TransferWise - International Bank Transfer

kevinmcc

Hi all, just to let you know of a website called TransferWise which lets you send money to bank accounts around the world. They charge a flat fee of 1EUR for anything up to 300EUR, have used it quite a bit to send money from UK to Ireland accounts and has saved me a fortune over what Halifax charge.

If you use this referral link the first fee is free http://transferwise.com

keithclancy

Just change your Bank to a bank in the SEPA Scheme and do a SEPA Payment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

I sent money to my Irish account all the time and pay no more than a Dutch - Dutch bank transfer (Which is nothing since I pay a flat fee for banking)

Good spot though op, might be handy for payments outside the EU for me in the future

soirish

Transferwise looks great, will be using it when more currencies become available.

mp3ireland2

Currency fair looks to have a better rate for examplechanging €1000. https://www.currencyfair.com/

gives £814.74.

and http://transferwise.com/

gives £811.74

difference of less than 2% i know but still.

But for €300
Currencyfair gives £242.70
Transferwise gives £217.47

This is due to Currency fair charging a flat fee of €3/£3 but Transferwise charges a fee of €1 for €300 or less. So it's cheaper to do 4 seperate Trasfers with Transferwise to exchange €1000? strange! so there's no quick way to say which is better, I suppose for lower amounts use transfer wise and anything larger than €900 Currency fair is better? But for amounts under €900 with Transferwise break them down into transfers of €300 or less?

Zero-Cool

kevinmcc wrote: »

Hi all, just to let you know of a website called TransferWise which lets you send money to bank accounts around the world. They charge a flat fee of 1EUR for anything up to 300EUR, have used it quite a bit to send money from UK to Ireland accounts and has saved me a fortune over what Halifax charge.

If you use this referral link the first fee is free http://transferwise.com

Excellent! I have to make a payment transfer soon to the UK and was worried about the costs. Definitely going to use your link, thanks man. Can you tell me do you pay with your credit card or paypal?

kevinmcc

mp3ireland2 wrote: »

Currency fair looks to have a better rate for example buying £300. https://www.currencyfair.com/

gives €371.92.

and http://transferwise.com/

gives €367.62.

difference of less than 2% i know but still.

I don't get this, it costs you more with currencyfair then as your paying 371 euro for 300GBP?

kevinmcc

sheehy83 wrote: »

Excellent! I have to make a payment transfer soon to the UK and was worried about the costs. Definitely going to use your link, thanks man. Can you tell me do you pay with your credit card or paypal?

You just do a bank transfer to their bank account, they give you the details to send it to when you reach the payment page, they confirm receipt of your funds within 4 hours usually

ted1

Exactly, with forex when the commission is low the exchange rate is generally really bad. The ATMs in Aorports are the same, the ones that have no fee give you brutal rates.

snubbleste

But the OP said it is a bargain and even posted it in BA

sandin

To work out if it's value, you need to know the percentage from mid market rate you are being charged. Companies like transfermate will charge about 0.5 - 0.8% depending on size of transfer and, if it's over 1k there's no transaction fee.

With rates changing every minute you can't really compare quotes unless done within a minute of each other. - classic example 2 weeks ago was an hour after checking the cost of a £100k transfer, the cost had dropped over €700 because of a movement in the exchange rate.

mp3ireland2

kevinmcc wrote: »

I don't get this, it costs you more with currencyfair then as your paying 371 euro for 300GBP?

Sorry I edited now so hopefully it makes sense! Not simple to say which offers better value though!

okidoki987

with forex when the commission is low the exchange rate is generally really bad.

Spot on.

2 weeks ago was an hour after checking the cost of a £100k transfer, the cost had dropped over €700 because of a movement in the exchange rate

Don't think the OP was taking about a large amount like that.
For any large transaction, always worth ringing a few places and get the "all-in" quote including all charges as some places will give you a "great" exchange rate and then hit you with a massive amount of charges afterwards.
Exchange rates won't change that much unless it around 12pm or 1.30pm when the main economic numbers come out.

sandin

okidoki987 wrote: »

Spot on.



Don't think the OP was taking about a large amount like that.
For any large transaction, always worth ringing a few places and get the "all-in" quote including all charges as some places will give you a "great" exchange rate and then hit you with a massive amount of charges afterwards.
Exchange rates won't change that much unless it around 12pm or 1.30pm when the main economic numbers come out.

Hence why getting the percentage from market rate will show the true value. Transfermate.com charge about 0.65% whereas aib will charge about 1.8% from market mid rate. For small amounts, the difference can be very small and convenience factor can come into the equation.

Transferwise look good as they are in effect an exchange similar to betdaq in the betting arena and operate on a small fee. Only drawback is that it seems it can take 3-5 days for the transaction to be completed. But if time is not of the essence, it's great value.

suave.4u

sandin wrote: »

Hence why getting the percentage from market rate will show the true value. Transfermate.com charge about 0.65% whereas aib will charge about 1.8% from market mid rate. For small amounts, the difference can be very small and convenience factor can come into the equation.

