Reasonable

Just signed up with them to check their rates - far worse than Ozforex!

MRam

Realistically, as Ozforex are based in Australia they're probably going to be the most cost effective way of getting money back to the UK on a regular basis from Australia. Other brokers, like ourselves have client accounts based in London meaning our clients would need to pay for an international transfer of Aussie which their bankers will charge them for - once these charges are taken into account any differences between the rates offered would be negated.

As far as Astera's comment about comparative rates - I would suggest if HSBC are genuinely going to offer them a spread of 0.3% (difference between 1.2702 XE.com mid rate and 1.2661 offered by HSBC) for the transfer of €10k then I would stick with the bank. No broker is going to give a rate significantly better than that and it probably isn't worth the hassle of settling up an account or paying any fees you may incur in settling the deal with the broker. However, I would double/triple check that HSBC are able to trade at that margin and what fee's if any they will levy. I would also check the rate is guaranteed. As some banks will only give indicative prices and invariably by the time the money actually hits the accounts the markets have moved and you can be certain it won't have moved in your favour so you end up with a worse rate.
Wish you all the best
Mark

astera

The rate I posted was for the HSBC GetRate feature. This is available automatically when you try to convert currencies above a certain threshold. In this case 10k Euro >>> AUD brought it up automatically, but if you'd like then I can check the exact threshold required to use this feature.

Also, this was a conversion to AUD. If you want I can also check if such tight spreads would apply to conversions from AUD to a foreign currency just to make sure that this isn't a 1-way street, which albeit very good, would still require a different solution when converting the other way.

As for the EUR>>>AUD transfer I quoted, this was a real-time quote by the GetRate feature. It gives you the exact amount you will get if you approve the conversion and the exact rate used. You have about 10 seconds to approve or else you can try again later. There are no additional fees of any sort. Once you approve this is the exact amount you will get, guaranteed rate, etc. The conversion is then done instantaneously with the funds showing up in your AUD account straight away.

I believe the GetRate feature is only available during certain hours as it is a live-feature that you have to accept within the approx. 10 seconds I mentioned. But bottom line is that this is a great way to convert to AUD (or possibly the other way too), it works, there are no extra charges of any sort, the rate is guaranteed.

As for sending the money overseas, if you have HSBC accounts and status with them then I believe you can also do instantaneous transfers free of charge, so click here and there and your funds go from Australia to the UK for free and instantly (HSBC credits them instantly - however long it takes them to handle this internally between their banks is none of your concern as you get the money moved right away).

Reasonable

If you are a HSBC Premier customer you can make the tramsfer instantly but at a very uncompetitive rate. (two or three years ago their rate was better than that of Ozforex)

pottingShed

Hi All,

I've previously used Ozforex for AUD to GBP and they were great at the time. More recently I've been using them over the past few years for EURO to GBP transfers and of late they don't seem great compared to others. I found this useful tool the other day for comparing a 200k transfer:

http://www.mycurrencytransfer.com/mo...-UK/200000-AUD

Ozforex look quite good on there, though not sure if these are live rates.

Has anyone used Moneycorp?

astera

Nope, you can actually make the instantaneous transfer at an excellent rate using the GetRate feature. But you have to use this feature, or else you will most likely get a very lousy rate.

Before you confirm you will see a box that reads something like "Confirm and GetRate". As I mentioned, this probably kicks in when changing larger amounts (several k at least) whereas smaller transfers do not make use of this brilliant feature.

Reasonable

As a premier HSBC customer how could I try getrate?

astera

Not sure what the min. amount is, but when I tried to see the rate for 10k Euro to AUD then I was able to use this feature to determine the exact exchange rate.

Reasonable

Do you need a foreign currency account to access getrate?

renth

+1

The Internet radio was my fave. I still listen to that a lot, usually BBC Radio 4.

Wol

Agreed - I quite liked the weather station until I realised the batteries lasted for about the time it takes to make a cup of tea <g>.

OzTennis

Later in the year we are moving a large sum of money from Oz to UK (part of the estate of my mother). We bank with CBA in Oz and RBS in UK (well I about 86% own RBS along with others). When we were out in Oz I went along to CBA and set up NetBank and international transfers.

I was checking today to see NetBank and international transfers were all set up and they are. However, I noticed if we do a transfer to RBS a/c we are limited to $50K a time BUT the rate CBA was offering today is about $1.53 to the £. OzForex on the other hand seem to offering $1.4565 today.

It seems a bit of a no-brainer that when the money comes through I won't be using our bank but a F/E company like OzForex. Whether they are the best or not is the subject of this thread of course but 7.53 cents more to buy £'s will make a hell of a difference to the amount of £'s.

Does anyone have any horror stories of large sums of money not appearing in a UK a/c when arranging a shift from Oz via OzForex?

pottingShed

I've never had horror stories when converting $ to GBP with Ozforex. The only issue I had was that I transferred the $ to OzForex before actually locking in a deal...which confused them a bit.

But for me they were always

paulry

Ozforex have been consistently great for me, no dramas at all

Wol

>>I noticed if we do a transfer to RBS a/c we are limited to $50K a time BUT the rate CBA was offering today is about $1.53 to the £. OzForex on the other hand seem to offering $1.4565 today. <<

Are you sure the CBA figure is for the UK > Oz exchange and not the other way? They would be making a loss on that number.