Question International Bank Transfers

DaGaffer

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Probably one for @caLLous or @Hawkwind. Does anyone have experience of using the likes of Forex to do large international money transfers? I've just looked at the exchange rate NatWest are offering to turn (several hundred grand) into Euros and its fucking pitiful. UKForex seem to be offering a rate 20-30 grand more competitive! But I don't know much about them and if there are any obvious gotchas.
 

caLLous

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Have a look at HiFX, they're who I use. I used to do it through HSBC (from English HSBC account to French HSBC account) but their rates were laughable.
 

Hawkwind

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Have a look at HiFX, they're who I use. I used to do it through HSBC (from English HSBC account to French HSBC account) but their rates were laughable.
Have used HiFX before they give good rates, not the best but usually top 5. HSBC is easy if you switching between your own accounts otherwise they are expensive in my experience. I actually binned them as a bank in UAE 2 years ago due to their charges.

These guys are also good - WorldFirst, for one off payments.

Try Moneysupermarket for a list of the best current rates.
 

Hawkwind

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You will have to fill out a transfer form providing details of what the payment is for. I believe this kicks in for anything over 10k GBP in UK. Anti terror/organised crime BS!
 

caLLous

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You will have to fill out a transfer form providing details of what the payment is for. I believe this kicks in for anything over 10k GBP in UK. Anti terror/organised crime BS!
For the bank or the transfer company? I didn't have to do that for HiFX but HSBC in England wouldn't let me transfer more than £10k per day. HiFX were fine with me paying them in installments over a couple of days though for one big transfer to the French account. Nobody asked me for a reason though as I recall.
 

Hawkwind

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Weird I have to complete them all the time going from Lloyds UK to Natwest (formally RBS) in Guernsey. Usually transferring 20k at a time
 

Chilly

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DO NOT USE A BANK TO DO THE TRADE!
Find a specialised forex trader in London and you'll get a far better rate. There's a mechanism called SEPA (single european payment area) which you can use to send the money around the EU. I move sterling/euros around a fair bit (via citibank).
 

gunner440

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I use HiFX and GCEN and do around $2-3m a year across the two. I can probably set you up with a 1% spread (banks are typically 3-4% over market) if you want?
 

gunner440

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DO NOT USE A BANK TO DO THE TRADE!
Find a specialised forex trader in London and you'll get a far better rate. There's a mechanism called SEPA (single european payment area) which you can use to send the money around the EU. I move sterling/euros around a fair bit (via citibank).

^ This. It's estimated only around 20-30% of people use FX companies while the banks take the rest. FX trading on normal commercial banking terms is terrible. Only thing worse are the exchange desks at airports.
 

Hawkwind

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I use HiFX and GCEN and do around $2-3m a year across the two. I can probably set you up with a 1% spread (banks are typically 3-4% over market) if you want?
GCEN guys kept calling me after I made one enquiry to transfer money to buy a house. They pissed me off with the hard sell tactics. HiFX I have used quite a bit, good service.
 

Job

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I suggest Western Union, they seem trustworthy.
 

gunner440

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GCEN guys kept calling me after I made one enquiry to transfer money to buy a house. They pissed me off with the hard sell tactics. HiFX I have used quite a bit, good service.

Agreed. I'm fortunate to deal with them on a corporate level primarily and then leverage the corporate rates for personal trades. Wouldn't have dealt with them otherwise.
 

Access Denied

It was like that when I got here...
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Since there's a thread about this I'll ask here and try not to derail the main topic. What's the best way to send money to someone in Russia? I'm bringing my best friends girlfriend over as a surprise for her, and to get her girlfriend out of there as she hates it there. So I'm paying for the flights and visa and such but I'll be transferring the money to her so she can sort it out. I was thinking PayPal but I wanted your opinions on the matter.
 

Access Denied

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Call me a skeptic but that sounds all sorts of dodgy.

I agree it does sound dodgy. It's not though. She's having a really bad time of it over there and my friend is suffering badly without the person she loves. So I'm killing two birds with one stone. Doing something to help my friend and getting someone out of a bad situation. And before anyone else chips in, this girl was over here for a while, they've been together for two years now so I know what I'm doing.
 

Gwadien

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Since there's a thread about this I'll ask here and try not to derail the main topic. What's the best way to send money to someone in Russia? I'm bringing my best friends girlfriend over as a surprise for her, and to get her girlfriend out of there as she hates it there. So I'm paying for the flights and visa and such but I'll be transferring the money to her so she can sort it out. I was thinking PayPal but I wanted your opinions on the matter.

Sounds gay.

I agree it does sound dodgy. It's not though. She's having a really bad time of it over there and my friend is suffering badly without the person she loves. So I'm killing two birds with one stone. Doing something to help my friend and getting someone out of a bad situation. And before anyone else chips in, this girl was over here for a while, they've been together for two years now so I know what I'm doing.

You mean you're killing two birds with your penis?
 

soze

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For the bank or the transfer company? I didn't have to do that for HiFX but HSBC in England wouldn't let me transfer more than £10k per day. HiFX were fine with me paying them in installments over a couple of days though for one big transfer to the French account. Nobody asked me for a reason though as I recall.
Did they do £9999 a day? If it is under £10000 they probably do not need the form to be filled in and so limit you to save on paper work. Although from a friend working in a bank they Government are alerted to anything over about £4k now and can decide to investigate.
 

Access Denied

It was like that when I got here...
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Sounds gay.



You mean you're killing two birds with your penis?

If I haven't made it abundantly clear already, they're gay. So none of my penis involved. However my friend is the best wingman I've ever had and will no doubt reward me by getting me laid at an immense rate :)
 

DaGaffer

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Did they do £9999 a day? If it is under £10000 they probably do not need the form to be filled in and so limit you to save on paper work. Although from a friend working in a bank they Government are alerted to anything over about £4k now and can decide to investigate.

Its 20K a day with NatWest for online payments.
 

Scouse

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Since there's a thread about this I'll ask here and try not to derail the main topic. What's the best way to send money to someone in Russia? I'm bringing my best friends girlfriend over as a surprise for her, and to get her girlfriend out of there as she hates it there. So I'm paying for the flights and visa and such but I'll be transferring the money to her so she can sort it out. I was thinking PayPal but I wanted your opinions on the matter.

Has your best friend ever met this "girlfriend" in real life?

If not = scam.

Edit: Ah. Read it. :)
 

ECA

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@DaGaffer, send me a PM for the amount, parents company does forex and has a euro account, we sometimes run 100k+ through our euro account and we get a very decent rate from the bank when we do it.
We do charge, but it'd be lower than anywhere else publicly available.

I can't guarantee we can do it ( we do regularly handle more than that on a weekly basis, in sterling. I can definitely get our accounts people to run it past the bank and see if we can handle whatever amount it is, and let you know what % we'd charge.
 

Gwadien

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@DaGaffer, send me a PM for the amount, parents company does forex and has a euro account, we sometimes run 100k+ through our euro account and we get a very decent rate from the bank when we do it.
We do charge, but it'd be lower than anywhere else publicly available.

I can't guarantee we can do it ( we do regularly handle more than that on a weekly basis, in sterling. I can definitely get our accounts people to run it past the bank and see if we can handle whatever amount it is, and let you know what % we'd charge.
*looks at avatar*

Is it to Germany by any chance?
 

Chilly

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If you wanted to turn euros into sterling, I'd buy them off you at interbank right now.
 

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