Sending money abroad with Paypal?

shelleywa

Sorry if this post doesn't quite fit in here but I couldn't find a suitable sub-forum for it

I just wondered what the cheapest method is to send regular small payments (£100 or less) from a UK bank account to an Australian bank account. Martin's "Sending money abroad" post suggests the best method for small one-off payments is online services. But they have no compensation scheme if the firm were to go bust. He doesn't even mention PayPal - but that would be the obvious choice for me.

Any thoughts on this please?

lopsyfa

What about Western union?

Edit: have just seen that western union is no longer authorized by the FCA.

robatwork

It used to be that with paypal you had to choose "Friends & Family" or there were exorbitant costs. May still be the case, never used it.
I use Transferwise regularly. They aren't always the very cheapest but sometimes are, and always very close to best value. And the money goes next day which is better than a lot of the competition.

eDicky

The chances of an online transfer company going bust during the brief period when your money is in their hands, particularly a thriving one such as TransferWise, is extremely slim.

Can you see the GBP/AUD exchange rate that PayPal would give you, in comparison to the interbank rate provided transparently by TransferWise..?

PDC

Yes, I would look into the exhchange rates on offer - Whenever I've bought something internationaly with PayPal the exhange rate you get seems to be about 5-10% worse than anywhere else.

londoninvestor

lopsyfa wrote: »

What about Western union?

Edit: have just seen that western union is no longer authorized by the FCA.

The entity that WU use in the UK is regulated by the Austrian regulator:
https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?id=001b000000MfgqRAAR

londoninvestor

shelleywa wrote: »

But they have no compensation scheme if the firm were to go bust.

The same is true for Paypal, isn't it?

colsten

I don't know why, and it may be a little unfair, but every time I read or hear Western Union, I immediately think of an enormously rich Nigerian Prince.

robatwork

colsten wrote: »

I don't know why, and it may be a little unfair, but every time I read or hear Western Union, I immediately think of an enormously rich Nigerian Prince.

My experience is similar only from Judge Judy. As soon as someone mentions WU they've lost. Scam.

But - patently it's a working business model and does indeed transfer money legitimately all over the world, albeit at crazy markups.

shelleywa

londoninvestor wrote: »

The same is true for Paypal, isn't it?

I don't know but I'd sooner trust them than a New Kid on the Block firm :undecided

shelleywa

robatwork wrote: »

It used to be that with paypal you had to choose "Friends & Family" or there were exorbitant costs. May still be the case, never used it.
I use Transferwise regularly. They aren't always the very cheapest but sometimes are, and always very close to best value. And the money goes next day which is better than a lot of the competition.

I have seen Transferwise mentioned a few times, they seem pretty good. Do you know if the recipient has to pay any fees to transferwise? Or to their bank - is the money paid into their bank account as local currency or in GBP?