Transferwise. WOW!!

[phetphet]

Did a transfer via Transferwise GBP to THB about ten minutes ago. Money was sent 32 seconds after they received my online bank transfer.

Money is already in my BKKBK account when I checked.  Never had that fast before. Must be some kind of record!

Edited December 13, 2019 by phetphet
corrected typo.

[petermik]

I usually transfer money in GBP through the Halifax online £9.50 for any amount takes 3 days.....checked with transferwise earlier and they want £58 to transfer £10,000........<deleted>?

[CharlieH]

Just now, petermik said:

I usually transfer money in GBP through the Halifax online £9.50 for any amount takes 3 days.....checked with transferwise earlier and they want £58 to transfer £10,000........<deleted>?

Did Halifax  a few days ago, took a little under 18 hrs from action to receipt in a Thai bank. (just for comparison purposes ????)

[Stocky]

3 minutes ago, petermik said:

I usually transfer money in GBP through the Halifax online £9.50 for any amount takes 3 days.....checked with transferwise earlier and they want £58 to transfer £10,000........<deleted>?

The fees are only part of the story. You need to compare the exchange rates. You may well find that, even with the higher fee, the better exchange rate with TW outweighs what you lose on fees.

[GeorgeCross]

swift transfer nationwide > bangkok bank london branch - up to £10K - cost FREE in my account within 1 hour (on work days)

 

send in pounds and get the local exchange rate (thats the good one)

[Eindhoven]

1 hour ago, petermik said:

I usually transfer money in GBP through the Halifax online £9.50 for any amount takes 3 days.....checked with transferwise earlier and they want £58 to transfer £10,000........<deleted>?

 

The difference between Transferwise and say, Bangkok Bank receiving rate is approx 0.4 baht. For £10,000 that would be a loss of 4000 baht(£98.51). 

 

Transferwise charge of £58.90 not looking that bad now eh?

But wait, that's not it. Bangkok Bank will charge another 500 baht to receive the money, so now that is 4500 baht in fees and commissions. So a total of £110.90

 

This is why it paid to pay attention whilst at school. ????  £52 cheaper to send via Transferwise.

 

But no! That's still not it, because you paid £9.50 to send the money, so now you are up to £121.40 with your Halifax/Bangkok Bank transfer.

 

So Transferwise £61.50 cheaper. Less than half the cost.

 

Transferwise charge of 0.589%, Halifax/Bangkok Bank charge of 1.214%.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Eindhoven

[Eindhoven]

50 minutes ago, GeorgeCross said:

swift transfer nationwide > bangkok bank london branch - up to £10K - cost FREE in my account within 1 hour (on work days)

 

send in pounds and get the local exchange rate (thats the good one)

 

No

[LivinLOS]

1 hour ago, petermik said:

I usually transfer money in GBP through the Halifax online £9.50 for any amount takes 3 days.....checked with transferwise earlier and they want £58 to transfer £10,000........<deleted>?

What folks dont seem to understand is the Fx rate is better... So the bank version with 'low fees' has a hidden higher fee.. 

 

Thats less applicable to usd, but eur and GBP its very evident. 

[samsensam]

7 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

What folks dont seem to understand is the Fx rate is better... So the bank version with 'low fees' has a hidden higher fee.. 

 

Thats less applicable to usd, but eur and GBP its very evident. 

 

check what the bank's TT rate is and factor that into your calculation, it's normally not that attractive.

[NotYourBusiness]

All money transfer services are feeling the crypto pressure, so they have been magically able to speed things up considerably. You may not like crypto, but at least it has had this effect.

[4evermaat]

Transferwise transfer is pretty fast.   I sent some money from US bank to Indian associate and it got there in 4 hours (fully posted to his receiving account in that time)

 

To Thailand it depends on the time of day.   But it is in the Thai bank early in the morning (05:00-06:30ish GMT+7).   One time it took 36 hours.   But it was sent too late Friday and had to go through the weekend.

 

And you get an email/app alert when it is there.   

 

And they are very clear about the exact cost you pay and what you receive.  

 

Now their Borderless account is a bit sluggish to post incoming wires.  Will have to test that a bit more.   And also, they say there are no incoming wire fees, but some "intermediary" [bank] snatched $18 from the final credit amount.   It always seems to be a huge mystery as to who/why these fees are charged.

 

Perhaps it is best to use local currencies to get funds into borderless account (from other people) when possible.   For example, it might have been cheaper/faster to convert to EUR, deposit into EUR borderless acct, then do additional conversion and/or send onwards to final destination.

