XE Money Transfer Gone Wrong!!

jre_

Hi Everyone,
Was wondering if you could please help.
XE money transfer are threatening to charge around £1000 for a close out related to a money transfer that we had to cancel.
Basically, we signed up to XE on the website and then asked to transfer an amount of money from a bank account abroad to them and then to bank account in the UK.
No forms were filled out or money sent to them and we cancelled. They then said they had already bought the currency and we were liable for the cancellation fee.
They are now giving us 7 days to pay the charge and if we dont threatening legal action. 
Seems a bit harsh. 
We called them and they said the charge is clearly stated in their terms and conditions on page 10000...... or something like that. I mean I probably would have read it if I had the time but working from home is proving quite time consuming.
Anyways, would be hugely grateful if anyone could reach out and help. 
Obviously there a more pressing needs right now and I totally get it if you tell me to go away and pay it and stop whinging for something so trivial but thought I would ask all the same.
Stay safe!
Thanks.
Jon

bowlhead99

Basically, we signed up to XE on the website and then asked to transfer an amount of money from a bank account abroad to them and then to bank account in the UK.

No forms were filled out or money sent to them and we cancelled. They then said they had already bought the currency and we were liable for the cancellation fee.

Are you saying you literally filled out no online forms at all - i.e. you didn't say you want to sell x amount of currency to buy y amount of sterling, and then when they offer you the firm price quote, you didn't accept the quote or confirm you were happy with it ? 

Simply asking for an indicative price quote by typing in the amount of money you are interested in buying / selling, does not create a contract. They will not go and buy a specific amount of currency for you on that basis. Nor does asking for a firm price quote, seeing it and not accepting it.  Whereas asking for a price quote, being given the offer and then accepting/confirming the offer, creates the contract.

If you say, 'and we cancelled' - that implies to me that you know you had an arrangement where you had entered into a deal with them to sell X amount of currency to receive Y amount of sterling for a fixed price which was agreed, based on the price that they sourced for you at the time of agreeing that you would send them X amount of currency.   If you later decide that you don't want to go through with the arrangement, you can't simply back out of it by not sending them the X amount which you had agreed to sell to them.  They will have already anticipated the receipt of your foreign currency and placed their trades in the market accordingly to manage the exposure.

Otherwise customers would play the system by agreeing to sell $120 to a broker for £100 and then a few days later if $120 is worth only £90 they would go ahead with the deal and get the £100 proceeds, while if $120 became worth £110 they would back out and say ah no haha I never agreed to sell it for £100, I'm going to sell my $120 to someone else instead and get more pounds.

It's been 5+ years since I used x.e. and I no longer have my account with them, but their terms weren't unreasonable or unusual at the time.

SFindlay

jre_ said:

Hi Everyone,
Was wondering if you could please help.
XE money transfer are threatening to charge around £1000 for a close out related to a money transfer that we had to cancel.
Basically, we signed up to XE on the website and then asked to transfer an amount of money from a bank account abroad to them and then to bank account in the UK.
No forms were filled out or money sent to them and we cancelled. They then said they had already bought the currency and we were liable for the cancellation fee.
They are now giving us 7 days to pay the charge and if we dont threatening legal action. 
Seems a bit harsh. 
We called them and they said the charge is clearly stated in their terms and conditions on page 10000...... or something like that. I mean I probably would have read it if I had the time but working from home is proving quite time consuming.
Anyways, would be hugely grateful if anyone could reach out and help. 
Obviously there a more pressing needs right now and I totally get it if you tell me to go away and pay it and stop whinging for something so trivial but thought I would ask all the same.
Stay safe!
Thanks.
Jon

The fact you are admitting to "had to cancel" indicates you know you entered into an agreement therefore they will be perfectly entitled to make the claim in line with their terms and conditions even if it is on page 20,000!!! It's your responsibility to read the T&C and no doubt will have ticked the box saying you had read them and agree. 

ratechaser

I'm not familiar with how XE works, but my experience with a similar broker (WorldFirst) is that you get a firm quote that's good for a number of seconds before getting refreshed, and it's made crystal clear via a multi click confirmation process that you are committed to the transaction.

These brokers are basically executing spot FX transactions in the market according to demand. They are not sitting on piles of currency reserves they then just dish out when needed...

so unless XE is markedly different I'm afraid you're probably going to have to suck this up - yes they may have tried to mitigate their losses by covering their exposure between the point where you executed and then cancelled, but it's a volatile market so if it was a large transaction, it could have been a lot worse than £1000...

Thrugelmir

jre_ said:

Basically, we signed up to XE on the website and then asked to transfer an amount of money from a bank account abroad to them and then to bank account in the UK.

Online systems require no paperwork. That's the whole idea behind them!  By confirming acceptance of the rates offered to you.  You entered a legally binding contract. An expensive mistake that you'll have to chalk up to experience. 
PS There was nothing wrong with the transaction as your thread title suggests

Voyager2002

I used XE a lot in the past and their terms were very clear: in particular the point at which I entered into a binding contract.
Anyway, you say you "had to cancel": why? If this was something to do with XE and perhaps a failure of their site or finding that you would have to wait too long for delivery of the currency then you might have a case. If you cancelled for a reason that was not related to XE then perhaps it is covered by insurance, or perhaps someone else is liable: if you post details we will see if we have any bright ideas.

jre_

Hi Again. Thanks for all the comments. Very useful. So it is looking not good. Hey ho.
Thanks for your insight Voyager2002. 
All the best.