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Posted

I have noticed many people asking the best way to transfer funds internationally.

I have just read on Reddit that the link below has been recommended to save on bank fees.

https://transferwise.com/#

I have never used, I will compare next time I need to make a transfer.

I thought this information may be of use to some members.

Posted

Too bad they want me to register my email address just to tell me what rate I will get for USD to Thai Baht. No thank you

Agree. Plus when you look at the "example calculation" on their main web page you can see they use the "bank's exchange rate" (like in allowing the Sending bank to convert the currency which will surely result in a lower exchange rate) against apparently a Forex rate which is not what a Customer's Rate would probably be based on how other such similar money changers/transfers work and which give more info. Then it also looks like the website use a bank's worst case transfer fee.

No, not for me....the website don't seem to want to give much info until you sign up and the little info they do give puts up red flags for me.

Posted

TransferWise are fine. I recommend them often. Don't worry about giving an email address. The reason for that is that they have to see if it is worthwhile to set up new currency combinations. So if they get high interest in certain currency combinations, they'll set them up....and let you know, so that you can start using them.

If you want to see how good they are, use an existing currency combination and compare it to what else is available. That will give you an idea of how good their service will be for the new currency combination.

So it is worth supporting them, so they can prosper and keep the service going.

Posted

Too bad they want me to register my email address just to tell me what rate I will get for USD to Thai Baht. No thank you

Agree. Plus when you look at the "example calculation" on their main web page you can see they use the "bank's exchange rate" (like in allowing the Sending bank to convert the currency which will surely result in a lower exchange rate) against apparently a Forex rate which is not what a Customer's Rate would probably be based on how other such similar money changers/transfers work and which give more info. Then it also looks like the website use a bank's worst case transfer fee.

No, not for me....the website don't seem to want to give much info until you sign up and the little info they do give puts up red flags for me.

You've got it all wrong.

For instance the Estimated Exchange Rate for the Pound to Euro right now is 1.25172. Mastercard rate right now is 1.254562

TransferWise state "We always use the real rate at the time of the transfer" So it actually might match or better the Mastercard rate at the time of transfer.

TransferWise makes reasonable endeavors to match transactions at exchange rates aligned to the mid-market rate at the global currency markets. TransferWise is relying on aggregated third party information sources and we do not guarantee that the rates match any particular benchmark source at any given time. TransferWise is not liable in any way if the target currency after the exchange is less than anticipated as a result of changes in the global currency markets.

TransferWise does not take any margin or spread on the exchange rate, hence there are no buy and sell rates. The rate that you get is exactly the same rate as your counterparty.

So they pass on the mid-market rate and just take a fixed fee. I can see for a £1000 transaction, their fee is £4.98 for the Standard Transfer, which looks like three days.

Entirely reasonable I think.

You explanation is convoluted and I'm sorry, ultimately nonsense.

Posted

These links take you to some transferwise.com fee/pricing and exchange rate weblinks.

Link 1. Seems to boil down to either a 0.5% or 1% transfer fee

Link 2. This link talks about associated SWIFT transfer fees.

Link 3. This links talks more about how they handle the exchange rate which is based on a peer-to-peer system.

Not sure Thai baht is one of the currencies they deal with yet. And I fully expect you will still have the Thai bank receiving/conversion fee of 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) fee.

But disregarding the Thai bank receiving/conversion fee and assuming the transferwise exchange rate and Thai bank TT Buying Rate are basically equal (that is, consider these two factors a wash), it seems if your current home country bank is not slicing off more than 0.5% to 1.0% in sending fees then using transferwise may not provide any benefit. Guess it would vary from individual to individual as to how fee-hungry (a little or lot) their home country bank is. And as mentioned a thousand times on ThaiVisa don't let your home country bank accomplish the conversion/send baht as you'll surely get a lower exchange rate (which transferwise uses to it's advertising advantage on its website) than the Thai bank TT Buying Rate.

Maybe there is some one out there who has a transferwise account and has done a transfer to their Thai bank (if transferwise deals with baht now) which could provide some actual cost details, exchange rate comparison, wire/swift fee, etc.

Posted

These links take you to some transferwise.com fee/pricing and exchange rate weblinks.

