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Best money transfer methods?

gostang9
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Syrte Syrte
Not sure whether you have all noticed how high Paypal’s exchange rates are, at least when sending Paypal friends. If there’s any currency exchange differentials to your benefit, I noticed Paypal usually erases them.
Articles I found in the Guardian say that essentially Paypal is one of the worst exchange rates and most expensive ways to transfer money. Banks are also very bad.

So I’m in the process of completing a transaction with someone in the UK and he suggested we try Azimo. We’ll see how it goes.

Apparently Transferwise was one of the best rated methods for small and medium size payments.

Had anyone tried any of those and does anyone have any feedback?

I have used many methods for sending and transferring money. My wife and I both 'work' in the US and earn salaries in USD, but we live in Canada so spend in CAD. This means we have to convert our entire annual net earnings between currencies and send from a US bank account to our Canadian one. None of this is important for you to know, other than that it should make clear just how important finding a good method of converting and sending funds was to me.

Of all the methods I've tried (and there truly have been many), the best method I've found is TransferWise. I have my US account set up to do direct debits (which saves on fees taking money out of my USD bank into Transferwise). I have found the total fees with TransferWise to be the most transparent, and in the end the best exchange rate possible with a few clicks of a button. (There is a method called Norbert's Gambit that results in a perfect exchange at the spot rate, but it is more involved and means a phone call every transaction with my bank... not worth it to me).

I highly recommend TW, it normally takes 2-4 days to get the money transferred which is very good for the excellent FX rate in the end.

Good luck!
 
gostang9
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Also, another advantage of TransferWise is the Mastercard I received from them. It allows me to convert money to other currencies within my TW account, then spend money in a country with that local currency and it simply deducts from my account. No other credit card comes close to that, and it worked great in Greece a year ago when on vacation (oh the good-ole-days pre-Covid...)
 
NT931
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NT931 NT931
Another option: I should add that you can still use paypal and not get clobbered by PP's exchange rate. You can use transferwise's debit card instead:
https://www.thecurrencyshop.com.au/reviews/transferwise-debit-card

Say I buy an item off ebay for EUR50. Normally, I'd convert this to my local currency, and pay using my credit card, and get sharked.

Now I still pay using my Transferwise card, which is linked to Paypal, but ask them to bill me in EUR and not local currency. The Transferwise card converts my local currency to EUR at a much better rate than Paypal (saving me 4%). So I have the benefits of Paypal, but without the PP markup.

gostang9 gostang9
Also, another advantage of TransferWise is the Mastercard I received from them. It allows me to convert money to other currencies within my TW account, then spend money in a country with that local currency and it simply deducts from my account. No other credit card comes close to that, and it worked great in Greece a year ago when on vacation (oh the good-ole-days pre-Covid...)

Totally agree - using TW's debit card allows me to spend overseas (whether I'm physically overseas or buying things from an overseas website) without getting hit by bank or Paypal's disadvantageous exchange rates or bank fees. I hardly ever use Paypal or the bank's exchange rates any more.
 
Pvt-Public
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O omulmeu
When I was younger and studying at University, I found the best part-time job because I could do my job and have my money without disturbing my parents and studying.
Great first post LOL. WTF are you thinking. Reopening a 2 yr. old thread to tell us about your job, parental situation and studying. What does this have to do with money transferring? At least offer something relative to the discussion. Even a stupid bankers joke would be better than that claptrap.
 
ts95kj
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Pvt-Public Pvt-Public
Great first post LOL. WTF are you thinking. Reopening a 2 yr. old thread to tell us about your job, parental situation and studying. What does this have to do with money transferring? At least offer something relative to the discussion. Even a stupid bankers joke would be better than that claptrap.
Thanks for making it clear that it was an old thread... I kept thinking "am I crazy or nobody knows that Transferwise changed its name to Wise?" 😀
 
Syrte
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ts95kj ts95kj
I kept thinking "am I crazy or nobody knows that Transferwise changed its name to Wise?" 😀

well, here’s another zombie bump for you—
I don’t know why they changed their name to Wise,
i liked Transferwise much better as it just made sense.

Two and half years after this thread began, I can say Transferwise has been excellent for me and others to whom I recommended it. It allowed me to make a couple of no fuss, cheap and instant payments to countries which use another currency than mine. Both involved watches.

But more importantly, I recommended it to some American friends who spent a year living in a European country and who were in a bind because no bank wanted to open them a local bank account, as many Americans living overseas are now finding out. “Wise” ( as it’s now called 🙄) allowed them to make monthly rent payments out of their US bank account directly into someone’s account in Europe and in Euros— and to live for a year there despite not having a local bank account.

Furthermore someone I know used it to make regular payments to his son studying abroad in another currency.

Let’s hope it stays that way.
Edited:
 
rudagger
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I had a quick look at Wise and am unsure on the best method for getting paid by a US resident to a USD account in Canada.

As far as I can tell, if I have a USD account in Canada, I could receive a payment into Wise for free, then I would have to pay a fee of at least 0.41% to pay into my actual USD bank account.

Call me crazy, but if you trusted the person or the amount (risk) were low, would the cheapest method of payment be to get a check/cheque and deposit it directly?
 
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