International cash transfers

colesy

I'm not sure if this is the right part of the forum - mods, please move if I've got it wrong.

Together with other relatives, I'm trying to arrange for my mother in law to be moved into an old age home in South Africa. Our share of the costs works out at £300 per month. We need to arrange for this amount to be transferred to the care home on a monthly basis, but standard transfer charges through mainstream UK banks, taking the receiving bank's charges into account, look to be working out at about £50 per transaction, which is obviously quite a significant percentage of the funds being remitted.

Is there a reliable, and legal, way of transferring these funds where the transaction costs are significantly lower? Cash pick up services like Western Union are not an option.

Archi_Bald

Have a look at specialist currency transfer services. Use a comparison engine, e.g. fxcompared.com, to find the best one. WorldFirst, CurrencyFair and TorFX seem to come top tonight for South Africa but rates do changes from time to time.

grumbler

If you have other family members in SA that you can trust, the cheapest way can be to send them a Travelex Supercard linked to your debit or credit card, so that they could withdraw money from ATM.

MSE News: The new king of spending abroad - the free Travelex Supercard

pinkdalek

Does your mother in law has a bank account in SA?
Why not send a lump sum to the bank there and arrange for it to be paid from that bank?
Or do you not have that money upfront to send?

Grumblers suggestion may work, only snag would be if the cash card was lost or retained by the ATM it would take time for the replacement to come.

henm2

International transfers done from a HSBC personal account via online banking cost £4 for up to £50,000- so nothing like £50.

grumbler

henm2 wrote: »

International transfers done from a HSBC personal account via online banking cost £4 for up to £50,000- so nothing like £50.

Surely £4 doesn't include "the receiving bank's charges" and, possibly, extra charges of the intermediary bank.

henm2

I stand corrected. The £4 is just the charges at the UK end.

Jennyt56

Hi. I've never done this before so hope that I'm not butting in, sorry if I am! I can't figure out how to start my own forum...
I am currently waiting for an inheritance to be transferred to me from SA to the UK, it's almost completed a long and arduous journey! Anyway, I'd like to use a private company (cheaper than the bank) to transfer the funds from the bank in SA to my UK account once the funds have been released. The bank in SA however say that is illegal, can anyone tell me if this is so please?
Thanks in advance.

mgdavid

grumbler wrote: »

Surely £4 doesn't include "the receiving bank's charges" and, possibly, extra charges of the intermediary bank.

now will it include the lousy exchange rate they will use....

mgdavid

Jennyt56 wrote: »

Hi. I've never done this before so hope that I'm not butting in, sorry if I am! I can't figure out how to start my own forum...
I am currently waiting for an inheritance to be transferred to me from SA to the UK, it's almost completed a long and arduous journey! Anyway, I'd like to use a private company (cheaper than the bank) to transfer the funds from the bank in SA to my UK account once the funds have been released. The bank in SA however say that is illegal, can anyone tell me if this is so please?
Thanks in advance.

see post #2

grumbler

Jennyt56 wrote: »

The bank in SA however say that is illegal, can anyone tell me if this is so please?

Ask the bank why they say this. If, for some reason, this is illegal in SA, you are unlikely to get the answer in UK.

That said, I think the bank is pulling a fast one: https://www.fxcompared.com/money-transfer/South-Africa-UK?amount=10000&bType=1&aDir=0&ref=filter