokers, alledgedly from an ex broker in this market - from the currency guide .co.uk when i sold my florida property last year. Be careful as these firms are unregulated by the fsa regardless of what they tell you.

spoke to a couple of brokers (HiFX and MoneyCorp) about this and they both said that this industry will be regulated by the FSA from November onwards. hopefully it will clear out some of the sharks out of this space and hopefully the guys that had problems with FXA will have some confidence going forward. The guy from HiFX said that regulation depends upon where you live. He said if you are in Oz look for ASIC and he mentioned another regulator for the US which I cant remember

DC01

crunchie1 wrote: »

HIFX are offering free transfers on amounts over £250 from 1st September. I need to transfer amounts of between £250 and £2000 to a Turkish euro account. I can't see any catches, which would make them very competitive for transfers of these sort of amounts. Does anyone know if there is a snag ?

Nothing to worry about - HiFX dont charge fees but I assume this gets "lost" in the rate. Typically a very good service and the online systems is pretty easy to use. Payment usually arrives within a couple of days or so but I found out from another forum that the rate improves if you put in a pound over the thousand (ie £2001, £3001 etc) - they must have differing pricing levels - but it makes a differnce especially if you are doing regular tranfers!!!. If you want to shop around try caxtonFX who have an online debit card service as well as currencyonline.com - these guys have really sharp rates but charge fees on the small stuff - but they are transparent about it. Try their calculator as it allows you to compare their rates/fees with the other quotes you get to allow you to make a choice (PS their calculator gives real rates not indicitive like every other broker - these indicitive rates are at levels that only banks can get!!!).

Hope this helps

heloid

I've had good service from CurrencyIndex and HiFx.
And yes, the rate improves on HiFX's website in bands (250-500, 500-2000, 2000-3000, 3000- etc etc).
I didn't find them competitive above £1000 though, I usually get a better deal over the phone with other brokers even with commission charges on top. Maybe calling HiFx will get your better service at higher numbers

pedunculate

I booked a 6-month forward contract from Foreign Currencies Direct for GBP30,000 into EUR in March 2008.

After 6 months in September I duly paid up and send in the form indicating I wanted the money sent to my Northern Rock Guernsey account. Stupidly I filled in the form by hand, and didn't take a copy.

Nothing happened. After a month, I rang them to find out what had happened to the money. They said they had definitely sent it, and to wait a little while longer (SWIFT payments can take upwards of 14 days).

Another month went by (I was out of the country) and I checked with NR and it still hadn't arrived. After checking it turned out they said there was one digit missing from the BIC. To amend this needed them to send another SWIFT message which cost me £240. Faced with no choice and needing the money, I paid up.

Come December the money still hadn't arrived. I was getting really fed up by now. I also discovered that NR use an intermediary bank whose BIC was the one I needed to quote - despite NR putting their own BIC on their statements. After some more chasing the money eventually bounced back into FCD's holding account and they sent it again to NR, charging me another £15 fee. This time it did arrive.

So I lost 3 months interest and £255 in fees. The moral of this story is to assume FX people are sharks... any minor deviation from what's agreed and they'll make you pay through the nose for it. This isn't cosy consumer banking.

blueberrypie

pedunculate wrote: »

So I lost 3 months interest and £255 in fees. The moral of this story is to assume FX people are sharks... any minor deviation from what's agreed and they'll make you pay through the nose for it. This isn't cosy consumer banking.

As a counterpoint, I'll tell a story of an experience with XE. I was transferring money from my Scotiabank account in Canada to a UK bank account, to be used to purchase a property. My XE account had been set up quite a while before and used to transfer money in the opposite direction. And right after I clicked the final button to make the money leave my Scotiabank account and wing its way to the UK, I realised that I hadn't changed the receiving bank...and my money was now on its way to BMO - a different Canadian bank. Even worse - I'd closed the BMO account months before. And I had only about a week before the day the property purchase was supposed to go through.