Transferwise look good as they are in effect an exchange similar to betdaq in the betting arena and operate on a small fee. Only drawback is that it seems it can take 3-5 days for the transaction to be completed. But if time is not of the essence, it's great value.

so in a nutshell, which is the best option...transfermate?

philboy

I used to use Transfermate fairly regularly for transfering Sterling to my Irish bank a/c. They have brought in a standing charge of £10 per transfer regardless of how much you transfer (even if it's over £1000).
I created an account yesterday with Transferwise and I got quotes from both companies for transferring £1000 to my Irish bank a/c. See results below:

TransferMate: £1000 -> €1208.31 *(includes charge of £10)
TransferWise: £1000 -> €1226.52 *(includes charge of £4.48)

By using Transferwise I received an extra 1.5% roughly or approx €18 extra.

Timewise: I selected the standard transfer time and placed my order @ 6:32pm on 03/01/2013. Received an email today @ 1:06pm on 04/01/2013 saying payment has been sent out and should be in my bank a/c by tomorrow.

I found TransferWise to be a lot simpler to use, the layout of their system is a lot cleaner and an account is easy to create if you've a gmail a/c. You can link it to your Gmail a/c.

suave.4u

philboy wrote: »

I used to use Transfermate fairly regularly for transfering Sterling to my Irish bank a/c. They have brought in a standing charge of £10 per transfer regardless of how much you transfer (even if it's over £1000).
I created an account yesterday with Transferwise and I got quotes from both companies for transferring £1000 to my Irish bank a/c. See results below:

TransferMate: £1000 -> €1208.31 *(includes charge of £10)
TransferWise: £1000 -> €1226.52 *(includes charge of £4.48)

By using Transferwise I received an extra 1.5% roughly or approx €18 extra.

Timewise: I selected the standard transfer time and placed my order @ 6:32pm on 03/01/2013. Received an email today @ 1:06pm on 04/01/2013 saying payment has been sent out and should be in my bank a/c by tomorrow.

I found TransferWise to be a lot simpler to use, the layout of their system is a lot cleaner and an account is easy to create if you've a gmail a/c. You can link it to your Gmail a/c.

Thanks for the info.
I usually transfer to Asia, and transferwise includes only Europe..hence I will stick with transfermate

mp3ireland2

I used currency fair just now and requested 0.8320 rate, which was matched within about 10 to 15 mins.

€1196 got me £992.08 on currency fair (after the £3 fee)
€1196 would get me £989.11 on transfermate
(although this could be increased to about £990.31 if I 4 transactinos of under €300 were used).

Should have tried requesting a higher rate on currency fair in hind sight a I see somebody got 0.8330 matched.

The last time I just took the rate available (the site works like betfair).

angelmum

suave.4u wrote: »

Thanks for the info.
I usually transfer to Asia, and transferwise includes only Europe..hence I will stick with transfermate

have you used transfermate? are they reliable and safe? im looking on how to send money in asia as well but havent used any of these.

thanks and regards

philboy

angelmum wrote: »

have you used transfermate? are they reliable and safe? im looking on how to send money in asia as well but havent used any of these.

thanks and regards

I've used transfermate for transferring from the UK to Ireland numerous times. They are reliable and safe.

suave.4u

philboy wrote: »

I've used transfermate for transferring from the UK to Ireland numerous times. They are reliable and safe.

ya me too.......very good service

frasr

angelmum wrote: »

have you used transfermate? are they reliable and safe? im looking on how to send money in asia as well but havent used any of these.

thanks and regards

I used Transfermate just over 5 years ago & they were spot on. I haven't had a need to use their services since, but at least I can cofirm that they have been around for a good few years, also before I used them I had a good thrawl around & I could only find good feedback on them.

ThreeLineWhip

frasr wrote: »

I used Transfermate just over 5 years ago & they were spot on. I haven't had a need to use their services since, but at least I can cofirm that they have been around for a good few years, also before I used them I had a good thrawl around & I could only find good feedback on them.

Ditto. I have used them many times and never a problem. Fast and safe.

bmm

Do any of these websites accept Paypal as a payment source ??

ThreeLineWhip

No.

pissed

I have to send approx. £1100 sterling to the UK. Which of these companies would be the best for that amount. Have never used anything like this before I assume the are all above board?

gymnipities

There seems to be a crucial difference in when the exchange rate is set. If I remember correctly, with Transfermate you book the transaction to buy a set amount of currency B and are given an exact figure to transfer from your currency A account, based on the rate at that moment. You then have a certain amount of time to transfer the funds.

With Transferwise it looks like you book the transaction but get whatever the rate is at the time they receive the funds a day or two later. ("We cannot predict the mid-market exchange rate at the time when the currency conversion starts (when we receive the deposit and activate your payment)"- it says here ).You can set a limit on the rate you're willing to accept but if it's moved past that when they get your money, then you've missed your chance.

messinkiapina

Which would be the cheapest service to send a small amount of money (~€10) to China?

Esel

messinkiapina wrote: »

Which would be the cheapest service to send a small amount of money (~€10) to China?

Paypal?

messinkiapina

Esel wrote: »

Paypal?

It's for Taobao which is like the Chinese ebay, but they don't accept paypal, needs to be a bank transfer.

suave.4u

angelmum wrote: »

have you used transfermate? are they reliable and safe? im looking on how to send money in asia as well but havent used any of these.

thanks and regards

Yup, have been using them for the last 3 years...great service;I am pleased

ctrl-alt-delete

Have used this on a couple of occasions now. Very quick service anytime I have used it.

For example this morning at 07:00 i transferred £80 from my UK Halifax account to my Irish AIB account which was in my account at 11:00 as €91.73.