Transfer money from UK

[ElleDee]

Hi all, hoping someone can offer some guidance. I am trying to have some of my money sent over from the UK. I opened a Wise account and my mum was intending to send the money from her account. She banks with Virgin. They told her that they don’t allow transfers to Wise because of issues with the service and people losing money. They will only transfer via Swift. From what I understand this will cost quite a bit of money with them taking 2.5% of any amount transferred. Is this correct?
What Other options might be available? I don’t want to pay virgin 500quid just to transfer!!

[BendigoBoy]

I don't mean this to sound rude or patronising: Can't your mum just open an account with another bank that *will* deal with Wise?

[ElleDee]

Not at all patronising

I did consider that but it’s a big ask of her. She’s a bit older these days and quite old school. She wants to do the transfer by going into the bank in person. So to open an entire new account I think might tip her over the edge

In saying that - if I can’t find any other solutions I may ask her to transfer the money to my sister and see if she can do the transfer. 
 

I guess it has also raised some doubt in my mind about using Wise. Wondered if anyone knows of any issues with the company? I read some awful reviews on google. But then on here I see so many use it with no issues

[BendigoBoy]

I've never had an issue with wise, and I wired over well into six figures with them when I migrated (admittedly, that was back in 2016, but no service issues in the years since).
Bear in mind that you'll be up against SWIFT charges, poor exchange rates, and the usual kerfuffles of dealing with Retail banks if you decide to go down the transfer via the bank directly route.

If you're talking a more substantial sum, it might be worth speaking to a FX dealer - I doubt the banks would refuse allowing your mum to transfer to their business accounts.
That said, I'm honestly more shocked than anything that a bank is refusing to allow a transfer to a Wise account at all.  Seems a bit protectionist to me, more than "concerns" by the banks: having worked at RBS from 2006 to 2014, the only concerns I ever saw a UK bank have around customers' money was keeping as much of it as they could.

[ramot]

42 minutes ago, ElleDee said:

Not at all patronising

I did consider that but it’s a big ask of her. She’s a bit older these days and quite old school. She wants to do the transfer by going into the bank in person. So to open an entire new account I think might tip her over the edge

In saying that - if I can’t find any other solutions I may ask her to transfer the money to my sister and see if she can do the transfer. 
 

I guess it has also raised some doubt in my mind about using Wise. Wondered if anyone knows of any issues with the company? I read some awful reviews on google. But then on here I see so many use it with no issues

I’m really surprised by Virgin’s reaction. We have used Wise, previously Transferwise, for years and continue to, to transfer money monthly as all our income is from Uk. We have never had a problem, and the money is usually in our Australian bank within 24hours. I genuinely think Wise has a good reputation, and think I would try to to get a bit of proof from Virgin about their stance. The information, if true?, could be useful to know.

Edited May 26, 2023 by ramot

[Ausvisitor]

I have transferred over $500k in the last 3 months with WISE. 

Better rates than anubfx broker or mainstream bank I talked to.

It's all here, and very quick.

Transferred to WISE from both Nationwide and Santander accounts so it is certainly possible from a good UK bank.

[InnerVoice]

2 hours ago, ElleDee said:

Hi all, hoping someone can offer some guidance. I am trying to have some of my money sent over from the UK. I opened a Wise account and my mum was intending to send the money from her account. She banks with Virgin. They told her that they don’t allow transfers to Wise because of issues with the service and people losing money. They will only transfer via Swift. From what I understand this will cost quite a bit of money with them taking 2.5% of any amount transferred. Is this correct?
What Other options might be available? I don’t want to pay virgin 500quid just to transfer!!

 

2 hours ago, ramot said:

I’m really surprised by Virgin’s reaction. We have used Wise, previously Transferwise, for years and continue to, to transfer money monthly as all our income is from Uk. We have never had a problem, and the money is usually in our Australian bank within 24hours. I genuinely think Wise has a good reputation, and think I would try to to get a bit of proof from Virgin about their stance. The information, if true?, could be useful to know.

I'm also surprised, and I think the issue is with Virgin and not Wise. I use Wise all the time, and whilst I need to instigate the transfer from within Wise, the transfer itself is actioned by me from my UK bank account to Wise's UK bank account (with the required payment reference). I assume that your mum was informed by some helpful Virgin customer services representative that using their service was the only way to do it? 

If your mum isn't savvy with online banking and you don't have a UK bank account any more, then a transfer via your sister's account sounds like the best option.

Edited May 26, 2023 by InnerVoice

[calNgary]

7 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

 

I'm also surprised, and I think the issue is with Virgin and not Wise. I use Wise all the time, and whilst I need to instigate the transfer from within Wise, the transfer itself is actioned by me from my UK bank account to Wise's UK bank account (with the required payment reference). I assume that your mum was informed by some helpful Virgin customer services representative that using their service was the only way to do it? 

If your mum isn't savvy with online banking and you don't have a UK bank account any more, then a transfer via your sister's account sounds like the best option.

To be fair Google does say they use Swift for International transfers, not sure if Wise know as i am 99% sure i read on THEIR site they do Virgin transfers UK to Aus???????

You can make international payments with SWIFT from Virgin Money and SWIFT transfer can be instructed at any store. Fees apply. Payments are given specific value dates i.e. same-day, next day or “spot” value which is typically 2 business days ahead.

[DrDougster]

I had this issue with a Malaysian bank and needed to move the money across to a local HSBC account and then across to Wise.

Your solution using your sister is probably the best - flick the money from Virgin to a different UK account (fee free transfer) and then from there into your Wise "UK account" before converting to AUD and then paying the very nominal (was $0.57) to send it to your Australian bank.

[Ken]

I don't think the problem is with the safety of you using your wise account, but with scammers getting people to transfer to their wise account. Virgin money has therefore decided that the risk that someone asking to transfer money to a wise account is being scammed is too high for them to bear.

[Johnny Kash]

I have used Wise over the last 4/5 years and will continue to use them.   

Last year I had a significant GBP amount from the proceeds of my mothers house sale.   Thought I would try some of the Forex companies to see if they could match or beat Wise.   Neither of them could come close, Im talking around $2 or $3k difference when it comes to the larger transfer amounts.    I found this quite surprising for large chunks of money but there you go.   

Service and transfer times decent, you can also cancel 2 or 3 times and re-submit if the market moves in your favour (there is a limit on this and they'll temporarily freeze the transfer if you do it 3 times I think so beware of doing this multiple times  ).

[Dcw]

Never had any problem with Wise and have just transferred 300k pounds from a house sale over the last 5 months in 10k lots to try to average out the exchange rate.

Sounds like protectionism from Virgin to make money out of transfers. If it were me I would immediately close the Virgin account and open one elsewhere  but appreciate this is difficult older people.

[Ken]

It occurs to me that perhaps the person spoken to at Virgin Money just didn't understand and thought that a transfer to Wise was an international transaction and not a simple transfer from one UK bank to another.