Link 1. Seems to boil down to either a 0.5% or 1% transfer fee

Link 2. This link talks about associated SWIFT transfer fees.

Link 3. This links talks more about how they handle the exchange rate which is based on a peer-to-peer system.

Not sure Thai baht is one of the currencies they deal with yet. And I fully expect you will still have the Thai bank receiving/conversion fee of 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) fee.

But disregarding the Thai bank receiving/conversion fee and assuming the transferwise exchange rate and Thai bank TT Buying Rate are basically equal (that is, consider these two factors a wash), it seems if your current home country bank is not slicing off more than 0.5% to 1.0% in sending fees then using transferwise may not provide any benefit. Guess it would vary from individual to individual as to how fee-hungry (a little or lot) their home country bank is. And as mentioned a thousand times on ThaiVisa don't let your home country bank accomplish the conversion/send baht as you'll surely get a lower exchange rate (which transferwise uses to it's advertising advantage on its website) than the Thai bank TT Buying Rate.

Maybe there is some one out there who has a transferwise account and has done a transfer to their Thai bank (if transferwise deals with baht now) which could provide some actual cost details, exchange rate comparison, wire/swift fee, etc.

Again, a fair amount of pointless conjecture. You've obviously spent quite some time rummaging around the website, so how can you be "not sure Thai baht is one of the currencies they deal with yet". it clearly is not. They have a dropdown list, you can check it in seconds. Clearly a case of 'not being able to see the forest for the trees.'

That's the whole point of registering your interest for currencies for which they don't support. To see if the can generate a service that it competitive for that pairing.

The simple point to be made is that they are a legitimatecompany with a transparent approach and there is not a problem with registering your interest in a currency pairing.

SWIFT fees are only an issue if SWIFT is to be used in the process.

So, how about support them to help you, insist of writing long winded posts about nothing.

How on earth can someone have experience on using Transferwise to a Thai bank, if the country/currency is not yet supported? What are you thinking? Too much time on your hands? :)

Posted (edited)

No...just the sad practice of instant negativity on the forum. So much so, that they ignore any facts in order to be able to project their cynicism.

Unfortunately, you fell into that very mode, by completely missing that they don't even deal with Thai Baht yet.

But happily denigrating the fact they they would like to gauge interest in a currency by the perfectly normal practice of asking for an email address.. Perfectly good business sense.

Yet your first comment was:

No, not for me....the website don't seem to want to give much info until you sign up and the little info they do give puts up red flags for me.

Seriously?

This is the statement you see when you choose 'Other' currency:

New currencies are coming soon to TransferWise.

Want to be first to know?

Enter a few details below and you'll receive an email when there's good news.

In your mind, is that some kind of sinister action??

USA Today

Nothing wrong with scrutiny. But that is no excuse for stupidity. Sorry.

Edited by Jiu-Jitsu
Posted

These links take you to some transferwise.com fee/pricing and exchange rate weblinks.

Link 1. Seems to boil down to either a 0.5% or 1% transfer fee

Link 2. This link talks about associated SWIFT transfer fees.

Link 3. This links talks more about how they handle the exchange rate which is based on a peer-to-peer system.

Not sure Thai baht is one of the currencies they deal with yet. And I fully expect you will still have the Thai bank receiving/conversion fee of 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) fee.

But disregarding the Thai bank receiving/conversion fee and assuming the transferwise exchange rate and Thai bank TT Buying Rate are basically equal (that is, consider these two factors a wash), it seems if your current home country bank is not slicing off more than 0.5% to 1.0% in sending fees then using transferwise may not provide any benefit. Guess it would vary from individual to individual as to how fee-hungry (a little or lot) their home country bank is. And as mentioned a thousand times on ThaiVisa don't let your home country bank accomplish the conversion/send baht as you'll surely get a lower exchange rate (which transferwise uses to it's advertising advantage on its website) than the Thai bank TT Buying Rate.

Maybe there is some one out there who has a transferwise account and has done a transfer to their Thai bank (if transferwise deals with baht now) which could provide some actual cost details, exchange rate comparison, wire/swift fee, etc.

