Davita

No need for me to go to the bank.
Yesterday I transferred GBP10,000 to my Canadian bank by the touch of a button on this computer using HSBC Global.
I received CDN$16,700. TransferWise offered CDN$16,693 net.

I think I'll wait and see if the GBP goes up any more after the Supreme Court makes a decision....before transferring more.

I'm also holding out on transferring into IDR as they had riots in Jakarta last night. It's now Saturday....so I'll wait 'till Monday to see how that may have affected the currency market.

Snowy560

The other thing you can do (but you probably know this) is to have a GBP account with HSBC and transfer money in GBP to it so you can change it to CAD when you choose. I find the GBP account here is useful to park money or the odd GBP cheque that turns up.

S

Davita

Thanks Snowy...you're correct...that's exactly what I do.

I transfer to a GBP account in Indonesia....then wait 'till I see the rate is acceptable and immediately exchange before the rate changes.
They don't offer any interest on GBP but, as it only attracted 0.25% or less in UK, not much loss. I get 5.75% on the IDR on monthly FD's and it was 7.25% earlier this year.
I'm waiting 'till Monday to complete a transaction as the riots seemed to be a bit of a fizzle...only one person died...and that could have been from bad food from a road side stall..

Transferring to Canada is easier as I exchange right after the transfer. The rate is less volatile and the interest not very interesting.

Davita

Sorry Snowy...didn't previously respond to your above and was timed out to edit.
I tried depositing UK cheques into my HSBC GBP account but it still needs to be returned to UK for clearance...and this becomes really expensive thru' the banking system.
I'd appreciate if you tell me how better to do this as I frequently send GBP cheques back to my Channel Island account. I only pay postage but it takes weeks to appear and I'm not always confident it arrives.

edit: BTW I tried to do another global transfer from GBP to CDN thru' HSBC Global and the site warned me that the rate was not good, as it was weekend, and I should wait 'till banking hours on Monday...the rate offered was CDN$1.623...I cancelled...phew!

Davita

Update...Thanks to Bristol to introduce TransferWise.
It wasn't as easy as he suggested to join Transferwise as they required downloading passport, or other verification, and other bank information but I persevered and became a member. Their response is fast.
As I'm in Bali and have a time-zone difference to communicate with my Canadian HSBC personal banker I exchanged some GBP to my CDN account using TransferWise and it worked....at a very acceptable rate.
I need to wait a few days to see in my CDN account but, so far, I agree that it is a seamless method to transfer money and I'll use it again......so thanks Bristol.

BristolUK

Glad to be of service. Worth highlighting though that for bigger sums and or countries involved the rates and ID requirements may be different.

I registered just giving name and address and d/b and obviously they need the bank details they are transferring to.

I just had a look at my profile and it says address and ID confirmed - although there's another part that says further ID needed for transfers of 15k euros with another bit that tells me what I've done so far, so maybe I need to do it if I hit that figure.

Oh yes...don't forget that other bit I usually mention. I've done maybe 5 with them. Every time I've had the confirmation of when it will happen (last Friday they said it would be Tuesday this week) and every time I've had a second email saying longer than expected, now a day later and every tine it's arrived on the original day (Tuesday this week).