Natwest's USD rates are really bad

makes_cents

Hello,

I recently received a wire from Germany for 748 USD which arrived today.

The amount that showed up in my account was £464.01 which is a lot less than what I was expecting. I understand that you don't always get the rate you see online but at this rate even with the £7 charge for receiving a wire in USD is a buy rate of about 13 cents per dollar higher.

There's nothing I can do now but I'm expecting another wire to come through in the near future and I've calculated that at this rate Natwest will take around £130 on top of the £7 charge.

Is there anyway I can halt that transfer or reverse it so I can get it sent elsewhere?

Secondly, who are the best bank to be with when receiving wires abroad? I know that Nationwide weren't bad and gave a good rate but if anybody else has experience elsewhere, let me know.

Cheers,

MC

grumbler

All banks rob you on currency conversion. Also, sometimes intermediary banks add their charges too.

Do you mean reversing already received transfer? If so, it's definitely impossible, although you can try complaining as 4% is shamelessly high charge (usually about 3%).

Re the transfer that you are expecting, you can try stopping it. If you can, see http://www.mycurrencytransfer.com/money-transfer-to-UK/1000-EUR for alternatives.

ERICS_MUM

I've worked out that the exchange rate used was 1.5881 (if my calculator is to be trusted !). Is this really 13 cents more than you expected ? I can't see that the "bank buys" rate would have been 1.4581 in the past few days (I might be wrong, not done a thorough search). That looks more like a "bank sells" rate.

Grumbler is right about intermediary banks taking charges, and as this is a USD payment from Germany to the UK there would be at least one US intermediary bank in the payment chain. Your bank should be able to provide a breakdown of all the charges taken by all parties involved.

Good luck in getting it sorted - your bank will be able to get the details quite easily and should do so free of charge.

Linda xx

Buzby

PayPal is cheaper than NatWest, and has a Rate closer to the published interbank rate. You are probably also suffering fro double conversion if the original German payment is in € converted to $, then your bank making it £.

InsideInsurance

makes_cents wrote: »

I recently received a wire from Germany for 748 USD which arrived today

Did the sender ask for 748 USD to be sent explicitly or they wanted the equiv of 748 USD sent?

I know when I do transfers to the US I get the choice of sending "$748" or they tell me that $748 is (say) £500 and I can chose to send £500 and how much will actually be sent will depend on if the exchange rate has moved between me giving instructions and the bank actually processing them. This sort of thing can be compounding the problem of your conversion back to sterling

ERICS_MUM

Buzby wrote: »

PayPal is cheaper than NatWest, and has a Rate closer to the published interbank rate. You are probably also suffering fro double conversion if the original German payment is in € converted to $, then your bank making it £.

excellent point.

grumbler

Buzby wrote: »

PayPal is cheaper than NatWest, and has a Rate closer to the published interbank rate.

I'd be surprised if they charge much less than 3% for the conversion. Add 3.4% for sending money and I don't see how this can be better than a bank transfer.

You are probably also suffering fro double conversion if the original German payment is in € converted to $, then your bank making it £.

Indeed, this is a very likely explanation if the sender was stupid enough to send $$ from a € account to a £ account.

Buzby

grumbler wrote: »

I'd be surprised if they charge much less than 3% for the conversion. Add 3.4% for sending money and I don't see how this can be better than a bank transfer..

Because the banks charge BOTH the remitter AND the receiver, which PP does not.

grumbler

Buzby wrote: »

Because the banks charge BOTH the remitter AND the receiver

For what? For conversion? Even if sending from, say, a $ account to a £ account?
If you mean charging the recipient for receiving money, then not all banks charge for this. € transfers from Germany to UK have to cost the same as € transfers within Germany.
If it was a € account that the sender used to sen $$ from, they just should have sent the € equivalent instead and this wouldn't be more expensive than using PP.

mulronie

I would expect $748 USD from a German bank to a British bank to follow this chain:

1. $748 from German bank sent to German bank's USD clearing bank

2. USD clearing bank knocks off $15 and sends $733 to the British bank's USD clearer

3. British bank's USD clearer knocks off another $15 and gives $718 to British Bank


The British bank will take that $718, convert it to GBP = £476.60, then knock off their spread of 2.75%...

£476.60 * 0.975 = ~£464 applied to your account

It's a pain, and if you ask Natwest for a copy of the SWIFT they received it will show what happened, but there's not much you can do about it - Natwest can't stop the intermediaries wetting their beaks.

makes_cents

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

I've worked out that the exchange rate used was 1.5881 (if my calculator is to be trusted !). Is this really 13 cents more than you expected ? I can't see that the "bank buys" rate would have been 1.4581 in the past few days (I might be wrong, not done a thorough search). That looks more like a "bank sells" rate.

Grumbler is right about intermediary banks taking charges, and as this is a USD payment from Germany to the UK there would be at least one US intermediary bank in the payment chain. Your bank should be able to provide a breakdown of all the charges taken by all parties involved.

Good luck in getting it sorted - your bank will be able to get the details quite easily and should do so free of charge.

Linda xx

You're correct. I messed up my calculations.

I checked the rate when it was sent and it was 1.51 and today it's 1.51, I was expecting maybe 2 cents higher than that (what I got with Nationwide) but 7.8 is a lot higher.

There wasn't any double conversion as it was USD sent from Germany not Euros.

Thanks,

MC