Transferwise

[Here It Is]

Thank you, chickenslegs.  At least one sensible poster tonight.

[Kadilo]

Good info guys many thanks. I’ve just downloaded TW on the back of it as it’s much cheaper than using bank. Will give it a go next week.


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[JAS21]

9 minutes ago, Here It Is said:

Thank you, chickenslegs.  At least one sensible poster tonight.

I stand corrected ... I've looked at my spreadsheet  and yes since I changed to CIMB I haven't paid any bank charges when using Xendpay ... 

 

I last used XendPay Jan of this year and yes I had to pay their charges  as I was somewhat over the 2K limit

 

 

[Chivas]

17 hours ago, sumrit said:

 

When using Transferwise nobody has given a definitive answer on costs. some posters seem to be suggesting a fixed rate is applied while others seem to be saying its a percentage of the amount sent.

 

I can see how the exchange rate is applied. I might have missed it, but can't find the answer about charges on their web site.

 

So can somebody please confirm whether a fixed charge (regardless on the amount being sent) applies OR whether a percentage of the money being sent is charged, and if so what that actual percentage??????

 

For example, what would  the actual cost of sending £1,000.00, £5,000.00 and £10,000.00 from the UK to my Thai bank be and how is it calculated?

When I sent £2000 couple months ago when Sterling was just shy of 45 it cost £11.65 which was deducted from the 2k and the balance sent at interbank rate (best you can obtain)......It may be marginally cheaper now as they reduced fee slightly a week later.

Just open an account a set up dummy transfer for whatever amount and it will  give you complete breakdown of fees rates before you press submit

[JAS21]

2 hours ago, Chivas said:

When I sent £2000 couple months ago when Sterling was just shy of 45 it cost £11.65 which was deducted from the 2k and the balance sent at interbank rate (best you can obtain)......It may be marginally cheaper now as they reduced fee slightly a week later.

Just open an account a set up dummy transfer for whatever amount and it will  give you complete breakdown of fees rates before you press submit

OK ... I have just input into Xend and TWise sites to receive 1,000,000thb

 

XendPay  total cost ...23,325gbp ... made up by 23,126 + 199 fee ... qoted rate  43.24

 

TWise  total cost 23124 includes fee...stated fee 125 ...quoted rate 43.484

 

I did them as near as possible together.

 

The XendPay does not take into consideration the free 1st 2K gbp so for a 1st time transfer you can deduct 20 from 199 I think. Unfortunately I have already exceeded my free quota with XendPay.

 

Last March I did two 9999gbp transfers ... I compared both and then used TW ...I have found in the past that if I transfer 10K gbp my bank locks my account ... they say for security reasons ...

 

As said above join both and then input what you want to compare.

[Chivas]

Have transferwise reduced their costs since September 25th as some have alluded to ??

I ask because have just entered identical transaction to see what they were offering and fee is identical to that date

[Oxx]

Transferwise apparently achieves its cost savings by matching buyers and sellers for a currency pair.  How does that work in the case of Thailand where it's only possible to send to Thailand (i.e. buy THB), not send out (sell THB)?

[KittenKong]

2 hours ago, Oxx said:

Transferwise apparently achieves its cost savings by matching buyers and sellers for a currency pair.  How does that work in the case of Thailand where it's only possible to send to Thailand (i.e. buy THB), not send out (sell THB)?

 

Presumably they match someone outside Thailand who wants to send in, and someone inside Thailand who wants to send out. So there is no actual transfer across any border.

[Oxx]

1 minute ago, KittenKong said:

 

Presumably they match someone outside Thailand who wants to send in, and someone inside Thailand who wants to send out. So there is no actual transfer across any border.

 

No.  The point behind my question being that they don't allow someone inside Thailand to send out.

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, Oxx said:

 

No.  The point behind my question being that they don't allow someone inside Thailand to send out.

 

I see. Then presumably they are not matching transactions at all, but are simply transferring money in at a wholesale rate.

 

Prepaid card companies like Revolut also have very specific rules and charges for Thailand that indicate that transactions in THB dont work at all in the same way as they do for nearly all other countries.

