Transfer Wise - anyone used this before?

[the lynx]

I figured that I should start a new thread here about funds transfer.

Has anyone used Transfer Wise to transfer funds? A friend introduced this company when I was looking for transfer services between Australia and UK. I'm looking at few thousands of AUD. It says that banks charge around 5% per transfer in hidden fees and Transfer Wise only charges 0.5%. And first transfer through this link is free.

http://goo.gl/xQaRZu

I have no experience honestly, so I'm hoping to see if there is any bank-savvy regulars (JR8, Aster, BillyB) who can advise. Is there a catch here? Or should I go for the regular bank route instead?

Thanks.

[x9200]

I don't know this one but there are many fx UK based companies doing this type of job for "free". They earn mostly (i think) on the exchange rates with no extra fees, more-over absorbing bank transfer fees and still offer far much better actual transfer raters than any bank via TT.

I used Currency Solutions to transfer some nice chunk of money from UK to SG few months ago and everything went smooth and as planned.

There are some sites like:
https://www.fxcompared.com/money-transf ... ref=filter

that will give you some comparison with the rates and more details.

[Wd40]

5% is massive exaggeration. Here are the fees:
https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/deposit ... -transfers

They make the money on the exchange rate, which is like 1-2%. You can see the exchange rate table here:

http://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/rates-on ... hange.page

EDIT: did some excel calculations. DBS rate is 1.1042 and spot rate on xe.com is 1.093. So the commission is like 1%. For an amount of $10,000, it is like $150 with all fees.

[JR8]

Lynx, have you have asked this simultaneously in two topics...? FWIW I replied in the other one!

[maneo]

Yes, she did.

5% is massive exaggeration. Here are the fees:
https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/deposit ... -transfers

They make the money on the exchange rate, which is like 1-2%. You can see the exchange rate table here:

http://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/rates-on ... hange.page

EDIT: did some excel calculations. DBS rate is 1.1042 and spot rate on xe.com is 1.093. So the commission is like 1%. For an amount of $10,000, it is like $150 with all fees.

Agree.
As stated in the other discussion, in almost 20 of my most recent transfers through DBS and SCB, the typical sender's transfer fee was less than 0.4%, but this did vary.
I normally don't pay the beneficiary's fee (for the transfer agent), but this is typically just 0.25%.

What I saw as the cost for the currency exchange (vs. the spot rate) had typically been about 1.6%.
Even money changers take their cut, though not as much as the banks.
For modest transfer amounts, the convenience may be worth the extra cost.