Edited December 13, 2019 by 4evermaat

[Smithson]

When transfering from the US to Bkk Bank it happens overnight. With Commonwealth in Australia it's same day, provided the Aust transfer is done in the morning. The UK takes days for some reason.

 

Bangkok bank charges B200 for receiving.

[LivinLOS]

2 hours ago, samsensam said:

 

check what the bank's TT rate is and factor that into your calculation, it's normally not that attractive.

That is exactly my point.. 

 

TW has a better fx rate than the TT buying rate of Thai banks, for sure on GBP and EUR, less so on USD. 

[steve187]

5 hours ago, phetphet said:

Did a transfer via Transferwise GBP to THB about ten minutes ago. Money was sent 32 seconds after they received my online bank transfer.

Money is already in my BKKBK account when I checked.  Never had that fast before. Must be some kind of record!

what rate did you get

[Peter Denis]

14 minutes ago, steve187 said:

what rate did you get

Check out this TransferWise-link, it gives you the present mid-rate exchange rate which they apply and on top of which they add their relatively small service charge.

https://transferwise.com/gb/currency-converter/eur-to-thb-rate?amount=1

You can change easily from Euro to GBP to US$ ....

On the site you can also see the evolution of the exchange rate you selected over 1 or 3 months.

Attached below the 3-month evolution of the Euro-Bath mid-rate exchange (today close to best rate of last 3 months)

 

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by Peter Denis

[petermik]

11 hours ago, Eindhoven said:

 

The difference between Transferwise and say, Bangkok Bank receiving rate is approx 0.4 baht. For £10,000 that would be a loss of 4000 baht(£98.51). 

 

Transferwise charge of £58.90 not looking that bad now eh?

But wait, that's not it. Bangkok Bank will charge another 500 baht to receive the money, so now that is 4500 baht in fees and commissions. So a total of £110.90

 

This is why it paid to pay attention whilst at school. ????  £52 cheaper to send via Transferwise.

 

But no! That's still not it, because you paid £9.50 to send the money, so now you are up to £121.40 with your Halifax/Bangkok Bank transfer.

 

So Transferwise £61.50 cheaper. Less than half the cost.

 

Transferwise charge of 0.589%, Halifax/Bangkok Bank charge of 1.214%.

But I aint transfering to Bangkok Bank....why assume that

[Stocky]

44 minutes ago, petermik said:

But I aint transfering to Bangkok Bank....why assume that

If not Bangkok Bank then where?

Bangkok Bank usually offer the best TT rates of all the Thai Banks, so chances are you're even worse off.

 

For example this evening's TT rates.

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by Stocky

[phetphet]

1 hour ago, steve187 said:

what rate did you get

£1,000 @40.6548 minus fee £7.00. Received THB40,370.22.

 

The pound continued to rise further for a little while, then dropped back. 

I received THB39,651.38 for the same £1,000 last Monday.

[The Fat Controller]

For GBP to THB, TransferWise will always beat a SWIFT transfer due to the differing exchange rates, this negates the apparent saving in fees.

 

Also, with TW, you know exactly what you are getting when you make the transfer, a SWIFT transfer is converted on arrival at the Thai bank so you could win or lose 

 

Do your sums folks.

 

 

[LivinLOS]

1 hour ago, The Fat Controller said:

Also, with TW, you know exactly what you are getting when you make the transfer, a SWIFT transfer is converted on arrival at the Thai bank so you could win or lose 

I have also kept a very close eye on this and mysteriously always seem to receive a rate that was at the lows of the day, statistically that seems unlikely so expect the banks are gaming the system as you cannot actually prove the moment the Fx sum arrives to them. 

 

So had that little margin into the hidden fees they can load you with.. TW may have fees but they are very clear and you get, to the satang, what your told you will get. 

[Chivas]

On 12/13/2019 at 5:58 AM, petermik said:

I usually transfer money in GBP through the Halifax online £9.50 for any amount takes 3 days.....checked with transferwise earlier and they want £58 to transfer £10,000........<deleted>?

Yes but why dont you do a bottom line comparison (dummy transfer) with a Halifax account (which I have) and TW

Halifax amount with land at Telegraphic Transfer rates whilst TW lands at Interbank rates (somewhat higher)

 

You can do the dummy by going to receiving banks website and see the current TT rate and doing the bottom line math

If you use TW Monday through Thursday the money now lands virtually instantly (seconds)