Money Transfer Companies Compared – How Much Can You Save?
If you are trying to decide which is the best way to move your money abroad (or receive money from another country), this article Money Transfer Companies Compared is exactly what you need. Below are all the different options for making international money transfers. We’ll help you with some common questions like:- Which is better, WorldFirst, TransferGo or CurrencyFair?
- How do currency brokers like OFX compare to CurrencyFair?
- Are banks much more expensive than CurrencyFair?
- CurrencyFair vs Transferwise?
- CurrencyFair v Paypal
- Which is the best peer to peer currency exchange?
Money Transfer Companies Compared
So, let’s get into it (note, we’ll be adding more companies to this list over time so keep checking back) . . .- AIB
- Azimo
- An Post
- Bank of Ireland
- Barclays
- Halifax
- HiFX
- HSBC
- Lloyds Bank
- MoneyCorp
- Monzo
- Nationwide
- Nat west
- Neteller
- OFX
- PayPal
- Permanent TSB
- Post Office (UK)
- Revolut
- RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland)
- Skrill
- The Co-operative Bank
- Travelex
- TransferGo
- Transferwise
- Ulster Bank
- Western Union
- WorldFirst
- WorldRemit
- XE.com
- Xendpay.com
Save On International Money Transfers
For the purposes of providing a standard example, we are comparing each provider on the basis that, on today’s date (updated 29th Sep 2017), you are sending €10,000 to the UK for Eurozone providers or £10,000 to Euros in France for UK providers.AIB

Azimo

An Post
An Post are keen to promote their “0% commission” throughout their website. We checked out their claims a few years ago in this blog post, and we weren’t that surprised what we found.
Taking a look at the An Post Currency Calculator, converting €10,000 to GBP, you would be £239.50 worse off than if you’d used CurrencyFair (as of 10:38am, October 2nd, 2017)
Commission free or not, they’re clearly making profit somewhere on the deal (hint – it’s the exchange rate).

Bank of Ireland

“Don’t be lured by promises of commission-free foreign exchange as this doesn’t always guarantee that you’ll get more bang for your buck. Be careful too to check the foreign exchange rate offered by your bank – as many of these rates have hefty margins built into them.”
Barclays


Halifax
Halifax don’t make it easy for you to find details of their exchange rate but at least they are up front with their charges: £9.50 to commence an online transfer (This fee will not apply to GBP sent to an EU bank account from a Halifax Basic Account). More worrying are the delivery times for international payments – expect it to arrive anywhere from the next working day to 14 working days later; are they delivering your money by boat?!
Unfortunately a daily transaction limit of £100,000 applies when sending International Payments via Online Banking. And for customers planning on making regular substantial payments – Halifax recommend using Lloyds Bank but advise:

HiFX


HSBC


Lloyds Bank

“The International Money Transfer Calculator is provided for general information purposes and is not intended to provide commercial, financial, investment, accounting, tax or legal advice. All information, content and rates displayed are indicative only and do not represent, nor are intended to represent, the exchange rate or price at which you may be able to purchase or sell currency when using the International Money Transfer Service. As such, you should not use or rely upon the [Lloyds Bank] International Money Transfer Calculator as the basis for any transaction or treat any rates displayed as definitive.”Using Lloyds online banking to send money internationally is not without it’s disadvantages – You can only send up to £30,000 – or currency equivalent – a day to almost anywhere in the world. And there is a limit of £10,000 per payment.
MoneyCorp


Monzo


Nationwide

“There are typically two types of cost when transferring money abroad – banking fees and exchange rates differences. Fees: Usually you are charged a fee for international payments and these will differ according to the service used and the bank or building society that is providing the service. There may also be fees charged by any agent banks involved in the payment transmission before a payment reaches its final destination account. Exchange rates: If you choose to send a Sterling payment overseas, you usually also need to take into account exchange rates for the currency conversion between the two countries as this can affect what is received by the recipient.”We commend their honesty for at least explaining the different charges that their customers face. Unfortunately that doesn’t stop Nationwide for excessive charging for international money transfers. If you used Nationwide instead of CurrencyFair to send £10,000 home to France (for example), you’d be missing out on €183. (as of 16.18pm Oct 2nd, 2017).
Natwest

