April 10, 2012

True cost of sending money abroad

Inspired by the article in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung we made a few calls today to see how much others are charging for sending money abroad.

 

What will happen if you send 1000 GBP from London to your friend in Paris? How much money will you get? 

 

When using TransferWise you will get 1,207.44 EUR. Using other services your results will vary a lot:

• - Using NatWest you lose extra 34.08 GBP when compared to TransferWise... 
• - Lloyds will leave you with 40.47 pounds less (than TransferWise)
• - When using HSBC you will lose 41.86 GBP extra 
• - And our favourite is Western Union - 1000 pounds here will get you just 1,085 euros in France. You lose more than 100 pounds extra!

 

These numbers speak for themselves. To avoid being ripped off always check how much money you will receive before making a transaction. Remember that bulk of the charge gets hidden in the exchange rate.

 

Besides the bad exchange rate commissions, the fees vary as well, winner here is Western Union again with 48 GBP fee, next is HSBC who charges 17 GBP, closely following is Lloyds with 15 GBP. NatWest is almost a darling as they only charge a 10 pound transaction fee. 

 

All these rates were checked on the morning of Tuesday 10th of April.

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