Regular Currency transfer

Jackie E · Post by **Jackie E** » Wed 05 Dec 2012 17:18

I know this question has been addressed before, but not for some time as far as I can see, so I'm wondering what current knowledge is out there.

I have benefitted for some years from a very favourable arrangement with a friend for a regular monthly currency transfer at the neutral rate. He has a French pension but now lives in the UK, so we had an agreement that he would transfer a monthly EUR sum into my French account in return for my transferring GBP into his English account. Unfortunately, circumstances have changed and I'm now canvassing opinion regarding the best broker with whom to set up a monthly transfer from GBP to a French (Credit Agricole) account. I've used Currencies Direct in the past, but wasn't impressed with their rates, and looked at World First - does anyone have any good tips? It's quite hard to get a true rate from websites.

Allan · Post by **Allan** » Wed 05 Dec 2012 17:51

I tried a few and then settled on World First.

The rate you get depends on how much you transfer in one go

Here is a rough guide to the percentage less than the official rate that they offer:

Less than £1,000 2.05%
less than £10,000 0.95%
more than £10,000 0.75%

Funds transferred are always in my account the next day but that might not be the case with all banks

DaveM · Post by **DaveM** » Wed 05 Dec 2012 23:26

Hi Jackie,
I've always used HiFx, no charges, no commission, good rates, they make their money by playing the exchange rates. You might check them out.

John & Elaine · Post by **John & Elaine** » Thu 06 Dec 2012 10:55

We have also used HIFX for about 7 years and have never encountered any problems with substantial one-off transfers or regular ones.

http://www.hifx.co.uk/Marketwatch/Exchange-rates.aspx

Give them a go!

John

Allan · Post by **Allan** » Thu 06 Dec 2012 19:49

Based on recommendations here, I thought I would have a look at HiFX and compare their rates with Worldfirst who I have used for some years.

For sums below £1,000 the rates were practically identical.
For larger amounts Worldfirst were about .4 centimes a £1 better - doesn't sound a lot but on £10,000 you would get €40 more

HiFX charges a £9 fee for sums less that £3,000 and WorldFirst charges up to £15 depending on how much business you transact with them.

Having said that, my experience is that for larger sums you can normally haggle.

I guess it depends on how much you change in one go and who you feel comfortable with. Both seem well organised companies and whoever you choose they will be cheaper than most high street banks.

Jackie E · Post by **Jackie E** » Thu 06 Dec 2012 20:07

thanks, all, for the helpful advice. I't's a regular monthly sum I want to transfer, so it needs to be charge free. I have used Hifx once before in the past, so I might give World First a go for a while.

Santiago · Post by **Santiago** » Sat 08 Dec 2012 11:47

Jackie,
I use Moneycorp. They have a service for single transfers and regular monthly ones. I've send you a PM with some more info.

russell · Post by **russell** » Sun 09 Dec 2012 12:44

I've used RationalFX for a number of years and always find them fast and economic.

I guess that there is not really much to choose between these different companies.

Russell.

Allan · Post by **Allan** » Mon 10 Dec 2012 00:10

Following recommendations on here and out of general curiosity, I signed up for an online account with HiFX and wish I hadn't bothered. I've been plagued by phone calls from them (account managers wanting to introduce themselves and suchlike) and found they didn't offer a competitive rate for the sum that I wanted to transfer.

Another disadvantage is that they will only take payments from a private account.

Jackie E · Post by **Jackie E** » Tue 11 Dec 2012 12:01

Following on from everyone's helpful [but varying] advice, I decided to take a snapshot of the various services through telephone enquiries this morning, and thought others might be interested in the results. I based the enquiry on a hypothetical regular transfer of £400/month moving from a UK bank account to a French account. At the time, the BBC quoted rate was 1.2397.

Moneycorp offered an exchange rate today of 1.225, with a monthly arrangement fee of £4/month. £400 would therefore buy me 485.10 euros. They said that their online service generally offered a better rate but costs £9 per transaction, so possibly better for larger sums.
Hifx couldn't give me an exact rate. The call to them was complicated, with no straight answers, transfers between departments and in the end an estimated figure [they would only give me an exact quote after I'd signed up]. The estimate was a rate of 1.20, with no monthly charge, hence my £400 would buy 480 euros.
WorldFirst offered a rate of 1.2146, with no monthly charge, giving me 485.84 euros

This indicates, as we assumed, that there's not a lot to choose between them. However the straightforwardness of the response, coupled with the flexibility & transparency of the service has persuaded me to sign up, for now, with World First. Hifx recommended signing up with several to take readings over a period of time, and I may do this, but not sure if I really want my inbox clogging up as no doubt it would!

Connect with your social network account

Regular Currency transfer

Regular Currency transfer