Right now I am able to transfer 9900 USD for 25 USD. I think I'll stick with that.

Posted

These links take you to some transferwise.com fee/pricing and exchange rate weblinks.

Link 1. Seems to boil down to either a 0.5% or 1% transfer fee

Link 2. This link talks about associated SWIFT transfer fees.

Link 3. This links talks more about how they handle the exchange rate which is based on a peer-to-peer system.

Not sure Thai baht is one of the currencies they deal with yet. And I fully expect you will still have the Thai bank receiving/conversion fee of 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) fee.

But disregarding the Thai bank receiving/conversion fee and assuming the transferwise exchange rate and Thai bank TT Buying Rate are basically equal (that is, consider these two factors a wash), it seems if your current home country bank is not slicing off more than 0.5% to 1.0% in sending fees then using transferwise may not provide any benefit. Guess it would vary from individual to individual as to how fee-hungry (a little or lot) their home country bank is. And as mentioned a thousand times on ThaiVisa don't let your home country bank accomplish the conversion/send baht as you'll surely get a lower exchange rate (which transferwise uses to it's advertising advantage on its website) than the Thai bank TT Buying Rate.

Maybe there is some one out there who has a transferwise account and has done a transfer to their Thai bank (if transferwise deals with baht now) which could provide some actual cost details, exchange rate comparison, wire/swift fee, etc.

Right now I am able to transfer 9900 USD for 25 USD. I think I'll stick with that.

It gets worse....

Posted (edited)

Right now I am able to transfer 9900 USD for 25 USD. I think I'll stick with that.

Not quite sure what you mean. You mean with transferwise and you are talking USD to baht ? If so what date and exchange rate did you get? Edited by Pib
Posted

Right now I am able to transfer 9900 USD for 25 USD. I think I'll stick with that.

Not quite sure what you mean. You mean with transferwise and you are talking USD to baht ? If so what date and exchange rate did you get?

Also was that $25 just the transferwise fee and then you also had a SWIFT fee like mentioned on the transferwise site? Appreciate as many details as you can share about a transferwise account like funding a transfer, how long a transfer takes, etc.

Posted

Right now I am able to transfer 9900 USD for 25 USD. I think I'll stick with that.

Not quite sure what you mean. You mean with transferwise and you are talking USD to baht ? If so what date and exchange rate did you get?

Also was that $25 just the transferwise fee and then you also had a SWIFT fee like mentioned on the transferwise site? Appreciate as many details as you can share about a transferwise account like funding a transfer, how long a transfer takes, etc.

He's not referring to TransferWise at all. Didn't you read what I wrote before? :)

Posted

Sure I read your unique post. I figured he may have meant his bank allows him to transfer up to 9,900USD with a $25 fee...or just "maybe" he was talking a transferwise account where he could transfer up 9,900 USD and he experiencing fees in the 25 USD ballpark consisting of X, Y, and Z. Maybe he'll come back and confirm one way or another.

I sure would like to see some feedback from someone with a transferwise account so we could get some finer details, especially the exchange rate they have been getting comparison to other rates on date X instead of just some generalized words like it was a competitive market rate, how the money flow occurs to from the person's funding source to transferwise, how long the transfer took to complete, just any pros or cons they would like to identify. Some feedback from boots on the ground so to speak.

  • Like 2
Posted

Sure I read your unique post. I figured he may have meant his bank allows him to transfer up to 9,900USD with a $25 fee...or just "maybe" he was talking a transferwise account where he could transfer up 9,900 USD and he experiencing fees in the 25 USD ballpark consisting of X, Y, and Z. Maybe he'll come back and confirm one way or another.

I sure would like to see some feedback from someone with a transferwise account so we could get some finer details, especially the exchange rate they have been getting comparison to other rates on date X instead of just some generalized words like it was a competitive market rate, how the money flow occurs to from the person's funding source to transferwise, how long the transfer took to complete, just any pros or cons they would like to identify. Some feedback from boots on the ground so to speak.

Are you completely thick?

You will not get any feedback in this case because TransferWise do not yet deal with the Thai currency. How old are you? Have your brain cells degenerated to the point wherein it takes you days to absorb something?

