Agadomvan

Hello all,

I'm just looking for a bit of advise. After looking around I am trying to sum up options for transferring money from UK or Ireland to Canada.

I have been looking at Moneycorp, transferwise, XE, western union and one or two others. On the face of it, there doesn't seem to be much between them, small fees, some even no fees and relatively OK exchange rates.

I'm just a bit concerned about 'hidden fees', where I am mostly likely to lose out. For example, Western union look as if they only charge €4.90 to send €5000 over to Canada, their exchange rate appears comparable with Moneycorp or XE and you go in and pick up cash. I assume moneycorp and XE involve wire transfers that involve additional bank fees at either end.

So I guess my question is, what else should I be concerned about when trying to make a decision. Anyone who has done this before, I would really appreciate your advice.

Thanks

SivoxII

We've heard nothing but good things about this Gentleman and his professional financial services.

Mark Walker, Financial Services Professional - Sterling Advisory

Hope it helps?

All the best.

Hasan78

hi Agadomvan

I transfered via monyCorp and WorldFirst - mostly found worldFirst giving better rate when working them against others. There was no fee charged by either those. but only got charged when my money arrived in My canadian bank account irritatingly. i had then bank with CIBC but now just moved to Toronto, TD seems don't charge when wiring into your account but charge if wiring out of ur canadian account. i don't think there were any other hidden fees with these i used...

so I would say:
1. check the money exchange you use is a reputable?
2. rate they give. always get it over the phone as rate gets better. you can check their rate if you can check the interbank rate. check the fee but with most transfer unless it is small there is no fee charge.
3. check canadian bank if they have charge for wiring money into your account.

Twitcher1958

I recently transferred money into a TD account from the UK and they did make a small charge - $15 I think. We use Halo for currency transactions and have found them fine to deal with.

Agadomvan

Hi all,

thanks for the replies. Any of those tranactions encounter fees on the european end? i.e. wiring the money to moneycorp/Halo/worldfirst?

RBC and TD both seem to charge $15 to accept transfers. Western union i guess there would be no fee as its cash collection.

GeorgeMartell

Agadomvan,

There should be no charge when transferring your money to their accounts. If you ask your Irish bank to transfer the funds via SEPA (which is very similar to a BACS transfer) there will be no charge. Same from the UK account.

They get charged £6 or so from their bank to transfer the money but if your amount to transfer is above £10,000 then they should waive this for you. There is not really a hidden fee with these type of companies. We all make our money is from the price we buy and sell the currency.

E.g. The exchange rate you see online is 1.91 and currency brokers will buy the rate at 1.9098 (so a very small difference). They will then give you the rate at 1.9050. The difference from 1.9098 and 1.9050 is their profit/commission and that is really the only profit we make - the higher the volume you transfer, the closer to the live rate you should be.

The best thing for you to do is to 'shop about'. Register with a few companies and ask their live rates for GBPCAD and EURCAD. Call the other company and see if they can beat it and so on. This will be the only way to get the guarenteed best exchange rate.

Anything else, let me know and hope the move to Canada goes well.

james.mc

We set up a TD FX trading account and get a much better rate (GBP - CAD) than Joe public walk in rate at the local TD branch.

tim010

I have a question about the best way to move money to the currency exchange dealer as I believe I can only move over £10,000 per day from my UK account. Is it possible to agree the deal and then send the money to the Forex dealer in a couple of days or are there alternatives to sending over larger sums? I live in Canada now and have a UK HSBC account.

Tim

Aviator

No, you would have to do FX transactions in the amounts you can settle. Usually it is 24-48 hours to pay (depends on broker) or the transaction is cancelled.

We pay online through the bank to the broker.

tim010

Thanks. Was just wondering if they would take separate payments from a couple of different accounts though to make up the total transfer amount? I would call them to ask but am out of the country.

Tim

Aviator

So long as you settle the transaction in full within time, the broker does not care how many accounts it comes from. Just make sure you include the transaction reference number with each payment.

GeorgeMartell

Tim,

A spot contract will secure your rate for usually 5 days. A few extra days if your bank is taking a while to send the money so really 5-7 days.

You can send the funds through any account with as many payments but it would have to have your name on it and can't be through a business account if you have set up a private account.

As Aviator mentioned, put your reference on!

james.mc

@tim010

We opened a TD GBP account in Canada. GBP funds are sent to that account from the UK. Send GBP payments to that account and let the balance accrue. One you are ready you can then carry out a larger FX transaction on whatever your balance might be.

Anyway, I don't recall there being any limit on funds you can send here as long as you can prove they are from a legitimate source.

dishwashing

We didn't have a good experience with Halo - http://britishexpats.com/forum/maple...ancial-848241/

ExpatCanadian

I'm about 8 weeks away from transferring the proceeds of my house sale in the UK to Canada. I've been doing what many have suggested, registering with a bunch of the main companies and then comparing both rate quotes and their level of customer service. So far, my choice is HiFX.... mainly because I was called within a few hours of registering and the guy spent about 20 minutes on the phone with me happy to discuss everything with me, including a lot of questions. He also indicated with the amount I would be transferring I would be approximately 0.5% off the mid-market rate on the given day, which seems ok.

The reason I have quoted the above post is that I also bank with HSBC and they do seem to have a £10,000 daily faster payments limit. Seems low, since the actual faster payments limit is £100,000 and some other UK banks do offer that limit to their retail clients. HiFX said they had no problem with me locking in the deal and then paying the balance over a few days or even weeks if that's what it took. The cool thing that really got me is they said I could even just have my solicitor transfer the funds directly to them on sale completion date. This is tempting since my timescales are very tight. I leave the UK on Good Friday this year, the day after completion!

I've also checked out XE.com, UKForex & Smart... all of which seem to quote similar rates... and UKForex I have used before for a much smaller transfer. No issues with them. The other 2, XE in particular has given me nothing but hassle... wanting copies of bank statements proving the bank balance, certified ID etc etc. HiFX did all this verification electronically through my credit record (I know because I get alerts when something hits my record)

The only final thing I would refer anyone to is the differences in FCA involvement with these firms. In short you want "FCA Authorised". This means your funds are kept in a segregated client account separate from their firms funds. Although there are no legal guarantees, at least the funds are separate and you would likely get them back if the firm went bust. "FCA Registered" sounds good... but it's not nearly as stringent, and your funds are potentially more at risk should there be an issue with the firm since there is no requirement to segregate them. FYI, XE.com is only registered, not authorised in the UK... maybe no big deal... but with your life savings, why take the chance!

See here: Differences between authorised and registered firms - Financial Conduct Authority

PS. I've just realised the above might sound like an advert for HiFX, but trust me... it's not... I've got nothing to do with them, and may end up using someone else. I've not completed my research yet... it's just they are on top for the moment!