Currency exchange

mp3ireland2

May not be of use to anyone, but for international money transfers you can get good rates here https://www.currencyfair.com

Works similar to betfair (in that you buy and sell with other people who want to exchange money in the opposite direction - so you get market rates instead of the bank one :-) ), you need an account in the destination country to send money through.... but might suit some peoples situations!

deem79 pointed this out to me as I was looking for a way to transfer zloty to Polish bank accounts to pay deposits on euro 2012 accom.

Why has everyone come up with the good ideas before me, it's an Irish company.

okidoki987

Interesting.
Wonder how long it takes to be matched and what security there is
regarding all the deposits they hold?
Pity they don't do cash.

you need an account in the destination country

You can send it someone else's account.

mp3ireland2

okidoki987 wrote: »

Interesting.
Wonder how long it takes to be matched and what security there is
regarding all the deposits they hold?
Pity they don't do cash.



You can send it someone else's account.

yeah sorry that's what I meant as in you can't get cash you have to send it to an account... as that's what i needed to pay deposits.... 2 days is what he said it takes to send him money to poland.... I assume they hold onto the cash untill both parties have paid and then send it to accounts...

You need to scan in your passport and two utility bills to prevent fraud.. so little bit of hassle before u can trade!

okidoki987

That's for the company so they comply with the money laundering act.

OneWayBet

mp3ireland2 wrote: »

yeah sorry that's what I meant as in you can't get cash you have to send it to an account... as that's what i needed to pay deposits.... 2 days is what he said it takes to send him money to poland.... I assume they hold onto the cash untill both parties have paid and then send it to accounts...

You need to scan in your passport and two utility bills to prevent fraud.. so little bit of hassle before u can trade!

I use CF to exchange USD to EUR regularly. My bank was taking about 3% margin on FX transactions but with CF the margin is < 0.5% or even much less depending on how close the market buy/sell rate is. You need to deposit the cash before you can trade on the market and yes they hold onto the cash until your trade is matched on the market.

All in all this is a really neat service and it's great to see a company take on the banker fatcats and give the power back to the people

whatsupdoc?

One problem I see is you could be waiting a long time to get matched.
There are also spread firms but they don't deliver so mightn 't suit some people.

digiman

I tried setting this up last night and got to the passport entry stage and my passport number kept coming up as not vaild. Not really sure where I can go from here as I would really like to use them as I am moving to Sydney on Monday.

OneWayBet

digiman wrote: »

I tried setting this up last night and got to the passport entry stage and my passport number kept coming up as not vaild. Not really sure where I can go from here as I would really like to use them as I am moving to Sydney on Monday.

I had the same issue, just click past it and you'll be fine. You need to send them a copy of passport and utility bill after this, I just tool a picture with my phone and emailed it.

OneWayBet

whatsupdoc? wrote: »

One problem I see is you could be waiting a long time to get matched.
There are also spread firms but they don't deliver so mightn 't suit some people.

Only if you are greedy! Just like betfair you can take the market rate for an instant match.. The more popular the currency the closer the buy/sell spread usually

lau1247

mp3ireland2 wrote: »

May not be of use to anyone, but for international money transfers you can get good rates here https://www.currencyfair.com

Works similar to betfair (in that you buy and sell with other people who want to exchange money in the opposite direction - so you get market rates instead of the bank one :-) ), you need an account in the destination country to send money through.... but might suit some peoples situations!

deem79 pointed this out to me as I was looking for a way to transfer zloty to Polish bank accounts to pay deposits on euro 2012 accom.

Why has everyone come up with the good ideas before me, it's an Irish company.

Thanks mp3ireland2, definitely come in handy alright.. pity exchange doesn't look too good outside of euro at the moment..

commited

I've used CF for ages, can certainly recommend them!!

randombar

There's no transaction fee with xe.com either no??

clint_silver

okidoki987 wrote: »

Interesting.
Wonder how long it takes to be matched and what security there is
regarding all the deposits they hold?
Pity they don't do cash.



You can send it someone else's account.

Friend of mine was involved with the setup intially a couple of year ago, I think the deposits are secure with bank of america IIRC. If not BOA then then its one of the other big banks stateside.