You are not going to get feedback from posting on a Thailand based forum. :)

You are told exactly when the transfer will take place. Clearly the best deals are available via the Peer to Peer system, where there are no Swift and associated fees. Seriously man...don't be obtuse.

So how would a report of a transfer done via the Peer to Peer system within Europe help you?

Don't you think it would be more intelligent to register your interest, so that they can at least put together a system for Thailand, instead of making sill paranoid posts about giving out your email address?

It's an email address, not you daughter. :)

Stop these stupid posts...really.

Mid-market exchange rates are not fixed, but you can instructed TransferWise not to make the transfer if the mid-market drops below the Estimated rate. What you see is what you get. There are no tricks up the sleeve.

Posted (edited)

it's not what you know, but who you know...

we know: our thai grocery man in farang land, and his mum and dad in thailand

It's not just who you know, but who do you trust...

we trust them...

Missus wants to send, say, Tb15000, to Thailand...

we just go into the grocery with the cash.

give cash to the man.

he rings mum in thailand, and gets her to wake dad up...

dad goes down to the thai bank, and accesses son's thai account, and draws out whatever Tb the son had quoted over the phone.

dad deposits said funds into the thai bank account that we have given the details of.

this works very well, as our grocery man in farangland is very rich, always topping up his thai account sufficiently to pre-cover just about any amount that farangland-based thaipeople have asked him to heh heh 'transfer' on their behalf...

it only costs us a wee bit more than the cost of the international phonecall thumbsup.gif

Edited by tifino
Posted

it's not what you know, but who you know...

we know: our thai grocery man in farang land, and his mum and dad in thailand

It's not just who you know, but who do you trust...

we trust them...

Missus wants to send, say, Tb15000, to Thailand...

we just go into the grocery with the cash.

give cash to the man.

he rings mum in thailand, and gets her to wake dad up...

dad goes down to the thai bank, and accesses son's thai account, and draws out whatever Tb the son had quoted over the phone.

dad deposits said funds into the thai bank account that we have given the details of.

this works very well, as our grocery man in farangland is very rich, always topping up his thai account sufficiently to pre-cover just about any amount that farangland-based thaipeople have asked him to heh heh 'transfer' on their behalf...

it only costs us a wee bit more than the cost of the international phonecall thumbsup.gif

Who about the exchange rate?

Posted

it's not what you know, but who you know...

we know: our thai grocery man in farang land, and his mum and dad in thailand

It's not just who you know, but who do you trust...

we trust them...

Missus wants to send, say, Tb15000, to Thailand...

we just go into the grocery with the cash.

give cash to the man.

he rings mum in thailand, and gets her to wake dad up...

dad goes down to the thai bank, and accesses son's thai account, and draws out whatever Tb the son had quoted over the phone.

dad deposits said funds into the thai bank account that we have given the details of.

this works very well, as our grocery man in farangland is very rich, always topping up his thai account sufficiently to pre-cover just about any amount that farangland-based thaipeople have asked him to heh heh 'transfer' on their behalf...

it only costs us a wee bit more than the cost of the international phonecall thumbsup.gif

Who about the exchange rate?

he's pretty fair about too! quotes the rates seen from thailand's end, as the farangbanks here over-rate the exchange like wounded bulls

Posted

Sure I read your unique post. I figured he may have meant his bank allows him to transfer up to 9,900USD with a $25 fee...or just "maybe" he was talking a transferwise account where he could transfer up 9,900 USD and he experiencing fees in the 25 USD ballpark consisting of X, Y, and Z. Maybe he'll come back and confirm one way or another.

I sure would like to see some feedback from someone with a transferwise account so we could get some finer details, especially the exchange rate they have been getting comparison to other rates on date X instead of just some generalized words like it was a competitive market rate, how the money flow occurs to from the person's funding source to transferwise, how long the transfer took to complete, just any pros or cons they would like to identify. Some feedback from boots on the ground so to speak.

