Santander Edge internaltional money transfer rates

dav964

Hello,

My wife regularly sends money home to her family in Malaysia. She has used Nationwide in the past but is thinking of swicthing to Wise.

Some friends use Santander Edge which waives the transfer fee (but probably includes a markup on the exchange rate).

Can I find out what the current Santander exchange rates and markup are?  I've looked online but cannot find any information.  Thanks for any pointers, this would be an FX transfer from GBP to MYR.

eDicky

Santander, in common with other 'high street' banks, are not transparent about their FX rates and markip. ~3% margin on mid-market is likely. Wise will undoubtedly be the better option, you could also check Remitly.

robatwork

You can go right through the process to send the money - click International Transfer, put in the IBAN and just follow the usual steps right up to sending. It will tell you the exact rate.

From experience, the Santander rates are shocking. Despite the lack of fee they make up for it in their rate. For example when I was transferring some funds into Eur, Wise was about 1.16 and Santander 1.14. It was still way more beneficial to use Wise, despite having to call Santander on each occasion the account got locked due to the "large" transfer to Wise. 

gt94sss2

Try one of the following: 

Wise
Zing (owned by HSBC)
HSBC Global Money

robatwork

gt94sss2 said:

Try one of the following: 

Wise
Zing (owned by HSBC)
HSBC Global Money

Never knew about Zing and they are slightly better for Euros than Wise. Anyone used them?

sausage_time

I have.   My main use case was transferring USD to GBP, but you can't pay USD into Zing at the moment.  So sticking with Wise (I have used for years, so have the USD bank routing and account numbers).   But I think Zing would work well for sending in cases like the OP seeks.

I find the Zing marketing annoying, but that's probably because I am too old!

wmb194

robatwork said:

gt94sss2 said:

Try one of the following: 

Wise
Zing (owned by HSBC)
HSBC Global Money

Never knew about Zing and they are slightly better for Euros than Wise. Anyone used them?

Yes, I've used it for euros and I like it. Until the end of the year the first £500 worth of transfers per month are fee-free so you get the spot rate (I'm assuming everyone gets this and it's not just me/people who joined when I did). If you Google it you can find a £20 referral offer for opening an account and spending £5 (five) with its debit card.

leonard_455

If you’re shopping around beyond Wise/Zing, I’ve had decent results with Ria Money Transfer for GBP → MYR. The rate was closer to mid-market than Santander’s and the fees were small enough that it beat "no fee" bank transfers once you factored in the markup. Handy if you want cash pickup or direct bank credit on the other end.