db1145

Hi All,

I'd be keen to hear any personal recommendations for currency exchange companies for making both large (£10,000+) and small (£500 - £2,000) GBP to USD transfers.

Thanks again,

Dan

Pulaski

This is one of our most common questions. I recommend that you search for threads containing <xe.com> as that one is usually recommended by someone, often me.

lansbury

Small - transferwise.com

Large - (mind you £10k isn't that large) World First. Only reason for not saying World First for small is they charge a fee for less than $10k US.

andrewlohnes

World First charge? I never noticed that before they offered me a better rate than anyone for a £1000 transfer.

lansbury

My bad being in the US I was looking at their US web site. For UK customers there are no fees, for US based customers below $10K the fee is $10.

Not sure if you are resident in the US, and your account is with their US office, which fee structure applies sending from UK to US.

Another advantage for transferwise for small amounts, up to £2000 you can pay them direct with a debit card. Makes getting the money to them a bit easier.

andrewlohnes

Ahh ok that makes sense! They are only avaliable in certain States aswel, when I move to AZ I won't be able to use them.

lansbury

I've just looked at the list and they can trade in AZ. It's on the US web site.
https://www.worldfirst.com/us/about-...authorization/

They are authorized in 45 of the 50 States.

andrewlohnes

Ok they wern't when I spoke to them over the phone, but that was back in August last year they must have added a few since which is good.

MidAtlantic

I use TorFx and they have always provided excellent service.

jb82

I used to use XE but realize the rates are mediocre at best. My xe trades usually took at least a week as well. I've never had any issues with them though in the 5 years I used them.

I've been using transferwise this year (I've done 8 transfers) and everything has gone smoothly. Simple to use and the rates are very good. (nb thanks lansbury I think it was who first got me interested in this one!). They are fast too. I booked one on the 14th using uk faster payments and the $ were in my US account on the 15th! Sent via ACH transfer which is free to receive. The rates are done at the mid market rate and the fees low. Nothing bad to say about them.

sir_eccles

Did an Xe trade this week. Fasterpayment on Monday, it was in my US account on Tuesday.

Pulaski

No they're not. Even if you're a major corporation exchanging $10 million or more, you don't get your exchange at the mid rate. The transfer companies are getting at least some of their money from the big banks, and the big banks are charging the transfer companies a spread on the mid-market, so unless the transfer companies are actually giving money away, exchanges for customers of the transfer companies are not being executed at the mid rate.

jb82

from the website
How much does TransferWise cost?
TransferWise always converts money at the real mid-market exchange rate, with no hidden commission on top. There's just a small, fair service fee and it's all shown up-front.

See
https://transferwise.com/support/customer/portal/articles/1570130-what-s-the-real-mid-market-exchange-rate-that-transferwise-uses-

jb82

Cool. Did you receive it by wire or ach? It always took my xetrades a week. Maybe they are faster right now.

More importantly right now 1000gbp nets you
xe $1526.72 transferwise $1564.62 worldfirst $1530.47

and 12500gbp nets you
xe $19154.15 transferwise $19557.83
worldfirst $19382.50


The rates speak for themselves.

Don't be fooled by the worldfirst quote on the homepage. That is not the rate you get when you try to book a transaction.

Pulaski

Weird.

I'd say the acid test would be to try to book back to back USD-GBP and GBP-USD trades simultaneously and see if you get the same exchange rate.