I would stop digging now PiB

Posted

Actually, it sounds like a pretty cool process:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/01/international-money-transfers

BYE-BYE banks,” taunts the home page of TransferWise, a London-based startup. “You’ve had your fun.” Taavet Hinrikus, one of the firm’s co-founders, dubs it “the Skype of money transfers”. He should know. He was one of Skype’s first employees and is using the same principle of peer-to-peer networking to slash the rates that people pay to send money abroad........Critics point to the risk of money-laundering. TransferWise retorts that it is subject to the same “know your customer” rules as any commercial bank. A bigger problem is scaling up in countries that have fewer immigrants than émigrés. The demand for converting Indian rupees, say, into pounds may be less than the demand the other way. That means you still need a bank to stand in the middle of a transaction. Not “bye-bye”, then, but a possible black eye.

If they, indeed, can approximate the Interbank Exchange Rate (IER), then the $10,000 I currently send via ACH thru Bangkok Bank NY would do better via TransferWise, since IER rates on the Bank of Thailand website average 14 satang *better* than the buying TT rate (the rate you get when you ACH money).

For Aug 22, the IER on the BOT website was 31.901, while the buying TT rate was 31.7736. An ACH of my $10k would actually send $9,990 after the $10 front end fee. A TransferWise, with its 0.5% fee, would lop $50 off, thus sending $9,950. Both transactions would have a 500 baht backend fee.

So, for an ACH, I'd end up with 316,918.26 baht. For TransferWise, I'd get 316,914.95 baht. With only a 3 baht difference, ease and timeliness would break that virtual tie.

How about $2,200? For an ACH, 69,384.184. For TransferWise, 69,631.289 (both transactions have 200 baht backend fees). A difference of 247 baht, or a couple of Changs.

So, TransferWise's percentage fee, at some level, does have an advantage over the ACH fixed fee. Still, it doesn't beat the Schwab fee free ATM card for cash -- as long as Schwab keeps reversing those ATM owner fees.

Nevertheless, P2P transfers are something to keep your eye on.

Posted

Jim,

After some more digging, turns out sending dollars from the U.S. the Transferwise fee is not 0.5% but 1% up to $4,999.99 (i.e., up to $50) and then any amount over $4,999.99 a 0.7% fee is applied to that amount and then added to the $50 fee if a person was doing a $10,000 transfer. Their pricing structure for the U.S. is different than the 0.5% pricing that gets most of the Transferwise spotlight. Their U.S. pricing structure is quoted at the bottom of this post.

So sending $10,000 from the U.S. would result in a $85 Transferwise fee. And then to fund the Transferwise transfer a "domestic bank wire" (they call it a Federal Wire) must be sent from your bank to their Wells Fargo account in Waco, Texas. Now since an ACH can't be used to fund the transfer but a bank wire instead, the average U.S. outgoing domestic wire transfer fee is a little over $26 according to this 2014 article comparing wire fees at the Top 10 U.S. banks. Even USAA Bank which a lot of U.S. folks use its outgoing domestic wire transfer fee is $20...once again not to be confused with a free/low cost ACH transfer which the majority of U.S. banks like USAA provide. So to get that $10,000 launched out of the U.S. using Transfewise a person would pay $111 in fees ($85 +$26).

Then assuming the Transferwise exchange rate is basically the same as the IER which is a tad better than the Thai Bank TT Buyiing rate (around 0.35% better) as you laid out in your above post, the associated Transferwise fees of over 1%( when adding in the associated domestic bank wire fee), a U.S. person would probably do about 0.75% better in the final amount posting to their Bangkok Bank account by doing an ACH transfer. And 0.75% of $10,000 is $75 worth of baht...$75 worth of baht would buy a person around 4 cases of Leo.

Heck, even a person doing a SWiFT transfer to any Thai bank from their U.S. bank were the average outgoing international SWIFT fee is $47 according to the 2014 article mentioned above, a U.S. person would still end up with more money in his Thai bank account by just sending dollars directly from his home country bank to his Thai bank where he gets the TT Buying Rate.

Here's the Transferwise webpage talking Sending Money from the U.S. using Transferwise. And below is a cut and paste of the Pricing portion of that webpage.

I think Transferwise probably works better for European folks due to a lower pricing structure (usually 0.5%) and hopefully a cheaper way to fund the transfer than using a bank wire since funds transfer in Europe/UK at somewhat different than the U.S. and Transferwise probably has a more cost effective setup in the UK/Europe.

