DaniHirsch wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 4:01 pm What I finally did:
Option 1 (discarded): First I tried to send through Ria website because it seemed the best exchange rate. The website is a complete disaster. Every account I created, was eventually locked ("call our support department to unlock your account"). I called support, no one answered. As every account is attached to a phone number, I quickly burned my Ria options. I can have infinite emails, but not infinite phone numbers. Doing directly in a physical shop is more expensive. For 100EUR, a couple shops told she would receive 101USD. So, they take either high commission or bad rate.

Option 2 (discarded): MoneyGram. Similar problem. Disaster website, unable to create new accounts, etc.

Option 3 (discarded): Bank to bank. My bank was charging very high fee, around $25.

Option 4 (the chosen one): Transferwise. The website is very good and looks reliable. I sent 220EUR and they say she will get 242.57. I think this is fair enough. The process is, first I do a transfer to a bank in Belgium, and when they receive it, they forward to the Cambodian bank. Monitoring of this process is very good through their website and through emails. You can also decide the speed of the transfer. The faster, the more expensive. The process didn't complete yet. I can update you guys whenever it's complete. Fee was 4.79 (included in the 242.57 she will be receiving, I hope).

I don't discard other options for next transfers, but some include asking her ABA online banking credentials.

TransferWise do not include intra bank charges in their fees.

Not too sure where you are sending from but if expect $25 less to arrive

ABA also takes 0.1% or $10

So I'd guess she will receive $207.

Hopefully I'm wrong...

DaniHirsch wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 6:34 pm Would it be possible to send KHR (riel) straight? Just an idea, some banks could be doing EUR -> KHR -> USD.
Does it make sense?

May be possible but I don't know what company you would use and there would still surely be intra bank fees.

Out of interest how much did you receive in the end?

Duncan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 5:19 am

explorer wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 7:45 pm

rozzieoz wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 7:21 pm Western union has been very cheap and easy.

Have a look at how much you lose with the exchange rate.

Yes, but look at how much you lose if you have to pay an intermediary bank.

For Australians I suggest you look into Audsmart https://audsmart.com/en/

When I did some transfers a few months back from Australia, I compared Audsmart and Transferwise. I found that:

Transferwise has a better forex rate but I got an intermediary fee of $US55 and $US10 receiving bank fee into ABA.

Audsmart has a less favourable forex rate than Transferwise however there are NO intermediary and receiving bank fees. As I understand it from another thread on Audsmart, this is because there is no actual Swift transfer. Audsmart have a local account here (and in Thailand) in an association with local bank, Acleda. So when the money goes into your local Cambo account, it is a local transfer of funds.

What this means from my analysis is that Audsmart is cheaper than Transferwise for amounts under $A10,000k. Over that Transferwise becomes more attractive even though there are additional intermediary fee of $US65 (albeit Audsmart says to contact them for transfers over $A15,000k for presumably a better rate).

On the other hand, if you are sending lots of smaller amounts on a regular basis Audsmart beats Transferwise hands down coz there is no intermediary fees. I also found it better than Western Union (WU). Did a side by side comparison here as I write:

1. Send $A500 gets:
WU $US337.07 (NB plus $A9 transfer fee so you have to submit $A509)
Audsmart $US337.69 (no other fees)

2. Send $A1000 gets:
WU $US674.14 (NB plus $A15 transfer fee so you have to submit $A1015)
Audsmart $US682.35 (no other fees)

3. Send $A2000 gets:
WU $US1348.28 (NB plus $A18 transfer fee so you have to submit $A2018)
Audsmart $US1367.49 (no other fees)

So WU is more expensive by:

1. $US0.67 plus $A9

2. $US8.21 plus $A15

3. $US19.21 plus $A18

Hope this helps.