teejay66

I have seen a few posts on here recently regarding the exchange rate being really good, however there is a difference between tourists rates today $2.20 and commercial rates $2.46. Anyone enlighten me as to why there are 2 rates and in what circumstances the commercial rates are used.

Cheers

lloydmav

hi, someone please correct me if I'm wrong but there is what is called the interbank rate which must be the $2.46 which is this rate banks and other large companies trade at and then there is the rate that we as little people are offered. I'm not sure where you've been quoted your $2.20 but thats a poor rate at a time when the rates look good when transferring from the uk to oz. I would check out
www.tranzfers.com
or
www.ozforex.com

for better rates. You should be looking to get a rate not too far of the interbank rate, as the exchanger will want to obviously make a margin off of your transfer and the more money you are transferring the closer to the interbank rate you can get

Lloyd

rugbymad

Hi all.
Got our holiday money today.
M & S yesterday was $ 2,389 so ordered from first choice as they are local,fixed rate at same as M&s,today m&s was 2,370! Good thinks I,go to the bank to get the cash to pay first choice and lady in bank says "your drawing a lot out,anything nice your buying??" so tell her and she says bank are selling at $2.42 !!!
Go to first choice and tell them with a slip stamped by the bank stating their rate and guess what....they matched it!!
just goes to show..shop around even if it's relativly small amounts compared to those on their way for good.
$70 + dollars in our back pockets for doing nothing more than playing one off against the other really....hope this helps

teejay66

I am confused, don't take much.lol

I have to pay the visa application fee and thought by sending the fee by bankers draft I would take advantage of the good exchange rate. I called Thomas cook today and asked them what the rate was and she quoted $2.20, so I queried it with her and she said the $2.46 was the commercial rate, and if I went through the bank the rate would be relatively the same.

So please someone tell me how I can get a bankers draft and take advantage of the good exchange rate, or otherwise would it be better to pay by credit card and risk by the time they take the fee the exchange rate would have gone down.

Your opinions please.

Tracey

Suni&Jay

See two post above. You need to have trading accounts with people like ozforx to get anywhere near interbank rates.

Jimclevs

Hi

Yes.......... forget tourist rates through the bank/post office etc...... use them only for your 2 weeks in Spain on hols.

Talk with the dealers - HIFX, Ozforex etc - there are many links on here - and some very recently. They will put you straight but you will need to open an account with one (or more) of them in order to deal.

The interbank rate at the moment is $2.465 and you should be able to get within, say, 3 cents of that depending on the amount you have to trade.

Good luck

Jim

demigrate

Check with your credit card company what commission they charge and look at the current rate. Compare this with what the bank will charge in commission and fees for a bankers draft. Remember the rate could even improve in the weeks before the card is charged. It could as you rightly said go down as well.

We didn't really give it much thought and paid by credit card.

Ozforex and Hifx will charge transfer fees for such a small sum. I also can't remember the payment methods that DIMA accepts?

Darren

demigrate

I've just checked and the minimum ammount that ozforex will change is 2000 AUD

Jimclevs

Hi Tracey

Tough call. Most CC companies charge around 2.75% for a "cash" transfer which is what they class this type of transaction and, yes, the rate might well fall by the time the visa fee is taken by DIMIA - a double whammy against you perhaps..

You could talk to some of the exchange dealers recommended on here to see if they offer their services for this sort of transaction - they will, of course, also charge a percentage, and they usuallly have a minimum amount you can trade (possibly around £5000) but you should get a much better initial rate from them than you would from either your CC company or the High Street banks.

Then all you should have to do is weigh up the best option (finanacially) for you

Regards

Jim

Jimclevs

............ have just deen Demigrate's latest post - there you are regading minimum amount. I must admit I am surprised by that low level. It would be interesting to know what percentage they take on that small sum.

Jim

renth

I got $2.43 from Tranzfers on the 22nd March, plus 7 pounds transfer fee. This was for an amount under 1000 quid

mgilmour

Hi everyone,

On Tranzfers.com the lowest you can do is GBP 50.00 and the fee is 7 pounds. The bigger the amount the better the rate as you can see below.

The difference between wholesale and what you get on Tranzfers.com is as follows:
- Wholesale rate now 2.4741 (also called the spot or interbank rate)
- Tranzfers rate now for GBP 50.00 = 2.4382
- Tranzfers rate now for GBP 50,000.00 = 2.4646

Credit card companies usually state in their terms that they charge 2% exchange rate commission. They can be more efficient for small amounts because you don't pay a 7 pound fee. Hope that helps.

Regards,
Matt Gilmour

Suni&Jay

Do you know what the interbank rate was at that time.
I've not been charged more than .01(eg. interbank rate $236.96 transfer £2.3611) for my transactions, and there's so many people on here saying the difference has been .04/.05 or more. Or am I missing something?

Ignore, should have read the tread above

OzTennis

Most papers will quote tourist exchange rates as Buy and Sell and these are the rates for exchanging currency or travellers cheques, not for transferring your hard earned dosh from one bank account (eg in UK) to another bank account (eg in Australia).

If I was to go into a UK bank, travel agent, foreign currency dealer etc with £stg to change into A$'s they would give me the Buy rate i.e. I'd only get $2.20 for each £. However, if I was doing the reverse and wishing to change my $'s into £'s they would give me the Sell rate i.e. I'd have to hand over $2.46 or whatever for each £ (I'm selling $'s see). The bank makes a profit on these dealings through the difference in the rates.

If you were doing a transfer through HIFX or whoever from one account to another they don't use these tourist rates but what is based on the interbank rate. Invariably the rate you get will be almost the same as the mid-point between the above rates - $2.33 in this example. If you see an interbank rate you won't get quite as good a rate as this (because you arent' a wholesaler or bank) and how close you are to this rate depends on the amount you have to exchange. Obviously the closer you get to the sort of amount banks deal in the better the rate you will get.

Hope that clears that up!

OzTennis

This is why you'll see different rates quoted

mand8002

Lloyds TSB are offering 2.4596 on their travellers cheques. We always find they give the best rate and they are American Express travellers cheques.