Sending money - help!

[lisaallen67]

Hi all,

We already have an Aus bank account with Comm Bank. They have an office in London and they have advised us to set up an account there also. Then they say we can deposit money from house sale into that for transfer to account in Aus. This way it will cost us only £30 for the transfer and we will get a commercial rate of transfer. Is this good? s there a better way? Any info please.

Ta - Lisa

[RCoight]

Use HiFX or OzForex instead. The banks will rip you off for charges.

[Windsor2]

Hi Lisa,

Currency brokers offer an alternative to using a bank for your transfers. It all works in a similar way in terms of logistics and is just as safe and secure (we hold a client trust account with Barclays), and it is very simple and straightforward.

First f all you register (which is free and carries no obligation) and if you are happy with the rate that your dealer gives you then you lock into that rate over the phone. You then send the funds to us, and we send them to your account in Australia.

The main differences are firstly there are no charges - this includes commissions, transfer charges and any bank receipt charges in Aus. Everyone makes their money in the same way - between where we buy our currency and where we sell our currency, but our overheads and profit margin is just smaller than the banks, so the savings are passed onto the client. This then means that brokers can invariably offer a better rate of exchange than the banks, meaning more dollars for your pounds!!

I hope this helps!

All the best,

Richard.

[Pinhead]

I would endorse Hifx, I've used them 4 times and never had any problems whatsoever.

[KirstyM]

I use a company called Custom House, they are good, you get your own account manager (mine has a personality *gasp*), but I've nothing to compare them to!

[Mike and Connie]

Lisa
We used Commonwealth Bank to transfer our money from the sale of our house and it all worked very well. The exchange rate they offered was very competitive, I checked their rate against other companies (including HIFX), and they were equally as good,sometimes even better. Also if you transfer over £30,000 then there isn't a bank charge. Once you're in OZ you have to visit the bank to get cards etc and to get access to your funds, but it all worked well.
The CBA accounts gave interest as 3.25% in the London account paid gross
5.25% in the OZ account (called Cash and Investment account).
NetBank saver account (internet account which you can set up once you're in OZ) pays 7% and term deposit account pays 8% over 12 months.
Once you are in OZ then a phone call to London and you can transfer as and when you want.
I have no association with the bank other than being a very satisfied customer.
Regards
Mike

[Paul~D]

Brokers are definatlty the way to go mine got me 2.06 today but i have a larger amount to do in a couple of weeks and i wanted to get a second opinion as to where this rate is going. I know it was at 2.0760 a couple of days ago as that was one of the rates i got (wish i had done the whole lot now) Any input will be welcome.

Paul D

[lynneunderwood]

Hi
I am in Ireland moving to Oz end August and need to exchange money and transfer any advice on best way to do it from ireland

Cheers Lynneeeeeeeeeeee

[pjscouse]

you can use a company called Easy Exchange which is internet based go to www.easyexchange.co.uk and have a look there rate is usually about 2-3 cents lower than the bank exchange rate but there fees are about £6.00