Hi all,

I will be transferring money (Approx $2000 per month) to the UK and wondered if anyone had prior experiences for the best way of doing this?

I have looked at quite a few similar threads, from people whom recommend various transfer companies or banks, which appears to be the usual way of transferring to the UK, but has anyone used Paypal? If so, how easy was it to transfer?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Yeah it's great if you want to lose 3% that paypal charge + fx conversion on the transfer???? Bank transfer would be much cheaper

Think you'll find www.tranzfers.com is cheaper? $15 per transaction

Think you will find xetrade.com cheaper - no $15 per transaction (and good exchange rate).

Paypals exchange rates aren't the best but you can set up a UK paypal account that is linked to a UK bank account. If you do the payment from your Oz paypal to your UK paypal don't do it as a purchase. Instead click the Personal tab and then click on gift. The 3.4% is not charged if you fund the transfer from money already sitting in your paypal account or it is from your linked bank account.The only fee payable would then just be the cross border fee of 0.5% which is payable by the receiving paypal account. There is no fee to send.

I have done this on a couple of occasions sending money to Oz. Didn't find out until I had already made a few transfers though

with paypal they have a new option which is a personal payment as long as you have the money in there , there are no fees to pay either way although the exchange rate is not the best

Word of warning.... paypal just locked my account with £2k in and have said I can't have it for 6 months due to "excessive risk" (whatever that's supposed to mean)!!!

Its happened a lot to people using paypal for business so be vary wary - you could end up in the same boat. Luckily I refunded most of my customers and reinvoiced through google checkout - but after using paypal for 5 years I wouldn't recommend them to anyone, the customer service is terrible, their policy is awful, and their fees are really quite expensive for large amounts.

I'd definately consider another option - its your choice at the end of the day but be VERY careful... you don't want to get your cashflow skrewed over!

Jen

Thanks for the helpful replies! I think I'll transfer through a bank or one of the companies recommended on BE, leaving Paypal for ebay purchases only.

I use Ozforex, never had any problems with them - great rates.

LondonIrish

Suggest you look at the Martin Lewis website - Moneysavingexpert.com They have a great section on international money transfers. If you're intersted it's here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ban...rency-exchange

This was written before we launched an online money transfer service which has been designed for people like you. Cheeky I know but here's an article about it in the Financial Times (it was voted their Deal of The Week)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cf021ef6-e...0779fd2ac.html

Whatever you decide - suggest you shop around as Paypal generally is expensive.

Hope this helps.

Mark Bodega
Director - HiFX

Thanks for the replies guys!

Agree with all, I transfer roughly 2.5k to the Uk every month and use Tranzfers, part of the OzForex brand. Its easy. fairly economical and easy to use once set up. Use me as a referral and it helps me as well!!

Yep, we paid £50 for some WII stuff, paying by Paypal and it never arrived as the "company" did a midnight flit. Paypal have said tough as the company (Frog games) don't have enough in their account to refund all the people who've been left high and dry. Cheers then! I wouldn't trust them to help you our of a crisis!

Sorry to hear that Damson. I thought Paypal were better than that? Obviously not!

Just a thought - if your Paypal account is credited from a credit card, you could be covered through the card?