darkneal

hi,

i'm about to move to vancouver in 2 weeks as a permanent resident and was wondering how many others used transferwise (or wise as its known now) to move their money from their UK bank account to their Canadian one once opened? Did you literally move (lets say) £30,000 from UK>Wise>Canadian accounts? it seems thats the cheapest way to move the money without being stung by fee's and bad exchange rates? Is this correct in practice or am i getting Wise's use all wrong?

thanks for any advise!

glendem4

Yes, we moved the proceeds of our house sale to Canada via Wise. We moved the money in small chunks, due to wanting the best exchange rate. Would highly recommend Wise.

EQ Bank in Canada have partnered with Wise for customers who want to transfer money from CAD to GBP .

Phaedru5

Same as above, I transferred large sums of money through Wise (then 'Transferwise') a few years ago, including the proceeds from our house sale. The only complication was my UK bank needing special authorisation one time due to the value and I had to stay up late to make a phone call to make sure the funds moved quick enough for a house deposit here in Canada. Have also continued to use the service several times sending money back and forth as still have family in the UK. I havent used any other service and have no need to look for one. Highly recommended.

darkneal

Awesome, thank you. So you put GBP into your wise account then exchanged it on wise for CAD then from there to your canadian bank of choice?

I will probably use their debit card too in canada then until i have a bank account set up in canada, as im not going to have a permanent address at first (intend on using the opportunity to travel around to find my perfect place to settle)so imagine i cant set one up until i do?

i looked at EQ and they seem great except there is no debit card with them. i never use credit cards. (although this in turn seems like it might cause problems in canada based on their need for credit rating) So i'll probably go with the biggest bank, RBC. safety first!

Sunnybrae

We've been using wise recently as the rate went up to 1.75 but it's now dropped to 1.70. You can sign up for daily emails from wise which is useful if you're tracking when to try and get the best rate.

We opened a wise account and then once you've clicked on the bits that say for example send £1,000 to Canada, you have to put in the Canadian account details, it gives you a choice for payment options, we do a direct bank transfer from our own UK account to the wise account details they give you and then click on the button in the wise account to say we've paid the money to them and they do the rest. Sorry that isn't very clear but it is very straight forward to use.

ACF

Just to echo others: have used Wise on several occasions for reasonably large transfers and found them to be great both in terms of user experience and rates.

Yep, and you can clearly do the reverse (i.e. CAD to Wise, swap to GBP via Wise, transfer to UK account) should the need ever arise.

btar

We chose RBC too and have since used Scotia Bank with whom we are duly impressed. Their processes and web site seem more intuitive than RBC's and their credit cards have better benefits but may not be available to a new resident, you would need to check. Tangerine is part of their group and known for better interest rates, similar to EQ.
I've used Wise for the last year or so with no problems whatsoever. The only problem we had was the £25k limit imposed by UK Banks on daily transfers. This caught me out as I was assured by an in-branch person that it would be £100k.
One other problem we find here is the apparent lack of a process to move more than $3k between bank accounts electronically. It seems to be personal check or bank draft which both take 5 business days to clear. I'd be delighted if someone knows different!

mrbanks

You can send a domestic wire, but it's not cheap. Generally only worthwhile for large amounts, and may require an in-person visit to your branch, depending on whom you bank with.

Except for Interac eTransfers, Canada's banking system seems little changed since the 1960s. Paper cheques and bank drafts are in many cases still very much the norm.

Given the apparent increase in fraud in the UK after Faster Payments Service was introduced, and the rapidly accelerating elimination of cash machines, bank branches, and cash itself now happening, Canada's more conservative approach does feel more comfortable, at least to me.