MiniBrit

Hello chaps,

Been several years since I transferred money over. Last time I used xe.com, anything better around now? (in terms of not charging large fees).

Cheers

MB

LouisB

I use transferwise, no complaints. Cheap fees, good rates, easy with mobile apps. Relatively quick too.

Also another way is to get a UK multcurrency credit card, for smaller of ad-hoc amounts this is an easy way to essentially spend UK £ in other currencies such as $ and €. The Halifax Clarity credit card is excellent in that respect. They charge good spot rates for conversion. Of course, it really depends what you’re doing, for larger lump sums the transferwise service is the way to go...

MiniBrit

I will check them out. Thank you!

thinbrit

I signed up for XE but I could not use them for my intended purpose. I wanted to make my quarterly NI payments. XE have a hard limit on the length of the reference number, which made using it for National Insurance payments impossible - I could not enter all the required information on the transfer.
I signed up for OFX https://www.ofx.com/en-us/ and have been using this for payments without any issue to date.

JimmyArtnull

+1 for TransferWise.

Their phone app is pretty cool and the best part is you can lock in a rate for 24 hours. Whenever I need to transfer money, I keep an eye on the rate and when it looks good I create a transaction (no money transfers at this point) and wait 24 hours to see if the rate improves. If it does, I cancel the current transaction and create a new one and repeat. I do this until the rate either goes against me or I absolutely need to send money back to meet my needs at which point I just do an in-app ACH payment which is a case of clicking a few buttons.

I'm not sure if you are supposed to do this but they do openly advertise that you can lock in the rate for 24 hours, so why not?

I've had a little look around for something with better rates but haven't found one yet.

durham_lad

I used to use xe.com and still have an account with them but whenever I compare it to Transferwise it is always much more expensive, plus Transferwise is much quicker in getting the money over.

I also like the Transferwise app and in fact used it yesterday. Very easy indeed.

Olly_

Another vote for Transferwise from me.

MidAtlantic

Here's an interesting comparison of money transfer services.

https://www.finder.com/international...ransfer-awards

cranston

based on this I opened an account with Transferwise...they are very good.

Thanks all.

BarneyJing

Has anyone tried Circle? (quoted in the awards link) - is it really free? Is it as good as Transferwise?

lansbury

Took a quick look this morning. They use verification codes to your cell phone to confirm transactions. It doesn't seem possible to link a UK bank account to a US cell phone number at which point Transferwise seems an easier service to use.

I look forward to being corrected if someone has actually used Circle.

expatdoc

Nothing is forever free costs are hidden in the rate

MidAtlantic

No they are not. They use the mid-market rate, just like Transferwise. Forever.. that's another issue.

They appear to make their money from trading Bitcoins, which makes it a complete no no for me.