“Always compare high street foreign currency rates with those of online providers if you have the time. Ignore “commission-free” deals and “buy-back” offers. These are often bogus as exchange rates will already include markups levied by suppliers.”Sounds like good advice.
Neteller

OFX

PayPal


Permanent TSB

“Don’t be lured by promises of commission-free foreign exchange as this doesn’t always guarantee that you’ll get more bang for your buck. Be careful too to check the foreign exchange rate offered by your bank — as many of these rates have hefty margins built into them.”We agree. Check out our Currency Exchange Calculator.
The Post Office (UK)

competitive rates and 0% commission from the UK’s number one providerWho needs commission when the rates are so bad? As of 16:56, October 2nd 2017, sending £10,000 through the Post Office to euro account would get you €11,097. Compared to our rates at the same time, you’re €155.77 out of pocket by not using CurrencyFair. Interestingly the Post Office’s international online payments service is actually provided by MoneyCorp.

Revolut



RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland)

Skrill

The Co-operative Bank

“Please note, all foreign transactions are done at your own risk. We will do everything that we can to get the funds to the receiver with the information that you provide.”Also, this wasn’t great:
‘Unfortunately we do not have the facility to display our exchange rates daily on the website.‘Ok, well how much will it cost? To send an example of £10,000 to France with the Co-operative Bank will cost you €389 more than if you use CurrencyFair (as of 17.33 October 2nd, 2017).
TransferGo
In terms of transparency, TransferGo are one of the better providers out there. All fees are clear, and the amount you see on their calculator doesn’t hide behind the usual “rates shown are indicative only” nonsense.
We like that.
They charge a flat fee per transaction, as well as between 0.6% and 1.5% on the currency conversion itself. These costs fluctuate depending on which currency you are sending and receiving. However, you will know exactly how much you’ll get thanks to their transparency.
Is TransferGo cheaper than CurrencyFair though? No – not when we checked on March 15th 2016. At 1:46pm, sending £10,000 from a UK account to France would result in €12,710.64, compared to €12756.09 with ourselves, a difference of €45.45 in CurrencyFair’s favour.

Transferwise


Travelex

Ulster Bank

“Don’t be lured by promises of commission-free foreign exchange as this doesn’t always guarantee that you’ll get more bang for your buck. Be careful too to check the foreign exchange rate offered by your bank — as many of these rates have hefty margins built into them.”We agree. The trick is to look out for the exchange rate they give you, and compare it to the amazing exchange rate offered by CurrencyFair. Our exchange rate is so good because of our ‘people power’ (is it too late for us to copyright that phrase?) – our unique peer-to-peer money matching system provides you with well-deserved savings. Check out our Currency Exchange Calculator.
Western Union


The rates displayed by our free currency converter are neither “buy” nor “sell” rates. They are the current interbank rates, which are the wholesale exchange rates between banks for transaction amounts over $5 million USD. They do not include spreads or handling fees that may be charged by any foreign exchange provider. Please note that these rates will vary from the rates available to our private and small business customers, due to transaction sizes and processing costs. These rates are therefore provided for indicative purposes only. Please log in to your Online FX account to see the rates we offer to customers.
WorldFirst


WorldRemit
Another company pushing innovative payment solutions is WorldRemit, who offer payments not only via bank deposit but also cash and mobile.
However, from a pure currency conversion angle, you’re still better off using us. As of September 7th 2017, at 1pm, sending £10,000 from the UK to a EUR account in France would result in €10806.50 received at the other end. Using CurrencyFair, you’d get €10882.00, a significant saving of €75.50.

XE.com

“…one of the last remaining independent first-wave Internet companies around”.Once registered with their site, the numbers and rates you see are the real rates your transfer will realise – and we like that transparency. However, in terms of saving money, you’d be £17.59 better off using CurrencyFair when sending €10,000 to GBP (December 7th 2017, 11:33am). £8,748.91.57 (XE) v £8,766.50 (CurrencyFair)

Xendpay.com
