A word of warning over Transferwise

Soriya · Post by **Soriya** » Tue Mar 17, 2020 8:19 pm

I have used transferwise to move money from uk to here and reverse for 2 years.always only been charged the fees stated

cptrelentless · Post by **cptrelentless** » Thu Mar 19, 2020 7:05 pm

Soriya wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 8:19 pm I have used transferwise to move money from uk to here and reverse for 2 years.always only been charged the fees stated

Same. A basic SWIFT transfer only costs £20 from the UK, and TW is usually significantly less than this. I paid £7.50 on $1500 last time.

pczz · Post by **pczz** » Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:20 am

xandreu wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 5:01 pm It's not the fees which bother me, it's that they don't make this clear during the transaction process. When they give you a fee and tell you the amount you will receive in your Cambodian account, you take that in good faith and expect that money to end up in your bank account.

Even if they said something like 'Please be aware that as you are transferring to Cambodia, this may incur additional fees' but there was nothing of the sort.

In their email reply to me, they tried to explain the steps and where the money has gone. They begin by telling me that my original account would have charged me an initial fee for starting the process - they didn't, it was a simple bank transfer which is free (I have checked my account) - and then they tried to tell me my receiving bank will have charged me a fee - they didn't. ABA no longer charges for international transfers (I have checked the account and they now state in their website that they don't charge fees for this anymore).

It all seems a bit underhand to me. A bit of transparency is needed.

All international transfers incur Intermediary bank fees. To minimise the cost you need to specify a correspondent bank that is used by both transferwise and the cambodian bank. In general wells fargo in new york seems to work for most uk to cambodia transfers. When you send from uk they always charge £30 to £50.
When you send from cambodia you can pay in the bank. At acleda the cost is $30 for wire transfer if you tell them you want to pay the fee from your account. Otherwise the intermediary bank will deduct it from the sum your send. I have been charged 2intermediary fees by a certain british bank and appealed and got it back. banks are under a duty of care to minimise costs by using the most eficient route

Duncan · Post by **Duncan** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:32 pm

I have been planning on sending small amounts of money to the kids through ABA in Cambodia every month, aprox A $300 plus fee of $15 , which OZFOREX says I should get in Cambodia USA $178 ,, Exchange rate A$1 = .60,,,, less intermediary bank fee. If they take USA $50 there's not much left.

Any other suggestions like Western Union , or Wing ?

Cooldude · Post by **Cooldude** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:58 pm

Duncan Do you and your kids have accounts at ABA?

Duncan · Post by **Duncan** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:04 pm

Cooldude wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:58 pm Duncan Do you and your kids have accounts at ABA?

I dont, The kids do.

Post by **Clutch Cargo** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:07 pm

Duncan wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:32 pm I have been planning on sending small amounts of money to the kids through ABA in Cambodia every month, aprox A $300 plus fee of $15 , which OZFOREX says I should get in Cambodia USA $178 ,, Exchange rate A$1 = .60,,,, less intermediary bank fee. If they take USA $50 there's not much left.

Any other suggestions like Western Union , or Wing ?

I found for smaller amounts, AudSmart is the best as they absorb all fees..so what they quote you is what you get in your account. The exchange rate is not as good BUT there is no incoming bank fee nor intermediary fee. So I just did a quote $A300>$US175.73 (0.586) so that's only a few dollars less but you don't cop the additional fees of $US68.20 with Transferwise (see breakdown below). https://audsmart.com/en/

I did a couple of transactions a few weeks ago to test things out:

1. AudSmart > Acleda least favourable forex rate BUT no fees

2. Transferwise > ABA better forex rate (after their internal fees) but added fees: swift transfer $US3.20, ABA incoming $US10, intermediary bank fee $US55

I looked into OZFOREX and found they were not as good as Transferwise for smaller amounts but better for larger amounts eg $A150K+ NB either way with these 2, you will be hit with other bank transfer fees mentioned above.

Cooldude · Post by **Cooldude** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:12 pm

Duncan If you both have accounts at ABA, it's really easy to move money between accounts free of charge. Best way to give money to someone in Cambodia when you're out of the country.

A word of warning over Transferwise

Re: A word of warning over Transferwise

Re: A word of warning over Transferwise

Re: A word of warning over Transferwise

Re: A word of warning over Transferwise

Re: A word of warning over Transferwise

Re: A word of warning over Transferwise

Re: A word of warning over Transferwise

Re: A word of warning over Transferwise

Who is online

Register/Login to CEO with your Social Media Account: