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New.......Fast Transferwise Transfers

Posted: Tue 13 Sep 2016 11:21
by montgolfiere
just did a transfer with Transferwise this morning..... it took just 27 seconds for the money to transfer from my uk account to my french account....and at a good rate with a mini charge.... i dont think Transferwise can be beaten...

Posted: Tue 13 Sep 2016 14:16
by Sus
We have been using US Forex and have been very happy with rates, speed of transfer and service level.

Posted: Tue 13 Sep 2016 18:10
by martyn94
Sus wrote:We have been using US Forex and have been very happy with rates, speed of transfer and service level.
You may be right, and if so good luck. But Transferwise are the only firm I know of that give you the middle-market rate, and take all their cut explicitly, as a fee, rather than by loading their dealing rate by some unstated amount (and then usually charging fees on top). Given that their fee is very competitive, and there is no need to shop around for quotes, it's a no-brainer for me. As I routinely say, I have no stake at all in the commercial success of Transferwise, so long as they don"t go bust while I'm in the middle of a transaction.

If there are other firms with the same model, but even lower fees, I would be glad to know. I know that Allan reckons to do a bit better, but I doubt that I have his "pull", nor his volume of transactions.

Posted: Wed 14 Sep 2016 08:14
by Anthea & Tim
We have been consistently impressed by Transferwise, both speed of transfer and exchange rate.

Posted: Wed 14 Sep 2016 09:49
by Sus
martyn94 wrote:
Sus wrote:We have been using US Forex and have been very happy with rates, speed of transfer and service level.
You may be right, and if so good luck. But Transferwise are the only firm I know of that give you the middle-market rate, and take all their cut explicitly, as a fee, rather than by loading their dealing rate by some unstated amount (and then usually charging fees on top). Given that their fee is very competitive, and there is no need to shop around for quotes, it's a no-brainer for me. As I routinely say, I have no stake at all in the commercial success of Transferwise, so long as they don"t go bust while I'm in the middle of a transaction.

If there are other firms with the same model, but even lower fees, I would be glad to know. I know that Allan reckons to do a bit better, but I doubt that I have his "pull", nor his volume of transactions.
I agree with you and I like the transparency of Transferwise but the bottom line was still better with US Forex when we made the last transfers.

Transfers

Posted: Wed 14 Sep 2016 10:12
by Charlotte
Hi,Could someone take the time to explain how you use one of these transfer methods.Assume minimal computer knowledge please. Thanks

Re: Transfers

Posted: Wed 14 Sep 2016 11:30
by montgolfiere
Charlotte wrote:Hi,Could someone take the time to explain how you use one of these transfer methods.Assume minimal computer knowledge please. Thanks
just go to transferwise and register.... then once your bank account/card is registered, you enter the details of the account to treansfer to and voila transfer. i find using a debit card (up to £3000) the easiest.... making transfers is exceedingly simple and fast...i am sure their helpline would walk you thru if required.... i have been using them for around 2 yeras with an excellent service, which is evolving and improving all the time.

Posted: Wed 14 Sep 2016 11:33
by montgolfiere

"I agree with you and I like the transparency of Transferwise but the bottom line was still better with US Forex when we made the last transfers"


what was the %% difference between the two please

Posted: Wed 14 Sep 2016 13:46
by martyn94
montgolfiere wrote:
"I agree with you and I like the transparency of Transferwise but the bottom line was still better with US Forex when we made the last transfers"


what was the %% difference between the two please
Given that Transferwise charge 0.5% (it used to be 2 or 3 at best) I can't believe that it"s worth the "costs of search" to find anything much cheaper, unless your transfer is into at least four figures of euros, and more likely five. Which is rarely the case for me, nowadays and regrettably.

For Charlotte: the Transferwise website is as slick as montgolfiere suggests, but perhaps sometimes a bit too slick for old farts like me: if you have problems, send me a pm.

Posted: Wed 14 Sep 2016 14:24
by Allan
I've just got a credit card that I can use in any currency and pay near as dammit the mid point rate converted into GBP

For me this is brilliant as I can buy in France, pay the equivalent in GBP and have all the advantages and protection of a UK credit card.

There is an annual fee but I will easily recover that when using the card in the Far East and other places where I would normally use a credit card.

