drbrake

First post - probably of many... I have just moved from the UK to Canada. I have initially around $70,000 to bring across and later will have around $4500 rental income a month. Eventually (post house sale) there will be a lot more money to bring. With these larger sums I imagine the spread between the buying and selling exchange rate (and ease of use) are more important than transaction fees so where could an ordinary (non-business) consumer get the best rate? So far I have seen Moneycorp and TorFX mentioned in other threads from a few years ago and bookmarked Foreign Exchange, Currency Exchange & International Money Transfer Specialists | HiFX a few years earlier though I never used them - are there others people are familiar with that they could recommend?

Twitcher1958

I've used both Moneycorp and Halo - recently have found Halo to have a slightly better rate. No problems with either - probably have carried out 6 transactions with each over the last 8 years or so - easy to set up accounts with them initially, then each transaction only took a couple of minutes each time.

SchnookoLoly

Buckets of threads on this on the board recently, if you do a search you'll find loads and loads and loads.

prairiechicken

We have just used Halo. Found them very easy to deal with and they did improve their rate slightly after we got a better rate elsewhere.

BristolUK

How come whenever this subject comes up nobody says what rate they actually got and what fees were paid? Not that I've seen anyway.

Is it a trade secret?

Maybe the next person to do it could give the details and contrast it with what it would have been had they used their bank.

SchnookoLoly

We used Oanda. They transferred at market spot rate I believe, or exceptionally close to it. Fees were $20 for the first transfer in a month, then $40 for every transfer after that. We liked them because transfers up to £50,000 are protected the whole way through the transfer, which is not the case with a lot of places. Because of the fees we just transferred in chunks over a few months until everything was over.

drbrake

What Bristoluk said. Can people give specific examples of charges and rates if they did comparisons themselves at some point?

Aqua

Halo is great, about 1.85 last week

Aqua

Oh and no charges except $15 bank charge this end, we had our transfer in 2 days

Twitcher1958

That would be a good idea - however in our case, we spoke to one after another, went with the better rate but didn't note down the other. Both times, Halo was marginally better but if moving say $20k, that translates into a noticeable difference.

Quinna

I highly recommend using a money transfer service with a physical office in Canada. I found this out the hard way. Unfortunately most do not have a physical presence in Canada but here is why I think its a really good idea;

A company that has offices in Canada can give you the best rate because money transfers is a volume business - in other words companies with an office in Canada will be dealing with UK/CAD all day every day and they will more likely offer the best rates.

All companies are going to be very secure but a service with Canadian roots gives an extra layer of protection because it is regulated in Canada. If something went wrong (very unlikely) you would be much better off especially when you are actually in Canada.

Probably the most important is being able to pick up the phone when required and get someone from the UK or Canada who can help you. When you start moving more then a few thousand pounds - interest rate announcements and other news can make a big difference. Not having this contact is leaving a lot to chance.

Hope that helps!

drbrake

FYI I just got quotes for transferring £20k.
A Canadian company (Continental) gave $1.788 to the £ and charged $15 per transaction
Worldfirst (recommended by Oanda who apparently don't want retail customers any more) charged £10 for transactions less than £5000 and gave $1.823 Canadian Forex charges £7 for less than £3000 and gave 1.82. I have gone with the last of the three.

The rates were asked for at different points on the same day so it's hard to be sure they differed substantially. Hope this helps!

fari

I have done with torfx, yesterday, 1.82, no charges. You will need a Canadian bank account to receive the money

BristolUK

XE.com is quoting 1.82 today and they say that is somewhere between the buying and selling rate, so those 1.82 rates mentioned look good enough.

I used my bank for around £50k back in 2005 - transferring the money to the lawyer's account for house purchase - getting a cent or two off the then XE rate. The fee was a % but was subject to a max £12 IIRC. I was happy enough with that then, but I think it works out a lot more for doing it that way now.

Quinna

Are the rates you are getting directly from the website or as you are making a transaction?

For example, the rate on the XE website is currently 1.82 and it is the mid market rate - This is not the rate you get. Mid market rates are simply the mid point between buy and sell rates.

All of these services will offer you rates that are usually between 1% and 2% less than mid-market - which is fantastic compared to a bank, which is usually 2-4% more than this. In my experience 1.5% is pretty typical but it depends on the amount. If you had a million to move these guys would happily go below 1%.

To work out exactly what you will get you have to be registered and tell them how much you are transacting. They also take often take into account other things like if you are making regular payments like Drbrake will be doing.

To find the best provider for your needs you have to look at the minimums they allow and also if they offer telephone or online services.

For large amounts once off amounts it can also be a good idea to negotiate.