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PayPal has some serious issues with regards to what you say, but I used it last summer to transfer money from USA to Europe for my daughter and the fee was a fr
by coffeedrinker 11y ago
PayPal has some serious issues with regards to what you say, but I used it last summer to transfer money from USA to Europe for my daughter and the fee was a fraction of what the bank wanted. Banks can be pretty scummy in their own way.
- 1_player 11y agoHave you ever tried TransferWise? With customers and family around the world, I'm thinking of switching to them to handle transfers instead of Paypal/Stripe. They seem to have the most honest fees around. Disclaimer: not affiliated with them. Just genuinely curious.
- dhimes 11y agoI use them. It's been great so far.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoBump for TransferWise. They're a treat to work with!
- gav 11y agoI've used Xoom in the past as to send money to family in the UK, it's always been fast and easy. However they charge $4.99 up to $2999, with TransferWise there's no fee and slightly better rates (0.6346 vs. 0.6262). I'm going to try them out next time, thanks for the tip!
- vezycash 11y agoAbout TransferWise. I checked their site based on your recommendation. However, something bothers me. There's a form on the Top-right corner. "You send," "You Receive." I tried checking how much would be received in dollars if I sent $1000. However, the form wouldn't let me. It doesn't allow comparison between the same currency. It felt shady to me. I've sent this message to them already. But wow! They do support a lot of countries - far more than Stripe. I'm surprised I've never heard of them before.
- lucaspiller 11y ago> It doesn't allow comparison between the same currency. Their use case is transferring funds between currencies, why would you want to do that?
- Dylan16807 11y agoThe site says "transfer money abroad". If for some reason they only want the more difficult kind of transfer, it would help to make that clear. I'm confused by you asking why when the answer is both obvious and explicitly stated in parent comments. Sending someone money in a different country, but they happen to use the same currency.
- linuskendall 11y agoSince transfers are bank account to bank account, this would mean somebody abroad (say in Europe) would have USD denominated bank account? As far as I know TransferWise does require your recipient to have a bank account in the location where they want to receive the money, meaning usually transfers between accounts denominated in different currencies. If its within EU there is of course no point in using TransferWise as EUR-EUR transactions are practically free.
- lucaspiller 11y agoIt wasn't clear to me which is why I asked. I agree for that case the headline is a bit misleading though. In the EU it's nearly always free to transfer funds between the same currency, even between different countries. Banks still get people with the exchange rates or high fees to make transfers between currencies. TransferWise is a UK company, so that being their primary market, they took off from European workers in the UK wanting to send money home. Just for comparisons sake, my use case is transferring money between Ireland (EUR) and the UK (GBP) and vice versa. Compared to my bank they have both better exchange rates, lower fees, and are quicker.
- jotm 11y agoHeh, I said the same thing - their explanations and their site needs a bit of rework. As it is, they look shady :-)
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jotm 11y agoHow does it work? I wanted to use them once, but it was the first time I heard about them and their site doesn't explain anything. If anything, it looks shady - "outsmart your bank, use us, we do it super cheap, promise!" but no explanation of how it actually works...
- linuskendall 11y agoIt works well, you initiate a bank account transfer from one country (denominated in say USD) and in a few days your recipient receives it as a deposit in their bank account in their local currency. In between TransferWise keeps you updated with status via e-mail and on the website.
- NearAP 11y agoFrom their website (step 3 of how it works) TransferWise converts your money at the mid-market rate and matches you with people sending in the other direction. That's why it costs so little. My understanding - after you've given the money you want to transfer to TransferWise, they find someone in your destination country who wishes to transfer money to the country where you are (kind of like a swap). This way, they cut off the banks and their fees and charge you a lower fee.
- jotm 11y agoThat's how I understood it, but then I thought "what if there's no one in that country?" Do they use their own funds or does the recipient wait several weeks. I imagine it's the former, but at the time I just used SWIFT - rather expensive, but guaranteed to work everywhere.
- tim333 11y agoIt works by them having $90m in VC funding from people like Richard Branson and Peter Thiel which they then use to subsidise the super cheap transfers with the aim of growing big.
- linuskendall 11y agoI have used TransferWise for both USD and SEK/EUR transfers to INR. Works perfectly, their time estimates are spot on (usually I receive it on the day or one day early) and the exchange fees are very competitive (and I've probably compared most other forms of transfers - including Bitcoin/Localcoin).
- Moru 11y agoI always compare with my normal bank when I'm forced to use paypal and so far they have always been slightly higher than the bank. I live in Sweden though.
- fapjacks 11y agoMy wife uses Nordea and they go out on a limb for her every time she needs something (and she lives in the US with me, so hardly can go into the bank for things).
- Moru 11y agoNordea and Handelsbanken is probably the best big banks when it comes to service.
- fapjacks 11y agoI can't pretend to know, but she always seems happy with their service.
- scrollaway 11y agoI've heard good and bad things about both of them. I've been looking for a better international alternative, though. Simple bank looks absolutely amazing (https://www.simple.com/ https://www.simple.com/), but sadly they are US-only. Does anyone know a similar bank to Simple that is friendlier to international travelers/EU citizens?
- linuskendall 11y agoCuriously for use abroad ICA banken (affiliated with the grocery store of the same name) turns out to be really beneficial, free withdrawals anywhere in the world and completely aligned with remote customer service (as they don't in fact have any branches that they can ask you to visit..).