International Fund Transfer Recommendations

[Steady]

I need to transfer money (USD $700 shortly and later USD $2,000) to an international bank account, the threads I have found all seem pretty old. ('13 & '14)

Obviously I can do it through my bank - but most searches indicate it is an expensive option.

The old threads recommended 3 company's (that was my take anyway) - CurrencyFair, TransferWise & OFX - there was also mention of XE Trading and Western Union among others etc.

I was wondering if anyone has recently looked into the options or suggest any others?

 

[kevrosmith]

A friend in USA used OFX to transfer money from USA to me recently. Apart from a bit of a rigmarole having their bank account validated that it was theirs, it went fairly smoothly, got a good exchange rate and came through to me after a few days (which is understandable given the timezone difference and business day of week difference etc.). I used it a few years ago to transfer GBP to UK and it was fairly straight forward.

Haven't used other services, so can't comment on comparison sorry.

 

[VPS]

I needed to transfer $10k from NZ to Aus and looked at Transferwise and bank - Westpac to Westpac and the bank was only about $20 difference so went with that.

I was talking to someone the other day (after my transaction) and they said often if you ring they will give you a much better rate than what appears online.

I'm going back to NZ to work next week so would be interested in what you come up with

 

[opusman]

HiFX are good.

 

[theblank]

go to finder.com.au and see the comparisons.
IMO the best deals are with OFX from Finders referral.

 

[Isochronous]

I've used OFX a number of times and always been happy with the service - AU-HK transfers have even been completed same day.

 

[RooFlyer]

What are the fees and FX for OFX and HiFX?

 

[Steady]

go to finder.com.au and see the comparisons.
IMO the best deals are with OFX from Finders referral.

Thanks, that comparison site is what I was looking for

 

[Mr_Orange]

Very late response, but for the benefit of others looking for something similar, my vote goes to OFX. I have been using them for about 8 years now.

 

[ozfflyer]

for such small amounts of money, the quickest & easiest would probably be paypal. Yes paypal might charge ~2-3%, but you can put it on your credit card & you get a very good exchange rate & it takes about 1 minute on your computer or phone. Nothing to set up. All you need is recipients email address. If you were talking large sums of money, maybe look at other methods.

Have a look at exchange rates at www.xe.com

We've used Paypal quite a bit & usually get very close to the official rate.

Beats stuffing around calling banks etc. who have to charge big fees as too many expensive humans involved.

 

[Steady]

Very late response, but for the benefit of others looking for something similar, my vote goes to OFX. I have been using them for about 8 years now.

I went with OFX in the end and found it painless and was happy with the rate. I would also recommend but please note my very limited experience is from just 2 transactions....

 

[Isochronous]

I have found OFX rates to be inferior to what Citibank offers for an international transfer. Transferwise has consistently been the best.

 

[ozfflyer]

I have found OFX rates to be inferior to what Citibank offers for an international transfer. Transferwise has consistently been the best.

who wants to waste an hour to save $5 ? Seriously

 

[Isochronous]

who wants to waste an hour to save $5 ? Seriously

I can check the price of the transfers through this 3 channels in less than 5 minutes, so not sure what you're talking about. The savings I made a substantially more than $5 I can assure you.

 

[luxury-lizard]

We use TransferWise and have alway been satisfied - over 2 years now and some fairly high AUD to CAD, EUR and CHF.

Question for @ozfflyer - if using PayPal wouldn't the receiver also need to have a PayPal account? We looked at using PayPal a few months ago and could not figure out exactly what fees would be incurred - online question to support came back with total nonsense so gave up on that idea.

 

[theblank]

for such small amounts of money, the quickest & easiest would probably be paypal. Yes paypal might charge ~2-3%, but you can put it on your credit card & you get a very good exchange rate & it takes about 1 minute on your computer or phone.

its 3% +. and if thats a very good exchange rate, then what is not so good?

We've used Paypal quite a bit & usually get very close to the official rate.

Its 3 % most people wouldnt call that very close, when the worst is around 4% and the best is around 0.50%

 

[Isochronous]

PayPal is expensive and also tends to randomly freeze accounts if you have large volumes that you need to send.

 

[trooper]

its 3% +. and if thats a very good exchange rate, then what is not so good?


Its 3 % most people wouldnt call that very close, when the worst is around 4% and the best is around 0.50%

That was referring to the Exchange rate you realise? Not the fee......

 

[Isochronous]

Is anyone else finding that Transferwise is not as consistent in offering the most competitive rates these days? Recently I've been making some transfers to GBP and oddly the level of fees actually dropped when I changed the amount from GBP 1,000 to GBP 3,000. Perhaps they are penalising smaller transactions relative to larger ones?

I would also add that Citibank sometimes beats Transferwise now. However, I am yet to see anyone beat Instarem, which is a provider I stumbled upon when searching for Transferwise alternatives. Seems to have been founded originally in Singapore but now has subsidiaries in Australia and various other locations.

Feel free to use my Instarem referral code: InstaReM

If you do decide to make a transfer, you can combine this with a coupon code at the confirmation stage like FINDER10 or SAVEMORE to save further on fees.

 

[ozfflyer]

We use TransferWise and have alway been satisfied - over 2 years now and some fairly high AUD to CAD, EUR and CHF.

Question for @ozfflyer - if using PayPal wouldn't the receiver also need to have a PayPal account? We looked at using PayPal a few months ago and could not figure out exactly what fees would be incurred - online question to support came back with total nonsense so gave up on that idea.

no you don't need a paypal account to send or receive funds, just an email address & bank account. For lots of $$$ the fees reduce. Noticed a travel agency charging only 1% but strangely they wanted 3% for Amex, when you can do Amex through paypal, therefore at 1%.