Transferring Money

JulieW

JulieW

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AUSTRALIANS sending money overseas can save hundreds of dollars by avoiding the big banks, new research by comparison website Mozo has found.

According to the World Bank, Australia is one of the most expensive developed nations for sending money. The only G20 countries getting ripped off more are Japan and South Africa, while Australia is considerably more expensive than the US, UK and Canada.

International money transfer has long been flagged as one of the Australia's biggest rip-offs and sectors ripe for disruption.

Mozo's analysis found on average, online international money transfer providers are 5.2 per cent cheaper than the big four banks. Aussies can save more than $500 on a transfer of $10,000 into US dollars, pounds or euros.

The online providers are also quicker, with a turnaround time of one to two days compared with up to five days with the big banks.

"Many Aussies with family, assets or business interests overseas need to send money overseas but they may not realise there are a now a number of specialist money transfer providers offering much more competitive exchange rates and lower fees than the big banks," said Mozo director Kirsty Lamont.

Mozo compared the cost of transferring $10,000 into US dollars, pounds and euros, and the cost of transferring $US10,000, 10,000 and 10,000 into Australian dollars, taking into account exchange rates and fees.

Mozo says the top three providers across a range of scenarios were TorFX, WorldFirst and CurrencyFair.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/mone...0/news-story/d80e1eb71e20efcf4de6d1ed5d1b8726
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Anyone who cares about such things knows that bank currency conversion rates are the worst. They make PayPal look cheap!

I use CurrencyFair for all my international business transactions. The only thing my bank foreign currency account does hold money, it never converts it.
 
$500 cheaper! This is the reason I always take cash with me
$500 on the $10,000 is 5% Money is stolen from you.
Here in Europe if I transfer over 20,000 euro value I can go up in the banks trading room, look the pips on the screen and say do it now
 
Interesting note from the BarefootInvestor.com.au website.

It seems the banks have taken a leaf out of the gift card market. See, the reason that retailers push gift cards so heavily is that they get paid upfront, and they know a certain percentage of the cards will end up in a sock draw and never be redeemed.

In late 2014 ASIC slapped the Commonwealth Bank over the fact that 45,000 of its customers had $2.2 million sitting in expired Commbank Travel Money cards.

And with the deft touch of arrogance that embodies Australia's biggest bank, they flatly refused to get in touch with their customers and offer them refunds of their own money.

Instead, any leftover money has to be claimed by customers within three years, otherwise it goes into the government's consolidated revenue fund, and can only be claimed by searching ASIC's MoneySmart unclaimed money website.

So what card do I recommend these days?

The Citibank Plus Transaction Account.

It's got no annual fees, no overseas ATM fees, and no currency conversion fees.
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