Barclays France have offered me a dual currency account but I have yet to find a low cost way of moving GBP amounts to a French bank.

Posted: Wed 14 Sep 2016 18:03
by martyn94
Allan wrote:I've just got a credit card that I can use in any currency and pay near as dammit the mid point rate converted into GBP

For me this is brilliant as I can buy in France, pay the equivalent in GBP and have all the advantages and protection of a UK credit card.

There is an annual fee but I will easily recover that when using the card in the Far East and other places where I would normally use a credit card.

Barclays France have offered me a dual currency account but I have yet to find a low cost way of moving GBP amounts to a French bank.
This is back to the future to a degree. Nationwide used to offer the Visa clearing rate (essentially the middle-market rate) with no load for foreign transactions, on their debit cards, which was why i moved to them. But they dropped that long ago.

You haven't said who offers this wondrous credit card: Barclays?

I looked at multi-currency accounts years ago (mostly Citibank from memory, but all much the same). They all seemed designed to screw you royally on switches from one currency to another. which might have been tolerable if I had been the jet-setter (on expenses) that they were designed for. Since I wasn't, I didn't

Posted: Wed 14 Sep 2016 18:08
by Allan
martyn94 wrote:
Allan wrote:I've just got a credit card that I can use in any currency and pay near as dammit the mid point rate converted into GBP

For me this is brilliant as I can buy in France, pay the equivalent in GBP and have all the advantages and protection of a UK credit card.

There is an annual fee but I will easily recover that when using the card in the Far East and other places where I would normally use a credit card.

Barclays France have offered me a dual currency account but I have yet to find a low cost way of moving GBP amounts to a French bank.
This is back to the future to a degree. Nationwide used to offer the Visa clearing rate (essentially the middle-market rate) with no load for foreign transactions, on their debit cards, which was why i moved to them. But they dropped that long ago.

You haven't said who offers this wondrous credit card: Barclays?

I looked at multi-currency accounts years ago (mostly Citibank from memory, but all much the same). They all seemed designed to screw you royally on switches from one currency to another. which might have been tolerable if I had been the jet-setter (on expenses) that they were designed for. Since I wasn't, I didn't
It is the Nat West Black card - you pay £84 per annum with no exchange fees.

Barclays France will run an account with 2 sub accounts EUR and GBP and appear to let you transfer from one to the other at the mid market rate. The problem is of course getting it from the UK.

Annoyingly Barclays UK has no facility for an easy and no cost transfer of GBP to Barclays France.

Re: Transfers

Posted: Fri 16 Sep 2016 11:12
by Sus
montgolfiere wrote:
Charlotte wrote:Hi,Could someone take the time to explain how you use one of these transfer methods.Assume minimal computer knowledge please. Thanks
just go to transferwise and register.... then once your bank account/card is registered, you enter the details of the account to treansfer to and voila transfer. i find using a debit card (up to £3000) the easiest.... making transfers is exceedingly simple and fast...i am sure their helpline would walk you thru if required.... i have been using them for around 2 yeras with an excellent service, which is evolving and improving all the time.
It is the same for US Forex, although we had to submit some paperwork to prove our identity but otherwise the online process is pretty straight forward.

Posted: Fri 16 Sep 2016 11:14
by Sus
montgolfiere wrote:
"I agree with you and I like the transparency of Transferwise but the bottom line was still better with US Forex when we made the last transfers"


what was the %% difference between the two please
It was around 6-8%, it was a while ago and we moved a larger amount for buying a house and it was therefore definitely worth it.

Posted: Fri 16 Sep 2016 14:00
by martyn94
Sus wrote:
montgolfiere wrote:
"I agree with you and I like the transparency of Transferwise but the bottom line was still better with US Forex when we made the last transfers"


what was the %% difference between the two please
It was around 6-8%, it was a while ago and we moved a larger amount for buying a house and it was therefore definitely worth it.
It's not conceivable that the overall rate was 6-8% better, So i guess you mean that their loading (however charged) was 6-8% lower. If you're buying a house, i can see that might be well worthwhile. But I sincerely hope that I have done that for the last time. My typical transaction is nowadays about two orders of magnitude smaller: in those circs I will go for simplicity and transparency every time. But then I'm lazy, and no good at maths.