Okay so as you might be aware LUMON are our preferred currency provider here on SF and as you also might be aware, I NEVER recommend stuff I don’t personally use / believe in / rate etc etc.
So with that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to give you my personal experience and hopefully, if you are in need of FOREX services, this might prove helpful.
First off, the sign up process was incredibly simple and easy to use. And the verification process worked without a hitch, first time , which is definitely not always the case. When my brothers and I were trying to verify our ID with a notaire last year it took well over a week for the three of us to get it done!
My dedicated account manager, Nathan, got in touch straight away and was super helpful, and once I’d outlined roughly how much I wanted to transfer and when, we left it at that until he gave me a call to inform me that it was a good time to transfer. You can either book a trade and send the funds or as I did, send the funds, specify a ‘last possible date’ and choose when to trade.
I was given useful information and kept informed at each stage of the process. It was all incredibly user friendly and being able to arrange to have the funds sent straight to my recipient was really useful. It saved me time and hassle. The client portal is well designed and easy to use and the personal service is second to none.
I’m very happy with the service and I highly recommend that you give it a try. You can get in touch using the CURRENCY link at the top of the page (they will call or email you straight back) or if you’ve got any questions message @SteveEakins directly on SF.
We have used Lumon for many years and are part of their Regular Payment Plan. Sterling is transferred from our bank in the UK to Lumon, who within minutes of receiving it, advise us of the transfer rate (commercial rate not tourist) and within hours it is in our Credit Agricole bank. No fees at either end.
We have also used them to transfer euros to pounds in one off payments.
Couldn’t praise the company enough. The staff are super friendly and we thoroughly recommend them.
Here to help, everyone. Very aware a lot of you will have used someone or some bank in the past. What I would ask is, when was the last time you compared and checked? We all do it with insurances and would really recommend you checking as the benefit/saving could be quite significant.
I just tried to do a comparison with, say, Wise (based on the example of someone wanting to send €20k to the UK) but I see that, unlike with Wise, Lumon requires you to give personal contact details in order to get a (free) quote.
No offence but I’m reluctant to do this as I’m already bombarded with calls from people trying to sell me stuff.
It would be good if you had an online simulator that I could consult without having to disclose personal contact details. Or have I missed something?
Absolutely don’t give them your number! Last year, they kept ringing me and emailing up despite my never having contacted them - my best guess was that someone doing a seminar had passed on my details without my asking - and they were so pushy they made it onto my List of Companies I Would Never Do Business With!
I would certainly welcome a bit of hand-holding if I were sending the proceeds of a house sale. Don’t think I’d have the confidence to get the notary to send the funds to my Wise euro account, from where I would send it myself to our UK bank.
But for smaller amounts, I really don’t want to have to speak to or email someone to ascertain the rate every time I fancy sending some money.
I did create a TorFx account and downloaded the app which allows me to check the rate at any given time (for transfers up to €30k). So far, Wise has always come out slightly ahead.
Helen, when we sold our French house our Notaire did send the proceeds to our Wise account. Very straight forward and no problems, then when we needed it transferring into Uk from Wise again very straightforward. ( by the way I’m still hassling CARSAT ).
It’s the transferring it myself to the UK that would freak me out. Did you do it in one go or break it up? And - if the former - did you warn your UK bank a large sum would be arriving?
We left the money in our Wise account until we bought our house in the UK, they converted the amount needed into Sterling and sent it to our solicitors here, so it never went into our UK bank account. When we asked them to convert to sterling, It was at that point Wise asked for proof of where it came from due to the amount, we just scanned a copy of the act de vente and they were happy. They did say was to comply with UK banking rules.
In line with the topic heading my experience of Lumon is-
I have a reasonable sum to exchange and was surprised at the charge that Wise were proposing so this weekend I went onto the Limon website and noticed they had a currency converter calculator. I filled it in expecting to be given an exchange rate and charges but had to give my email address and they would get back to me.
They rang me this morning asking how much I would like to exchange and the caller would then pass me on to the accounts department to open an account,
I explained that at this stage all I wanted was a spot rate and charges for the amount I wished to transfer so that I could compare it to Wise.
I was told I would have to open an account first!
Again I explained my request and again I was told an account must first be opened.
Our conversation continued, or so I thought, until I realised I was talking to no-one, they had ended the call.
Thinking that maybe the call had ended due to technical reasons I have now waited for 30 minutes for them to ring back, but nothing.
Seems to me that if you are not prepared to provide your life story for them to open an account then they are not interested.
In this day and age of quick an easy online this and that I think Lumon are a Lemon living in the dark ages.
Their loss is a Wise gain.
We feel exactly the same. Need to move much larger sums than normal for a house, so did look to see if better than WISE. Especially with the rates plummeting. But stopped at the personal details page. We need to be sure it will be worth it before going further.
To be fair, they do want you as a client, they just don’t run an ‘instant quote’ service. They just want to know if it will be worth it for them too. I’d be getting quotes from several providers, especially for large sums.
PS when I put 500K into Wise exchange page their charge was 0.21%
Don’t know if you’ve tried TorFx. You have to create an account to get access to their simulator, and even then it’s only good for comparisons involving sums up to 30k, but I can confirm that you will not be bombarded by calls or emails from them. I had an initial call from my dedicated account manager when I first created the account, followed by one more call weeks later, and that was it. Which is exactly what I want.
I’ll certainly contact my TorFx account manager when I come to do a big transfer but until then, I’m happy to stick with Wise for smaller sums.
Does anyone know if Lumon is better in some way than TorFx or are they much of a muchness?
I get weekly emails from both, summarising what’s coming up, my chap from Lumon is very chatty, handy to talk through the options and risks. I don’t get the impression either will be particulary good on spot rates, compared to Revolut and T212 (0.15%) Of course they both offer forward contracts though if you want to lock in a rate now. I seem to recall when discussing rates initially they said they would be better than wise.
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