LeavingLondon

Hi, for any of you thinking of using them to transfer money from one country to the other, I thought I'd share our recent experience. Thanks to the fab advice from others on this forum we decided to use xe.com to transfer funds from the UK to the US. It was really easy to set up an account with xe.com
(filled in their online form, sent them copies of utility bills and passport via their secure online system). Within 24hrs, I was approved. I then logged into my account and set up my recipient and outgoing bank account information.

Yesterday I logged onto my HSBC account and transferred money to the xe account using the faster payment (not wire transfer and thus avoiding the £12.50 charge). It hit my account within 2 hours and by the following day, I received confirmation from my US account (not an HSBC account) that the payment had been received (again, no wire transfer and thus no fees). The exchange rate was favourable and the whole transfer took less than 24hrs and cost nothing! A fab service and definitely one to be recommended.

Chandler

That is very coincidental. I'm a long time user of xe.com and I was just coming to this forum to search for xe.com threads to see if anyone else had noticed an increase in their spreads.

I just traded USD into GBP. The exchange rate is 1.5378 and I was quoted over 2 cents above at 1.5592.

I've always used them because I hate how banks gouge you on the spread and make obscene profits for doing very little. Is xe.com going the same way? If this is now typical I need to find another mechanism to make my transfers.

sergeyvo

I've been using them for one year and I have no complaints. The only thing that makes me worry is the level of their security. Once an XE account is functional - everybody who knows your login details (login and password only) can use it. It can be even used as a buffer to steal funds from someone else's account. XE operators could not provide me with a satisfactory answer to this question.

Pulaski

Which is why you have a login and password. Why/how would anyone else know them?

I am not sure that you can just debit someone else's account, but IF you can it would be a daft way to steal money because xe.com knows exactly who you are and where you moved the money to. And they'd likely be partially responsible if they were facilitating thefts.

Duncan Roberts

There is really no such thing as "the exchange rate" only a middle rate to give you an idea. No one actually sells or buys at that rate though. The bigger the difference the more money they make on the transfer so 2c, if you are talking 2c above the middle rate, isn't awful.

sir_eccles

One assumes you didn't use the same password that you use for your bank accounts? The only thing you can do from xe is book a trade, you have to initiate the transfer from your bank, as far as I am aware it is not automatic or wasn't when I traded last week. Furthermore as soon as you trade to a third party (i.e. not transferring money to yourself) it gets more complicated.

sergeyvo

If this was so simple, banks would never introduce a few levels of passwording + time-sensitive tokens.

Basically XE need your bank account routing number / sort code - the rest is not important. Even if the account is not yours, someone else can put your name in the system and it will be working fine.

sergeyvo

If I understand you correctly, then unfortunatelyl you're not right. I enter my bank account details in the system, confirm that "I authorize withdrawal" and that's all. I don't have to to anything with the bank - XE grab as much from my account as I tell them without any additional agreement from the bank. I.e. anybody can do it.
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In the past I used Western Union online to send small amounts of mone overseas. Their "protection" also incuded a login+password combination. Someone had hacked my account and sent a couple of thousand pounds before I realized it. Those guys used stolen credit cards for those deals - I don't understand how it was possible as my name was not on the cards.... But they did it. I made a report to police and they called me 3 months later saying that there were no claims from the owners of stolen cards.... Perhaps those crooks could generate the numbers - I have no idea how they did it. I assume those were WU employees.

I didn't lose any penny, but I cannot say it was the most pleasant situation in my life.


XE is a part of WU.

sir_eccles

I did a trade last week. GBP to USD. When you book it you get a screen that says:

"Please follow the instructions below to ensure that your trade is processed in a timely manner.
Initiate Payment
Please send your electronic payment of GBP to the account below. Please use your Deal ID ( ) as the reference..."

I then have to separately log in to my UK bank and initiate the BACS/fasterpay which also needs me to put my card into the little calculator thingy.

There is no automatic withdrawal of funds from my UK account.

Just because WU now owns XE you should not confuse the ways that they operate as sending a wire (WU) is very different to making a currency trade (XE).

sergeyvo

It makes me happy - at least my UK account will be fine. I've never used the system to transfer the funds to the US.
There is nothing similar to my US account - the system takes as much as I ask without visiting the bank / bank web site. That's why I opened one more "buffering" account here with a 0 balance to make sure there is nothing to snatch from it. I put the money there only when I make a transfer.


In my opinion there is no difference between WU and XE systems, at least if you transfer money from the US to England. In the first case stolen CC details work as well as stolen US bank account details for XE.
The mule will be catched indeed, but it may take a few months before you get your funds back after a long investigation...

Chandler

I'm not sure there is a tighter market that FX. It trades to within 0.0001 cent on the bid/offer due to it's very high liquidity.

Sadly I dont have the funds to warrant execution at such a tight margin, but even so 2 cents remains wider than I remember. In effect this is a market that is 4.000+ cent wide.

I still like the service but I'm going to shop around to see if I can locate a better rate.

LeavingLondon

I had the same experience. I had to initiate the transfer from my UK account myself by logging onto HSBC and transferring the money. All xe.com did was then automatically transfer that money into my US account.

Bink

Me too. It's very quick UK to US. I initiated a transfer Thursday evening and it hit my US account on Friday.

I've always found it much slower US to UK, more like a week or so.

ANye

XE and WU are good alternatives to the banks, but you can also shop around for the best exchange rates from a wide range of foreign exchange brokers.

When looking for a company to send money overseas with, always make sure they are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA, formerly FSA) as they aim to protect consumers when using financial service providers. It's a little maroon and white logo.

Calling up a few providers for a quote you'll probably find that you can haggle a little and identify which service best suits your needs and offers the best rates.

sergeyvo

FCA is a British organisation. Do they cover non UK residents then?
If I try to make a transfer US-->UK and my permanent address is in the US - will they help me?