Pricing

Transfers from USD have a slightly different pricing structure, compared to regular TransferWise payments.

For USD transfers to level 1 currencies (e.g. GBP, EUR, INR), the pricing is as follows.

  • For transfers up to $1500, our fee is a flat $15.
  • For transfers up to $4999.99, our fee is 1% of the amount sent (so up to $50).
  • Over that and our fee is 0.7%.

So, for a $6000 transfer, our fee would be 1% for the first $4999.9. Then for the additional $1000.01, the fee would be 0.7%. This means our entire take would be 57USD (50 + 7). Your money would be exchanged at the mid-market rate.

For USD transfers to level 2 currencies (RON/TRY), the fee is 1% for transfers over $1500. The minimum fee is $15.

For USD transfers to SWIFT currencies (e.g. CAD, JPY), there’s a slightly larger minimum fee to take into account SWIFT transfer costs. It’s as follows:

The minimum fee is $15 + 1000JPY/10CAD in USD at the current mid-market rate when setting up the transfer.

Then it’s as before- for transfers up to $4999.99, our fee is 1% of the amount sent (so up to $50). Over that and our fee is 0.7%.

  • Like 2
Posted

If you have HSBC premier accounts in countries you can transfer money for free between your accounts in different countries.

  • 3 months later...
Posted

I had money transferred from Hungary HUF to Thailand THB. I tested the system with 20,000 THB, and the difference with the exchange rate was 80 THB, which seems to be a very good deal. I verified this with the rate at the day I found out the money were in Thailand on my account, so it might be different from the day they exchanged it.

I am happy with that. From another European country, with the usual bank transfer, around the same small amount, I had paid 1200 THB.

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Sure I read your unique post. I figured he may have meant his bank allows him to transfer up to 9,900USD with a $25 fee...or just "maybe" he was talking a transferwise account where he could transfer up 9,900 USD and he experiencing fees in the 25 USD ballpark consisting of X, Y, and Z. Maybe he'll come back and confirm one way or another.

I sure would like to see some feedback from someone with a transferwise account so we could get some finer details, especially the exchange rate they have been getting comparison to other rates on date X instead of just some generalized words like it was a competitive market rate, how the money flow occurs to from the person's funding source to transferwise, how long the transfer took to complete, just any pros or cons they would like to identify. Some feedback from boots on the ground so to speak.

Are you completely thick?

You will not get any feedback in this case because TransferWise do not yet deal with the Thai currency. How old are you? Have your brain cells degenerated to the point wherein it takes you days to absorb something?

You are not going to get feedback from posting on a Thailand based forum. smile.png

You are told exactly when the transfer will take place. Clearly the best deals are available via the Peer to Peer system, where there are no Swift and associated fees. Seriously man...don't be obtuse.

So how would a report of a transfer done via the Peer to Peer system within Europe help you?

Don't you think it would be more intelligent to register your interest, so that they can at least put together a system for Thailand, instead of making sill paranoid posts about giving out your email address?

It's an email address, not you daughter. smile.png

Stop these stupid posts...really.

Mid-market exchange rates are not fixed, but you can instructed TransferWise not to make the transfer if the mid-market drops below the Estimated rate. What you see is what you get. There are no tricks up the sleeve.

TransferWise had worked with THB for a while, and I used it twice, with a very good rate. Now it seams they have delisted THB for technical reasons. My I suggest to press them by using this page: https://transferwise.com/newcurrencyvote and see if they restore the THB soon?

Posted

I had money transferred from Hungary HUF to Thailand THB. I tested the system with 20,000 THB, and the difference with the exchange rate was 80 THB, which seems to be a very good deal. I verified this with the rate at the day I found out the money were in Thailand on my account, so it might be different from the day they exchanged it.

I am happy with that. From another European country, with the usual bank transfer, around the same small amount, I had paid 1200 THB.

but nTransferWise had worked with THB for a while, and I used it twice, with a very good rate. Now it seams they have delisted THB for technical reasons. My I suggest to press them by using this page: https://transferwise.com/newcurrencyvote and see if they restore the THB soon?

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