Buying holiday money or transfer to foreign account?

ben_chimney

Off to Japan soon and considering transferring my holiday money (GBP - JPY) to my g/f's Japanese bank account via Transferwise or similar instead of buying JPY cash beforehand.
On the face of it, the rates are about 1-2% better...
Anyone used these companies, is there a catch?

Thanks in advance.

NiftyDigits

Use Revolut and/or Halifax Clarity and ATM machines.

eDicky

I have found TransferWise to be fast, efficient and reliable, but for holiday money the fee-free cards are your best option.

ben_chimney

Left it too late to set that up unfortunately, next time...

eDicky

ben_chimney wrote: »

Left it too late to set that up unfortunately, next time...

So you can use this link for a totally free transfer up to £3000 (I'll get the same):

https://transferwise.com/u/754a8f

NiftyDigits

Is Japanese Yen on that list? You'll need to contact Transferwise to 'opt in'.
Instead of talking about it, you could have registered with Revolut and asked them to send you an emergency card via support.

eDicky

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Is Japanese Yen on that list? You'll need to contact Transferwise to 'opt in'.

Well observed Nifty, as usual, looks like TransferWise need to use SWIFT for JPY transfers so a fee is likely.