isi16

well I will pass on your 'quote' of no live rate next time I speak to my broker. I'm sure he will be delighted to hear that. You must be more knowledgeable than him and all the websites that quote the live rate....I stand corrected-not

durham_lad

That is my experience with XE.com as well. I still have an account with them and will sometimes cue up a transfer at the same time as with Transferwise but Transferwise is always better, and faster. When doing a transfer with TWise, if the following day is not a weekend day or a Federal holiday then the money is in my UK bank next day since it is the ACH transfer from my US bank to TWise that takes the time. To get it same day would require me to wire the money to TWise which costs me more as my US bank charges for wire transfers.

MidAtlantic

I'm not sure what you are trying to say. All that matters is what you actually get at the end of the transaction, taking account of the exchange rate being used and the fees. That is why I find the sites I posted in #19 above useful. In my recent experience Transferwise has always been best for GBP to USD up to £20,000.

lansbury

You shouldn't have to ask, that information should be up front on their web site. If it isn't, why not.

Mercury39

I looked at Halo and could not get a quote from them without registering. That process required "Household Income", "Place of Birth" and "Occupation" - so I didn't registered as I see no good reason that they need to know that.

Pulaski

Like opening a bank account, registering for money transfer services is seen as a potentially risk activity, for money laundering and terrorist financing purposes, so to very similar degrees, every country that allows money remitting services to operate requires that the remitters obtain basic identification information, sufficient to identify their customers and to match that information to databases of known terrorist and drug traffickers. Typically that information is going to include name, DoB, address, and some sort of government issued ID number, such as a passport number, but other information may also be collected, depending on which countries they operate in as requirements vary. In the US you can thank the USA PATRIOT Act for this requirement.

Knowing your income and occupation will, assuming the data is reliable and can be verified (which it probably can), allow them to keep tabs on your activity, so if you register as a teacher with an income of $55,000 and you send a few transfers a year, in the rage $1,000-$3,000, say to the UK, then that would be fine as the amounts are small, and you send $100,000 to the UK, with the memo "Share of inheritance from Uncle Fred", then would likely be OK too, as he reason is plausible and the transaction was a one-off. But then five years later start sending $25,000 a month to, say, Pakistan, that would throw up a few red flags (no matter what memo you used to describe the reason for the remittance), and the remitting company might decide that you are up to no good and close your account, to avoid themselves being prosecuted as a criminal accessory.