Best way to send large amount of money overseas

wmb194

grandweb said:

wmb194 said:

HSBC Global Money’s indicative quote is better than that at €57,213.61:

Ah, thanks. I think I was looking at the regular HSBC one - not global money

Your calculation results
Exchange rate
GBP 1 = EUR 1.1340
You pay
GBP 50,000.00
You receive
EUR 56,698.06

It's not as bad then, but still €205 worse off in fees/exchange differences

Yes, but the OP wants the peace of mind of a big bank so it might be worth paying.

spiritus

grandweb said:

Checking Wise now, sending £50,000 would give the recipient €57,418.31 after £135.21 in fees. Worth just doing some other comparisons to see if you can beat it. Checking HSBC, you'd end up with €720 less. Wise isn't protected by the FSCS but they do safeguard your money in a separate account, so if your worry is that they go into administration, that money can't be touched.

I think Natwest have a similar global currency account (I will need to research further).

Whether we use Natwest or HSBC we are restricted to their exchange rates (which are often not very competitive).

Does it make any sense to exchange our sterling money into Euros with a DIFFERENT provider and then move the money into the Natwest or HSBC global account ready for the intl bank transfer we need to make?

It could potentially save us some money on exchange rates and provide the full bank guarantee under the FSCS.

BlueonBlue

Your clutching at straws ....your talking or asking about banks/bankers working for very little ?
If you use banks your going to get burnt ....thats a certainty .

Wise is the right answer it will be over an done with in a few hours and you will wonder what the fuss was all about .

Ayr_Rage

I agree with @BlueonBlue, you are worrying too much, just move the money to Wise and make the transfer the same day.

You can get your own Wise GBP balance account with a normal sort code and number and put in a pound as a test transfer.

Wise are also getting stricter with KYC, so as with any bank, have proof of ID and address ready to upload.

As I said before, the only issues I've had is with my own banks that limit transfers to new accounts even though they come up as fully verified on their system when checking name/sort code/account number.

sausage_time

I'd have no hesitation about using my Wise account for such a transfer.  It is likely the money can sit with Wise for just a few minutes if you are ready to act quickly.

BlueonBlue

Its the bankers that are selling you all the anxiety regarding transfers as they profit from that .
Wise has proved a market exists for themselves .

You could even "consider" the so called 10 x cheaper new alternative startup posted earlier  "Atlantic" but cant say I have heard of them so would do some research out of interest either way .

Probably other startups may exist .....Atlantic has a referral option which means the sender sends for free if I read the site correctly .
Referals are not allowed on MSE I believe .

robatwork

I've done similar and used Wise. But in tranches of 20k or so.

On every occasion I had to call Santander to authorise it. Which was a pain in the proverbial. But it worked out thousands of euros better than via Santander themselves and I knew they were reliable and very unlikely to disappear with the cash. 

friolento

I would never use an unknown like Atlantic for larger amounts but I would happily recommend Wise for any amounts. Wise is a large company with a proven track record. Since 2023, even the international SWIFT system used by banks for transferring money has been relying on Wise  https://www.swift.com/news-events/news/swift-and-wise-join-forces-expand-cross-border-payment-options-globally

I would also recommend that you fully verify your account before sending anything, and that you are prepared to provide evidence for the source of money if asked for it. 

BlueonBlue

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/atlantic.money

As stated .....do some sniffing .

robatwork

Most of the negative trustpilot reviews of Atlantic look like being the user's fault, not Atlantic. So far so good then. But how do I know if one or more of the positive reviews are genuine or shills? A - I don't.

That's where this forum comes in. If I read on this thread a couple of users whose names I recognise who have been posting for years like me, have had a good (or bad) experience with Atlantic, that's worth 1000 trustpilots.