Pulaski

That is commonly misunderstood - no matter which money remitted you use, the money only travels bank to bank, and the money transferred for their customers is "client money" which is held separately for their own money used to pay rent, salaries and expenses. In the event of a problem with the remitter, your money should be protected because it is segregated.

So if you send a wire of $1,000 gross including a fee of, say $10 and there is a rate spread totaling $15, then $975 will go into the client account to be exchanged for, say GBP, to be transferred onward to wherever you are sending it, and $25 goes into the company's own account.

Hurlabrick

For fun, I have just run comparison quotes for a £GBP250k transfer to Canadian Dollars and the results were:

TorFX
Rate: 1.6477
CAD: $411,925
Charge: Not specified

HiFX
Rate: 1.6362
CAD: $409,050
Charge: Not specified

TransferWise
Rate: 1.67238
CAD: $416,014
Charge: 0.5% (taken off, so CAD figure is net actually deposited in Canadian bank - NO other charges. Net FOREX rate if 0.5% charge taken into account for comparison is 1.6640)

I know which I will be using going forward