FX
Posted: Mon 10 Apr 2017 14:04
There's an interesting piece in the Guardian about some leaked PowerPoint slides from an internal meeting at Bank Santander. They show how their staggering income from FX transfers would be slaughtered if people switched to lower-cost alternatives like Transferwise (their example on the slides).
It's here
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/ ... ansferwise
On their example, £10,000 from the UK to Spain, it would cost €64 using Transferwise, and €394 using Santander - €106 in explicit fees, and €288 buried away in the lousy exchange rate they give you. They were understandably concerned about losing a big slug of income, and almost cost-free profit.
When asked about it, Santander trotted out the bollocks you'd expect: many people really value paying an extra €330 flogging off to do it at their Santander branch, rather than grappling with the mysteries of the interweb from their sofa.
I guess that's an issue in a tiny minority of cases: but in the great majority it must be inertia and lack of information. If anyone here is still using banks to transfer money, you are being royally ripped off, and it's time to get your heads round something better.
But the nicest bit is that Santander's meeting was held in Andorra.
It's here
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/ ... ansferwise
On their example, £10,000 from the UK to Spain, it would cost €64 using Transferwise, and €394 using Santander - €106 in explicit fees, and €288 buried away in the lousy exchange rate they give you. They were understandably concerned about losing a big slug of income, and almost cost-free profit.
When asked about it, Santander trotted out the bollocks you'd expect: many people really value paying an extra €330 flogging off to do it at their Santander branch, rather than grappling with the mysteries of the interweb from their sofa.
I guess that's an issue in a tiny minority of cases: but in the great majority it must be inertia and lack of information. If anyone here is still using banks to transfer money, you are being royally ripped off, and it's time to get your heads round something better.
But the nicest bit is that Santander's meeting was held in Andorra.