[BertBert]

18 hours ago, Oxx said:

Transferwise apparently achieves its cost savings by matching buyers and sellers for a currency pair.  How does that work in the case of Thailand where it's only possible to send to Thailand (i.e. buy THB), not send out (sell THB)?

Interesting question.

[Chivas]

On 11/18/2017 at 12:09 AM, Oxx said:

Transferwise apparently achieves its cost savings by matching buyers and sellers for a currency pair.  How does that work in the case of Thailand where it's only possible to send to Thailand (i.e. buy THB), not send out (sell THB)?

No they dont unless something has changed. Huge volume of business is I suspect the simple reason

I used to "slag" all the transfer companies and for the most part still do for their "hidden" true rates. With Transferwise however you get the full interbank live rate at time of submission with a clear bottom line amount to land in your bank.

No local fees it does exactly what it says on the tin as long as you submit remittance within 24 hours

 

Only gripe for me is that the charges do rise as opposed to flat rate and there comes a point where your own bank will work out better when it lands at telegraphic transfer rate and local fee

[Oxx]

23 minutes ago, Chivas said:

Only gripe for me is that the charges do rise as opposed to flat rate and there comes a point where your own bank will work out better when it lands at telegraphic transfer rate and local fee

 

I think you may be misunderstanding this.  Because Transferwise gives you the mid-market rate, the rate is always better than you'll get from a bank.  Because the bank adds a (hidden) percentage on the FX rate, its charges also rise as the amount rises.

[Chivas]

9 hours ago, Oxx said:

 

I think you may be misunderstanding this.  Because Transferwise gives you the mid-market rate, the rate is always better than you'll get from a bank.  Because the bank adds a (hidden) percentage on the FX rate, its charges also rise as the amount rises.

I'm not misunderstanding anything and know full well the difference between Interbank and telegraphic transfer which averages around 35 satang lower

Edited November 19, 2017 by Chivas

[trd]

I sent a scan of my passport to Transferwise a few days ago for ID approval and got an email this morning saying the quality wasn't good enough. It was a perfect scan taken with a high resolution camera. It couldn't be more perfect. Baffled! I'll try again.

 

Sent from my SM-G610F using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

[Langsuan Man]

6 minutes ago, trd said:

Baffled! I'll try again.

Try lowering the size of the picture / scan.   Many times I have to reduce scans because they come out anywhere from 3 to 5 MB, which some email clients can't handle

 

If you don't have a reducing program and are using Windows there is a "snipping" tool in accessories that you can use to "capture" the scan on your computer screen and it will lower the file size into kilobytes instead of megabytes, perfect for email attachments   

[trd]

Try lowering the size of the picture / scan.   Many times I have to reduce scans because they come out anywhere from 3 to 5 MB, which some email clients can't handle  

If you don't have a reducing program and are using Windows there is a "snipping" tool in accessories that you can use to "capture" the scan on your computer screen and it will lower the file size into kilobytes instead of megabytes, perfect for email attachments   

 

Thanks for the advice. I actually submitted the scan of my passport using my phone camera and then uploading via the transferwise app. It said file size up to 8MB was okay. It was less. But they must have seen it in order to comment that the quality wasn't good enough. I'll do it again but on a Windows PC and see how that works out.

[trd]

I just used Transferwise for the first time and I'm totally impressed.

I transferred GBP 1,000 from Nationwide to an account at Krungsri Bank. I made the transaction using my NW Debit card at 10am today and got a text from Krungsri at 1.40pm showing the Thai baht in the account exactly as quoted by Transferwise. That was quick! Here are the numbers.

Quoted the mid rate which corresponded exactly with what was showing on my XE currency app.

GBP 1,000 at 43.5432 mid rate.
Less £8.95 fee (which included the debit card fee)
Amount quoted which matched exactly with what arrived. 43,153.49 Baht.

If I had done this by Swift transfer from Nationwide there would have been a £25 fee.
1,000 X TT rate (not mid rate) of 42.75 = 42,153 baht. (Assuming exchange rate remained the same)
So not only would I have received less baht in Thailand but there would also be a deduction of £25 from my Nationwide account. At the same rate of 42.75 I would effectively have in baht.
42,153 - (25x42.75) that's
42,153 - 1,068.75 = 41,084.25

So to sum up:

TRANSFERWISE 43,153.49 baht transferred in less than 4 hours.

