norsk

of course it was your fault. it couldn't possibly be anything else.

fingerpointing and 'it wasn't my fault' attitude is just another thing to love about the middle east. i particularly struggle with this at work as people will never admit to having made a mistake so therefore we can spend a lot of time troubleshooting issues that would have been easily avoided by a little 'sorry, i *****ed up'. it's like they always have to maintain this idea of being faultless and unable to do anything wrong. stoopid...!!

tieresias

Well, to continue...

After carrying out an extensive security check on Meow, I gave her my e-mail and she sent me more information, including the phone number of the "local representative" (with no country code) of this currency transfer outfit.

I called the number and a man answered "'allo". I replied "'allo", he said 'allo again and I asked if that was <contact name>. He said 'allo. Then 'allo, again. I asked to speak to <contact name>. Guess what he said? Yup, "'allo". By then I had concluded that probably he was not the person I was supposed to be speaking to, so I said "sorry, wrong number" and let him get in a couple of 'allo's before hanging up.

So, I decided Meow probably meant local to her, not to me, so I looked up the dialling code for Palace Made of Sand and tried the same number with that prefix. No reply.

But, this morning, a very pleasant lady, whose name was completely unfamiliar to me, called me, from a different number, to say she had missed my call yesterday, we chatted and, after further extensive security-checking, I have sent her various personal details and copies of my documents...

I'm sure everything will turn out fine

nottmbantam

'allo....?

I told you to bring the cash round to my villa.....

Seriously - hope it all goes smoothly.

tieresias

'allo?

'allo?

Hold on, I'm just checking what's in your wife's drawers...

See you Thursday

1967tazz

Tieresias, that's not his wives drawers - it's his

tieresias

My comment was made in the context of several parallel discussions and in good humour, whereas yours made no sense (unless it is in the context of several parallel discussions of which I am unaware, in which case bon chance or )

nottmbantam

No worries. It's the second draw down. Not to be confused with the contents of my drawer....

d3dsh

all banks the same i think they charge for everything, you just need a good rates that is the magic word.
so as i know the last 5 years it is like this
in summer 6 - 7,5 SAR/GBP
winter 5,5 - 6 SAR/GBP
best rates you get on august not after

tieresias

8 days later,...

Four days after e-mailing my passport and bank statement to the pleasant-sounding lady who called me, I e-mailed her to find out what was happening. She called back later, we spoke and that evening I had an e-mail from her giving details of my online access to the service.

I logged on, had a look around and saw that SAR is not available as a "currency to sell", so I emailed her back to ask why not. It was available as a "currency to buy".

Whilst on the website, I did some trial transactions, just to see the actual exchange rates they were offering. The lady had told me a week before that the exchange rate was independent of the amount of money being transferred, but that is very obviously not true. For transfers between £200 (the minimum allowed) to £1,999, the rate is about 3% worse than the interbank rate; between £2,000 and £4,999, the rate is 2% worse and for £5,000 to £10,000 (the maximum allowed online) it is about 1% worse. That was the case across several currencies. I assume that is why Meow had recommended the service as being suitable for sending £5,000 or above, but frankly it would have done harm if people had just explained.

Last night, I received an e-mail saying that head office has now activated SAR as a "currency to sell", so this morning I logged on, found that that was true and attempted a real transaction. The website by the way is "https" and has the padlock in the corner so, although I'm sure such things can be spoofed, so far the service does not seem fraudulent, just flaky.

However, I halted when they wanted to charge a 2.6% "card processing fee"! What's the point of saving 2% on the exchange rate, only to pay 2.6% fee? And the lady had told me, and the website says, that they charge no fees. So, I e-mailed her again asking how to proceed.

She called today, saying I should do the transaction by phone (which she has said in every communication, which I have taken to mean that she gets a commission on deals done by phone through her, but not those done through the website). She had previously mentioned that the deal would be done by me transferring money to their SAR account, with no fee or exchange rate issues, then they would do the exchange, at the rate agreed. She said blah blah blah about cards, so I asked her for the account details of their SAR account, which she has now sent.

I really do feel like I am pushing water uphill! Is this a service that exists or am I pioneering it in KSA?

Now, Meow had said, in an email, "Please quote my name when you do so as you will get the best service. (They know not to mess my clients about!) You should also quote my name as the source of hearing about GCEN."

I took that to mean "Please quote my name so that I will get an introduction fee" or whatever, which is fine (and I did, both verbally and in writing) as long as the service I get is better than that offered by my bank.

So, I'm now about 10 days into this process and frankly no further forward. It does seem that I have to tell GCEN what to do at every step and neither they nor Meow (since I am apparently now her client) show any initiative.

I will report back to this thread if/when either a transaction is completed or else I just give up and look for an alternative.

Shawlands

I keep it very low tech - withdraw all my sar monthly and take it to the local money exchangers - by far the best rate I have found and lately been getting better rates as they see me regularly.

This works for me as I'm back in the uk every 5 weeks tho . . .

typical

Why would you assume that?

If nothing else, you can move larger sums of money using the phone than on their website.

I would imagine someone gets commission either way.

It's really not that tough, especially if you have online banking that will let you do said transfer.

I guess your mistake was to be determined to go the online route, when with the phone everything just works. Sure there's a couple of steps, but it's not tough: 1) agree contract on phone, 2) send money.

(As I've said before, though, recently I've been getting better rates through my bank so I've not made use of my GCEN account in a while.)

saramartin

You can send or receive money with MoneyGram at Bank Al Falah, MCB, Wall Street Exchange, Paracha Exchange, Royal Exchange, Dollar East and anywhere you see the MoneyGram sign.

ccjetpilot

I am interested in how this turns out. I've tried for the past month (without success) to have my employer wire my dosh directly to my bank account. I have a friend that uses a Premier account to transfer funds online though only to a son in America. He says he gets the standard 3.75 exchange rate with no fee for the transfer. I need a solution to transfer funds as well. Leaving a sack on soggy floor not an option. Perhaps HSBC transfer to states then online within the HSBC system to another account? Thoughts and suggestions?

Meow

Your employer can't or won't send the money?

No reason why anyone with a bank account can't use either a bank to bank transfer or an exchange company for larger sums. It is really very simple.

ccjetpilot

Ummm, epic failure at the finance end of things on their part. Having given them two options on accounts to transfer the money to have decided to pick up lump sum of SRs today in cash and look for another option. My 1st option failed as was a credit union with no Swift info, my 2nd option was a brokerage account that proved too difficult for them to fill out the paperwork for. As a "consultant" no iquma for me, thus no Saudi account thus need another option with looking to avoid massive fees.