Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

From today's Independent - some possible ways of transmitting small sums of money from the UK to 'abroad':

http://money.independent.co.uk/perso...cle2214738.ece

For larger sums, of course, XE Trade can't be beaten. But I guess you already knew that :)

Re: Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

I'd be interested to know people's experience of paypal vs. XE !

What is defined as small ? For me anything lower than £500 would be considered small, but it's obviously relative, so where does paypal stop being better than XE ?

Rich./

Re: Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

i think xe is still cheaper

Re: Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

Why don't you do a dummy trial run on XE? No need to actually press the button to activate the transaction, but you'll know how much it would cost.

Re: Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

actually the dummy run does not necessarily give you a true indication of the rate - you may get better or worse, every account has a different margin added to the mid rate - if you call cust serv for example and say, hey - i'm transferring $200k - you will get a better rate

Re: Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

I think you'll find it does

Re: Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

Yep - If you have a proper logon with XE, it does. If you just run through the open to all comers demo, the rate is a out of date.

Re: Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

sorry - I did mean the dummy run open to all comers - not going through a transaction and doing everything but pressing the button

Re: Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

Well I might just do that then....:thumbup: I have an account as I was planning on doing one transfer to see what it cost as I need to but was thinking more like £3000 than £200 !

All I really know at this stage is that paypal is apparently better than XE for "small" amounts, however no one can quantify this...

At the risk of opening up a whole can of woop-ass on myself---- what does small mean ? and where's the line here between Paypal and XE ?

R./
I feel very warm and friendly today !

Re: Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

Paypal would be faster, but I can't see it being any cheaper, not matter what the amount (ok, so I can't comment on 20 quid).
With the exchange rate at 1.96 last week xe quoted me less that 2.0 to ship some dollars back to the UK - it came to about 2% that I would have been paying over the spot rate - I challenge anyone to beat that on anything less than a million pound transaction.
In a few weeks for the first time I'll be using xe to wire the money to the UK (I usually take the draft option) and they only charge about $10 for that - absolute bargain imo.

Re: Transmitting small sums from UK to 'abroad'
 

Just done the same thing Davy, in preparation for my UK trip next week - wired some into the UK, its actually more like $19, still cheap, but in hindsight and if you have the time and place to mail a cheque to, draft is the way to go.