NATIONWIDE 41,084.25 baht transferred in 1 to 2 days. And I haven't counted what the receiving charge is from the Thai Bank which is probably about 300 baht. Let's assume that. I would therefore receive
41,385 baht approx.

I get 1,768.49 baht more with Transferwise.

[newatthis]

Transferring money from Oz, I used  Bahtsmart first by reading this site and was happy with them. Then I learnt about Transferwise. Time is about the same for both [2-3days] because of the delay in transferring from my Aussie bank to theirs. However, on $10,000 I get about 4000-5000 baht more using Transferwise, so I've stayed with them.

[robin33]

Any one knows. If i top up/pay transfewise with an american express , i earn points?


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[Pib]

15 minutes ago, robin33 said:

Any one knows. If i top up/pay transfewise with an american express , i earn points?


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If you are talking earning rewards point from your American Express credit card by funding the transfer amount from your credit card, highly doubtful as cards I've seen do not award points/cash-back for purchase of cash equivalents, cash advances, etc.  Below from American Express Terms of Agreement regarding the earning of points.

 

Quote

Eligible purchases are purchases for goods and services minus returns and other credits. Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, or purchases of other cash equivalents. Additional terms and restrictions apply. 

 

[newatthis]

I hope someone is still following this topic.

If I transfer AUD directly from Oz to the SCB here in Thailand, I will get SCB's "buying rate" as listed on their website. Is this correct? I'm always confused by this "selling" and "buying" rate.

[Jack Mountain]

49 minutes ago, newatthis said:

I hope someone is still following this topic.

If I transfer AUD directly from Oz to the SCB here in Thailand, I will get SCB's "buying rate" as listed on their website. Is this correct? I'm always confused by this "selling" and "buying" rate.

You will get the TT rate minus 0,25%, minimum 300 Baht. Opening rate of the day.

Edited December 14, 2017 by Jack Mountain

[newatthis]

8 minutes ago, Jack Mountain said:

You will get the TT rate minus 0,25%, minimum 300 Baht.

Thanks for that. It means Transferwise is offering a better deal.

[Jack Mountain]

17 minutes ago, newatthis said:

Thanks for that. It means Transferwise is offering a better deal.

Most of the time i guess, if the TT rate doesn't change too much overnight.

[OJAS]

On 12/14/2017 at 8:57 AM, Jack Mountain said:

Most of the time i guess, if the TT rate doesn't change too much overnight.

In my experience TransferWise rates are guaranteed from the time a transfer is instigated to when the THB amount is credited to the recipient account in LOS - in stark contrast to bank TT rates, which, in the case of us Brits for example, are liable to change significantly overnight, particularly after BOE Governor Mark Carney has blabbed his big mouth off yet again to the detriment of the GBP's value!

[Jip99]

On 14/12/2017 at 1:38 AM, newatthis said:

Thanks for that. It means Transferwise is offering a better deal.

 

Everytime based on spot rates.

 

However, by sending your local currency to Thailand you cannot guarantee the exchange rate as it is applied when the Thai bank receives the funds.

[Oxx]

2 hours ago, OJAS said:

particularly after BOE Governor Mark Carney has blabbed his big mouth off yet again to the detriment of the GBP's value!

 

He did no such thing.  He made carefully measured remarks designed to signal policy, and to lead to a measured change in the exchange rate, rather than creating an overreaction later.

[newatthis]

17 hours ago, Jip99 said:

 

Everytime based on spot rates.

 

However, by sending your local currency to Thailand you cannot guarantee the exchange rate as it is applied when the Thai bank receives the funds.

True. And sadly, with Transferwise the exchange rate [for the AUD] is not guaranteed either, but it is still acceptable.

Edited December 16, 2017 by newatthis
additional clause

[Jip99]

7 hours ago, newatthis said:

True. And sadly, with Transferwise the exchange rate [for the AUD] is not guaranteed either, but it is still acceptable.

 

Really?

 

For Sterling/Baht it is guaranteed.