[his308]

Any tips on International Transfers please. I normally transfer from my bank in UK but the rate is poor and there is a charge. I know the Post Office offer International Transfers with no fee but can anyone advise on any other cost efficient way of transferring funds please? I noticed XE also offer no fee transfers - has anyone any experience of using this site - they ask for passport details etc and I am a wee bit sceptical about entering such details. Any advice appreciated. Thanks

[bronty]

One option is to open a sterling account in your bank in Hungary. Transfer sterling to sterling and when the rates are good, then exchange in Hungary. You still have to pay the transfer fee, but you should make that up on the better exchange rate. There are other exchange companies which advertise no transfer fee, but since a friend of ours lost quite a considerable amount of money, I am loathed to use them now.

[Shotgun]

I have used XE for the past three or four years, and have found them to be excellent.

I have just checked today and they are charging 1.88% and no other fees. That was on £5000, don't know if the rate changes for other amounts.

Shotgun.

[his308]

Originally Posted by his308 Any tips on International Transfers please. I normally transfer from my bank in UK but the rate is poor and there is a charge. I know the Post Office offer International Transfers with no fee but can anyone advise on any other cost efficient way of transferring funds please? I noticed XE also offer no fee transfers - has anyone any experience of using this site - they ask for passport details etc and I am a wee bit sceptical about entering such details. Any advice appreciated. Thanks

Thanks for your advice - very grateful and will keep that in mind when we are next out there.

[his308]

Originally Posted by Shotgun I have used XE for the past three or four years, and have found them to be excellent. I have just checked today and they are charging 1.88% and no other fees. That was on £5000, don't know if the rate changes for other amounts. Shotgun.

Thank you Shogun for checking that rate for me. Nice to know you have used them and not had any problems. Thanks again.

[his308]

Originally Posted by his308 Thank you Shogun for checking that rate for me. Nice to know you have used them and not had any problems. Thanks again.

Oops sorry that should have been Shotgun!

[richardmc]

I have on a few occasions transferred via my Halifax account they charge £9.50 and their exchange rate is obviously lower as all banks are. XE I assume give the going exchange rate??
If it were through Halifax today I would get 1725000.00 forints (345 forints) less £9.50 charge
XE currently (363 forints) so would reap 1815000.00 forints less £94 charge
difference is 90000.00 forints more than Halifax, XE looks by far the best bet on large amounts but it suited me at the time to go via Halifax. I intend to open a Sterling with my bank OTP when we get over there in August.

[his308]

Originally Posted by richardmc I have on a few occasions transferred via my Halifax account they charge £9.50 and their exchange rate is obviously lower as all banks are. XE I assume give the going exchange rate?? If it were through Halifax today I would get 1725000.00 forints (345 forints) less £9.50 charge XE currently (363 forints) so would reap 1815000.00 forints less £94 charge difference is 90000.00 forints more than Halifax, XE looks by far the best bet on large amounts but it suited me at the time to go via Halifax. I intend to open a Sterling with my bank OTP when we get over there in August.

thanks richardmac your calculations are most helpful. Yes, I too, have used Halifax on numerous occasions but now looking for more cost effective routes seeing we are more au fait with things - apart from this of course! Cheers and happy sunbathing

[Soproni]

Have a look at FairFX. I use their pre-paid Mastercards (they save me £6 credit card fee when Ryanair-ing from Europe to the UK), but they also have a currency transfer section (Fairpay):

http://www.fairfx.com/


Fairpay: http://www.fairfx.com/fairpay

For your amount of £5000, you would get €6245 which is an exchange rate of €1.2490/£1.

EDIT1: Just realised you'd probabily be wanted the Sterling/HUF rate. It's not obvious FairFX do that, but I have emailed them the question (as I would like to know too).

EDIT2: Blimey, they replied quickly! Yes, they can do Sterling/HUF transfers as well. They're sending me a one page form to fill out, which I will do as I'd like to open an International Online Payments facility, just in case :-)

EDIT3: Their best rate seems to be at the £15k level. £15k = €18781.50, so an exchange rate of €1.2521/£1. Spot rate as of this moment (looking at my IGIndex live spreadbetting accoount) is €1.2650/£1.

[judybaby]

Be careful with your sterling accounts. We opened one with K&H my partners pension was sent in a sterling cheque all £80. K&H took £22 in charges! £ 12 to bank it 30 days to clear it and then another £10. Needless to say we stopped doing it after the first time.

My pension provider was prepared to pay in to my forints account with K&H but we quickly stopped it happening when we realised the bank were going to charge us for receiving it!

We now have all our money paid in to our UK Barclays account and draw it once a month.

We pay our bills in cash at the post office each month to avoid bank charges on direct debits also.

[Shotgun]

Originally Posted by judybaby My pension provider was prepared to pay in to my forints account with K&H but we quickly stopped it happening when we realised the bank were going to charge us for receiving it!

I have an account (forint) with Raiffeisen Bank, who don't charge anything for receiving payments. They charge 350ft per month for the account.

Park.

[his308]

Originally Posted by Shotgun I have an account (forint) with Raiffeisen Bank, who don't charge anything for receiving payments. They charge 350ft per month for the account. Park.

Thanks so much for all the really helpful advice. Many options to look at now especially for the future. Yes the bank charges are quite ridiculous so that is another area I will look at too - changing to the likes of Raifffeisen Bank. Greatly appreciated everyone for your time and trouble.

[richardmc]

I am not that rich Sioproni !! but I do have all bills covered by d/debit and the charges OTP levy are peanuts, saves me hassle especially as we are not there yet and have only visited once per year. I will check with OTP bank when we arrive as to charges for receiving sterling and let you know.

[Soproni]

Originally Posted by richardmc I am not that rich Sioproni !! but I do have all bills covered by d/debit and the charges OTP levy are peanuts, saves me hassle especially as we are not there yet and have only visited once per year. I will check with OTP bank when we arrive as to charges for receiving sterling and let you know.

Ah, OK. I thought you might have been in a similar position to me (funelling monies over to built/renovate a house).

We have accounts with OTP (Forint and Euro). I'll ask her-indoors what charges they apply.

(We action a form of stoozing [1] at the moment, searching for short-ish term forint deposit accounts that give high interest. The 2 months @ Unicredit paying gross 9% is about to run out, so we're looking for another.)

btw, FairFX got back to me, and when the spot rate yesterday was 364.72 HUF/£1, they were offering 362.73 HU/£1 for a £15k transfer and around 362.05HUF/£1 for 5k transfer. Her-indoor sometimes goes to an cash exchange place in Sopron, and they usually have a rate that's 3 HUF less than spot, so FairFX just beat that.

HTH.



[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoozing

[his308]

Originally Posted by Soproni Ah, OK. I thought you might have been in a similar position to me (funelling monies over to built/renovate a house). We have accounts with OTP (Forint and Euro). I'll ask her-indoors what charges they apply. (We action a form of stoozing [1] at the moment, searching for short-ish term forint deposit accounts that give high interest. The 2 months @ Unicredit paying gross 9% is about to run out, so we're looking for another.) btw, FairFX got back to me, and when the spot rate yesterday was 364.72 HUF/£1, they were offering 362.73 HU/£1 for a £15k transfer and around 362.05HUF/£1 for 5k transfer. Her-indoor sometimes goes to an cash exchange place in Sopron, and they usually have a rate that's 3 HUF less than spot, so FairFX just beat that. HTH. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoozing

Stoozing sounds very intriguing especially with rates such as 9%! Don't suppose there is much of the stoozing going on in Britain......!!!! Food for thought though.