Best UK bank to receive international transfers

ADNOC_Geodesist

WastedWords said:

ADNOC_Geodesist said:

Marchitiello said:

ADNOC_Geodesist said:

@Marchitiello
I suspect it might be different for USD, EUR and other major currencies but both GMA UK and GMA UAE offer fairly poor exchange rates when converting between GBP and AED, especially for large amounts. Mid-market rate from GBP to AED has been hovering around 4.63 today (according to xe.com) yet GMA UK are only offering 4.57 AED to the £, for amounts greater than £1000. Strangely the rate improves to 4.60 when converting amounts less than £1000 into AED.

Not sure I follow your early statement that GMA was applying a 1.99 margin as the one you show in the example is just under 1.3%.

also Revolut is not free, you either pay a subscription or are severely limited in scope, they obviously apply their own margins to exchange rates and also charge your for international bank transfer … 

I never said that Revolut was free. But in my own experience, Revolut easily beats all others for regular incoming forex transfers, even after taking the £72 pa fee into account. I’ve found Revolut’s exchange rates are more or less mid market rates (provided I exchange during the week) , certainly far better than HSBC’s. Yes Revolut now charge for outgoing int’l payments (previously they allowed up to 2 ‘free’ swift transfers each month) but I use Wise on the rare occasion I have to send funds from uk to use. 

Nothing wrong with using GMA if you have to make the occasional one- off transfer but for regular transfers - specifically incoming transfers into GBP - there are far cheaper alternatives available. 

Trying to get my head around HSBC Currency / GMA possibilities (purely interest as I don't have a need for AED conversions).
Assuming you have the ability to open HSBC accounts in UK and UAE I see 2 possible scenarios

UAE - AED current account receiving salary
UAE GMA for conversion to GBP (poor rate / additional charges)
HSBC transfer to UK current account

UAE - AED current account receiving salary
transfer to UK AED Currency account (should be free)
UK AED Currency acc. to UK GMA AED acc.
Convert to GBP in UK GMA.

Any idea how would they compare?

(Hope that makes some sense after a Friday night beer).

I already have HSBC Premier current accounts both in UAE & UK. 

You’re right, HSBC UAE GMA offers poor rates when exchanging AED to GBP. I really wouldn’t recommend using UAE GMA for **any** currency exchange. 

My salary (AED) is received into my HSBC UAE account , I then send AED from HSBC direct to my Revolut premium account where I convert it into GBP using  the mid market rate (more or less). Other than the £72 annual fee by Revolut, I pay no other charges. 

WastedWords

From that I understand that you are getting a better net exchange converting in Revolut than UK GMA?

ADNOC_Geodesist

WastedWords said:

From that I understand that you are getting a better net exchange converting in Revolut than UK GMA?

Yes. Revolut more or less gives the rate shown on xe.com

dont_use_vistaprint

This won’t beat the Revolut rate but way better than GMA, if over 25K USD HSBC can  offer you a one-off rate  closer to the real FX rate if you request it 

the GMA rate is worse than I thought it’s margin is approx 2.6% so for example sending  50K today through GMA you get  £10, 778 vs £11,007 on Revolut so GMA is costing  you £279 in fees

guli

dont_use_vistaprint said:

This won’t beat the Revolut rate but way better than GMA, if over 25K USD HSBC can  offer you a one-off rate  closer to the real FX rate if you request it 

the GMA rate is worse than I thought it’s margin is approx 2.6% so for example sending  50K today through GMA you get  £10, 778 vs £11,007 on Revolut so GMA is costing  you £279 in fees

How do I request rate closer to the real FX rate with HSBC?

dont_use_vistaprint

guli said:

dont_use_vistaprint said:

This won’t beat the Revolut rate but way better than GMA, if over 25K USD HSBC can  offer you a one-off rate  closer to the real FX rate if you request it 

the GMA rate is worse than I thought it’s margin is approx 2.6% so for example sending  50K today through GMA you get  £10, 778 vs £11,007 on Revolut so GMA is costing  you £279 in fees

How do I request rate closer to the real FX rate with HSBC?

You should have a relationship manager if premier , ask them. They will organise , get a quote and get it approved each time but only if over $25K

dont_use_vistaprint

GMA is a bit of a gimmick. You don’t need it for HSBC transfers, the international transfer would from your current account  fine and using the GMA  offers  no advantage. The fees are very high at 2.6% only marginally better than Barclays at 3%. Paid Revolt seems by far the best choice