Panic. I telephoned XE and told them what I'd done. No problem, said the nice person I spoke to, it will bounce back from BMO and we'll get it sent to your UK account. I'll put a post-it note on my desk and keep an eye on things and let you know as soon as it arrives back with us, he said.

And he did just that - he phoned me several times over the next few days to tell me that the money had bounced back, that it had been sent to my UK account, and to check that it had arrived there.

So...maybe not all sharks :-)

DC01

tom.daniel wrote: »

I'm not sure who told you that their homepage converter gives you a price of what you will get but they were telling porky pies, see below!!

"All rates shown are based on today's Interbank rates. This is the rate at which banks and brokers buy and sell money to each other. Private individuals and small to medium sized businesses cannot access these rates. They are therefore provided for indicative purposes only. For a quote please call us."

You only get a live rate if you log in. I agree with heloid about their rates, most phone brokers will be able to better them. Their online service is very easy to use for small amounts where the rate doesnt matter, but on larger amounts they arent great and I stuggle to get through on the phone. The final straw for me was when they didnt call me back last time i left a message and i had a six figure sum to transfer!!

Tom - which broker are you referring to on the "all rates are interbank" ? HiFX's is interbank (as you say - like most brokers) and you can only get a live quote if you login but currencyonline.com is not - they show real rates are on their homepage (so do fttcurrency) and they both make a point of it. I checked CO home page rates against logging in rates and they were near as damn it whereas the others were quite different (not only in rate but update frequency)

I try to deal online where possible to save time (as they do like to hear their own voices sometimes!!) as well as it tends to be more convenient for me but will take your advice for the larger bits I do from time to time and phone in and haggle - thanks for the heads up.

chris0241

Just a brief warning to people so they don't fall into the same trap as myself. I send a lot of money abroad for business and used HiFX for about a year. However, their customer services leaves so much to be desired...

If you're ok with 40minute phone queues for basic queries and rude managers then go for it!

Amazing, there aren't a lot of companies offering a similar service and they dominate the market. After much searching, I found Caxton FX (http://www.caxtonfx.com) who offer a similar service and the rates were generally about 2% better too! Not to mention polite staff who answer the phone line in seconds...

Chris

pegeen

Hello, has anyone any experience with Smart Currency Exchange Ltd?

pegeen

Hello, has any one heard of or had experience with

Charles Purdy (& The Smart Team)
Smart Currency Exchange Limited ?
pegeen

castef

Hello everyone,
on Friday December 04 2009, I sent a request to Rizwan Ali of FXA World to transfer my GBP funds to an account in the UK. Rizwan acknowledged the receipt of my request but I have not heard back from him since then.
Needless to say, after almost 3 weeks, my money has not yet been returned to me.
Are there still people out there who are waiting for their money to be returned?
Any advice will be appreciated.

FxA_World_PLC wrote: »

Following the posting made on the 13th July 2009, I can confirm that all outstanding amounts have been paid to FxA World customers.

The Directors of FxA World PLC are pleased that no monies have been lost by either customers or suppliers to the company during this difficult period. All client accounts have been fully reconciled and funds placed in relevant accounts.

No further action is being taken by any of the Authorities consulted by members during this period, now their enquiries are complete.

We do not believe there are any clients who have any reason for further complaint. However, any client of FxA World, who may have a grievance of not being settled, is encouraged to contact us immediately.
There remains a considerable commercial opportunity for private individuals, small and medium sized businesses and other organisations to benefit from the cost savings generated by the use of the FxA World technology; estimated to be between 3-5% of the sum transferred through banks and brokers.

To enable this to occur with guaranteed security, we have appointed independent auditors to monitor and govern client accounts to ensure reconciliation and funds availability.

The directors remain confident that this business model provides a valuable, quality service to FxA world customers, which saves them money.

Individuals, businesses and organisations that would like to take advantage of this more robust process can apply to [EMAIL="RCustomerservices@fxaworld.com"]Customerservices@fxaworld.com[/EMAIL]

Vijay Kumar
Director