International money exchange and bank rip off.

Norah60

My Canadian mother has died recently and I was given a bankers draft in Canadian dollars for my expenses by the estate. Upon presenting it to the bank and after instructing them not to change it till they had informed me of the exchange rate and charges. They of course changed it and took 6% of the value. They said "Oh we are so sorry nothing we can do." I have lodged a complaint but have not received any acknowledgement. Is there anything i can do? As I expect to get further monies what is the cheapest safeest way to exchange it?

jonesMUFCforever

Which bank did you use?
6% is a lot - are you sure of this figure?
Banks tend to charge a fixed sum for smaller amounts (typically £10 or so) but will charge a % on larger cheques up to an upper limit of about £50.

A bank collecting a cheque would not know the rate until it was paid by Canadian side.It would be difficult to give them the cheque for them to send it away for you to turn round and say wooah - no thank you and have to return the cheque to you. Banking foreign cheque does not work that way.

KeithP

But surely it would be reasonable to show the bank the cheque and ask them how much they would charge to change it? I'm sure I would not have left the cheque with the bank unless wanted them to change it.

Biggles

Sounds like it was a small amount, maybe £100-worth. As mentioned above, the fixed charge makes up a disproportionate amount for small cheques.

If you are expecting further amounts, ask if they can be aggregated and paid to you as one bankers draft, thereby minimising the charges.

inkbm

Hi

Has anyone found a site that compares banks for this service? I'm going to be receiving relatively large sums (1000's of $'s) in $ cheques every 6 months, as a result of my company share save scheme, and want to minimise my costs and maximise exchange rate. Cheques will be against a major US bank, from a share service.

I've tried to use direct wire transfer and had a nightmare, so I want to steer away from that. After 8 weeks of trying the money still didn't arrive in my UK account and it had cost me a load of $'s in exchanging across the pond and back again.

Phoning 2 banks I use presently they wont commit as to whether it will clear in 5 days or take 4-6 weeks, thus wont commit on rate or fee at this stage either.

Has anybody found a reasonable service for a reasonable fee? If they have then I will open a specific account for this purpose - or perhaps I should open a foreign currency account, would that be the best way? I just don't know - absolute newbie to this

Martin - do you have any expert researchers who can help here? I'm getting nowhere phoning banks or on the internet, all I hear and read is of people having issues with this service, no one saying that they are satisfied with what they use.

geordie_joe

You could try asking in the Gambling Introductory Offer Loopholes board.

Not as silly as it sounds, people in there use foreign bookies and get paid in dollars etc. If anyone knows the cheapest way to convert dollars to pounds they will.

Biggles

inkbm wrote: »

Phoning 2 banks I use presently they wont commit as to whether it will clear in 5 days or take 4-6 weeks, thus wont commit on rate or fee at this stage either.

Has anybody found a reasonable service for a reasonable fee? If they have then I will open a specific account for this purpose - or perhaps I should open a foreign currency account, would that be the best way? I just don't know - absolute newbie to this

For larger amounts, I've found the main banks to be as good as anyone. I spoke to LTSB and Nationwide, and used the former, which was slightly better (though, as you say, they can't commit themselves until it goes for clearing). They both make a reasonable flat-rate charge, and the exchange rate is as near as dammit to the interbank rate. I imagine most others are similar.

I wouldn't even consider opening a foreign currency account, as the exchange rate transferring from a USD a/c to a GBP a/c is usually pretty poor.

inkbm

Thanks Biggles, after paying in the cheque today at Nationwide, I was pretty disheartened. They looked at the amount, sharp intake of breath, that'll likely be £20 and 6-8 weeks, but they wont specify the exact criteria as to whether it goes for "collection" or "negotiation".
Rip-off Britain again I reckon!

jonesMUFCforever

inkbm wrote: »

Thanks Biggles, after paying in the cheque today at Nationwide, I was pretty disheartened. They looked at the amount, sharp intake of breath, that'll likely be £20 and 6-8 weeks, but they wont specify the exact criteria as to whether it goes for "collection" or "negotiation".
Rip-off Britain again I reckon!

If you thought it was a rip off why did you not ask for the cheque back there and then and try somewhere else?

Biggles

inkbm wrote: »

Thanks Biggles, after paying in the cheque today at Nationwide, I was pretty disheartened. They looked at the amount, sharp intake of breath, that'll likely be £20 and 6-8 weeks, but they wont specify the exact criteria as to whether it goes for "collection" or "negotiation".
Rip-off Britain again I reckon!

In my (limited) experience, they've usually been through inside a couple of weeks, but it may be longer at Nationwide as they're not a 'clearing bank'. But, if they're all "1000's of $'s", then the £20 will be peanuts compared to the exchange rate loading if you transferred between current accounts.

inkbm

I continued because First Direct wanted up to £50 fee and I have to weigh up against cost of not having money in my account.
As I said, this is my first time of doing this and there will be more, so I'm sort of writing this off as cost of gaining experience. If Nationwide proves to be slow and expensive I wont use them again, and will try elsewhere. What is odd is that they have different policy to First Direct and they are both part of HSBC. But my experience with Nationwide is that they are best for foreign currency deals, certainly my FlexAccount gives excellent service from ATM's overseas. No fees and good exchange rates. So I have some trust there.

Interestingly their quoted times to clear the cheque were no different to FirstDirect.