6 ms·

Forex commissions are lower than 1%. Which exchanges offer better rates on a fiat/bitcoin/fiat transfer?

sushid 9y ago
Kraken is ~.26% for a taker and ~.16% for a maker. And in some places, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to send money.
- yourapostasy 9y ago
  Unfortunately, many companies still insist upon remitting in paper checks, especially for cross-border transactions. If I could route a paper check remittance to a BTC/ETH exchange like Kraken, buy into BTC/ETH in that paper check's denomination, then immediately sell and withdraw as USD, then I and many other vendors could solve that use case. If anyone knows of a BTC/ETH exchange with turnarounds even faster than forex brokers, and can process paper checks, then please post who you use. For a world economy that is supposed to be a global integrated entity, the amount of rentier hurdles sitting on the borders never ceases to amaze me. For the few customers that agree to a wire transfer, I'm trying out a cryptocurrency exchange in 2018 to convert them to USD.
yourapostasy 9y ago
Where are you getting below 1%, and how much are you exchanging? I'm working with 5-figure USD amounts, drafted on paper checks, and I'm averaging right around 1-1.2% after all costs are accounted for, but not below that.
- tonfa 9y ago
  Stock broker with FX, market spread and low fee, total result can easily be less than 0.1% (and even a lot less most likely closer to 0.01%).
  - yourapostasy 9y ago
    How do I get in touch with a "Stock broker with FX"? That's not a term I'm familiar with unfortunately, and searching that string turns up either FX brokers, or FX trading platforms. I've spoken with my US equities/funds brokerage firm, and they have an FX desk, but they're still more expensive than the dedicated FX broker I found and currently work with. Before that, I was regularly raked by my US bank for 4-6% off the mid-market. I haven't seen mid-market spread + 0.01% anywhere, and only seen + 0.1% thrown around for 6-figure and up USD transaction sizes, wire transfer (ACH or SWIFT), at least several of those per month volume. TransferWise works at mid-market + 1%; but they don't work with paper checks. What you're getting is even better than cryptocurrency exchange-facilitated conversions, so I'm very interested in finding out more if you can post a pointer in the right direction. Thanks.
    - tonfa 9y ago
      https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission&p=fx https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission... (Not an endorsement in any way and I'm sure there are others). Fees are min($2, 0.002%), typical spread is a few pip or much less (eg. EURUSD at the moment: 1.20015 (sell) 1.20020 (buy)). But you'll also need a bank account in both currency most likely. edit: maybe a downside, but there's a min $10/month activity fee at IB if you have less than 100k holdings (but your transaction fees count against that). But as I said, I'm sure IB isn't the only place with those offerings.
      - yourapostasy 9y ago
        Thanks, I'll keep them in mind if a wire transfer comes up in the future, that looks useful. Unfortunately, many of my non-US customers still request remitting in their native currency via paper check. And IB doesn't seem to accept paper checks from commercial entities other than banks. Part of my forex broker's value add is they have banking points of presence in many nations, and can accept the check there, then convert to any currency I designate (typically USD). That would probably explain much of the spread between IB's and my FX broker's margins.
- occamrazor 9y ago
  I had in mind transactions in Europe within the SEPA area, eg EUR/GBP/CHF. Banks charge nothing for the transfer, 0.5% fee, and the spread which often is 0.1% or less. FX brokers have even better conditions for high volume customers.
charlesdm 9y ago
I can exchange FX at 0.5% market rate, and that's through an online stock broker. I can probably do better through a forex broker, e.g. 0.25%. I don't see how Bitcoin can be more competitive.

Kraken is ~.26% for a taker and ~.16% for a maker. And in some places, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to send money.

yourapostasy 9y ago
Unfortunately, many companies still insist upon remitting in paper checks, especially for cross-border transactions. If I could route a paper check remittance to a BTC/ETH exchange like Kraken, buy into BTC/ETH in that paper check's denomination, then immediately sell and withdraw as USD, then I and many other vendors could solve that use case. If anyone knows of a BTC/ETH exchange with turnarounds even faster than forex brokers, and can process paper checks, then please post who you use. For a world economy that is supposed to be a global integrated entity, the amount of rentier hurdles sitting on the borders never ceases to amaze me. For the few customers that agree to a wire transfer, I'm trying out a cryptocurrency exchange in 2018 to convert them to USD.

yourapostasy 9y ago

Where are you getting below 1%, and how much are you exchanging? I'm working with 5-figure USD amounts, drafted on paper checks, and I'm averaging right around 1-1.2% after all costs are accounted for, but not below that.

tonfa 9y ago
Stock broker with FX, market spread and low fee, total result can easily be less than 0.1% (and even a lot less most likely closer to 0.01%).
- yourapostasy 9y ago
  How do I get in touch with a "Stock broker with FX"? That's not a term I'm familiar with unfortunately, and searching that string turns up either FX brokers, or FX trading platforms. I've spoken with my US equities/funds brokerage firm, and they have an FX desk, but they're still more expensive than the dedicated FX broker I found and currently work with. Before that, I was regularly raked by my US bank for 4-6% off the mid-market. I haven't seen mid-market spread + 0.01% anywhere, and only seen + 0.1% thrown around for 6-figure and up USD transaction sizes, wire transfer (ACH or SWIFT), at least several of those per month volume. TransferWise works at mid-market + 1%; but they don't work with paper checks. What you're getting is even better than cryptocurrency exchange-facilitated conversions, so I'm very interested in finding out more if you can post a pointer in the right direction. Thanks.
  - tonfa 9y ago
    https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission&p=fx https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission... (Not an endorsement in any way and I'm sure there are others). Fees are min($2, 0.002%), typical spread is a few pip or much less (eg. EURUSD at the moment: 1.20015 (sell) 1.20020 (buy)). But you'll also need a bank account in both currency most likely. edit: maybe a downside, but there's a min $10/month activity fee at IB if you have less than 100k holdings (but your transaction fees count against that). But as I said, I'm sure IB isn't the only place with those offerings.
    - yourapostasy 9y ago
      Thanks, I'll keep them in mind if a wire transfer comes up in the future, that looks useful. Unfortunately, many of my non-US customers still request remitting in their native currency via paper check. And IB doesn't seem to accept paper checks from commercial entities other than banks. Part of my forex broker's value add is they have banking points of presence in many nations, and can accept the check there, then convert to any currency I designate (typically USD). That would probably explain much of the spread between IB's and my FX broker's margins.
occamrazor 9y ago
I had in mind transactions in Europe within the SEPA area, eg EUR/GBP/CHF. Banks charge nothing for the transfer, 0.5% fee, and the spread which often is 0.1% or less. FX brokers have even better conditions for high volume customers.

charlesdm 9y ago

I can exchange FX at 0.5% market rate, and that's through an online stock broker. I can probably do better through a forex broker, e.g. 0.25%. I don't see how Bitcoin can be more competitive.