Transferring money abroad

joshly

I want to transfer £5000 to my bank account in South Africa so that I have funds to pay for accommodation, car rental etc when I am out there.

The exchange rate is 15.77 Rand to the British Pound.
I can do the online transfer for a £9.50 charge plus any charges the other end but the rate of exchange my bank is offering is R15.06.

So they are making an extra 4.5% charge, or an extra £235.

I don't suppose there is anything I can do about it but wondered if any of the forum members had any ideas about avoiding these costs.

I am being met at the airport so can cash and deposit it straight away.

Voyager2002

Use a currency broker rather than your bank: there are plenty of posts about them in the Travel forum. Or if you want to save time, the one that I use is at https://www.xe.com: their service is good and they make money on the exchange rate rather than on fees so are good for small amounts, but for that transfer you would do better with one of the other ones.

Archi_Bald

use a currency transfer comparison site to find the best deal on the given day for the given amount and currency. Here are two of them, there might be more out there, google is your friend.

http://www.mycurrencytransfer.com/
http://www.fxcompared.com/

joshly

Thank-you both for the replies, I am pleased I asked.

For an international bank to bank transfer of £5000 Western Union give the best exchange rate.

It works out to be a 2% cost so much better than 4.5%.

I would need to open a free account with WU and transfer funds from my bank to WU which I assume will be free as they have branches in the UK.

mgdavid

joshly wrote: »

Thank-you both for the replies, I am pleased I asked.

For an international bank to bank transfer of £5000 Western Union give the best exchange rate.

It works out to be a 2% cost so much better than 4.5%.

I would need to open a free account with WU and transfer funds from my bank to WU which I assume will be free as they have branches in the UK.

always very dangerous to assume something is free, usually ends in tears.
What rate will a broker like currencyfair.com give? I have used them to good effect a couple of times.

PS - who mentioned WU?

joshly

mgdavid wrote: »

always very dangerous to assume something is free, usually ends in tears.
What rate will a broker like currencyfair.com give? I have used them to good effect a couple of times.

PS - who mentioned WU?

They came out top from the link archi left.

http://www.mycurrencytransfer.com/money-transfer-to-South-Africa/5000-GBP

Currencyfair 15.850 £3 fee R79,202
WU 15.585 unknown fee R77,925
SA bank 15.586 enquiring to see if there is a fee. R77,930

Voyager2002

Check that those rates apply for the same Western Union whose shops that you see. It sounds like Custom House (https://www.xe.com), which belongs to Western Union but functions as a separate operation.

Voyager2002

joshly wrote: »

They came out top from the link archi left.

Currencyfair 15.850 £3 fee R79,202
WU 15.585 unknown fee R77,925
SA bank 15.586 enquiring to see if there is a fee. R77,930

From those numbers, I would prefer what Currencyfair offer.

AlecHawk

I think currency transfer comparison site will be a good deal for you..
You may avoid these cost and can have a good services also..!
Try it and then share your views..

Thomas_Crown

I have used Smart Currency Exchange several times & the interbank rate they are currently using shows:-

(£1.00 = ZAR15.9) £5,000 = ZAR 79,473

The actual rate you will get will be slightly less than that. No fees are payable on amounts over £3,000.