I raised my unhappiness with Transferwise, and the reply was as below. The worst case is 3% less which would actually bring 1350€ to 1310€. The estimate is very "specific looking" I agree, thus reinforcing the false impression that what they quote is what you'll get.
We always use the mid-market rate during the conversion. The rate is updated approximately every ten minutes. The rate that is displayed on the website is the rate at that very moment. Unfortunately there is no option to predict the rate and how much it is changing however if the rate should drop more than 3%(which usually does not happen) then we will not perform the conversion.
Hi Steve are yo sure you are on TransferWise web site
I have just logged in and get a very specific "estimate" of 1,397.73 Euros for my £1,000 and when I look at the £ vs Euro rate it suggests that the effective rate (That is £1k minus £5 (The TW fee) would create 1396.88 Euros.
OK I will not get that rate, as it depends on the way the market is moving but I have never seen a range of possibilities that you describe, nor more significantly anything that would suggest you would only get between 1,320 and 1,380 - that feels like a typical bank rate/ The rate today has been fairly stable. At his precise moment (18.57 French local time) it is between 1.4039 and 1.4058.
Hi Steve are yo sure you are on TransferWise web site
I have just logged in and get a very specific "estimate" of 1,397.73 Euros for my £1,000 and when I look at the £ vs Euro rate it suggests that the effective rate (That is £1k minus £5 (The TW fee) would create 1396.88 Euros.
OK I will not get that rate, as it depends on the way the market is moving but I have never seen a range of possibilities that you describe, nor more significantly anything that would suggest you would only get between 1,320 and 1,380 - that feels like a typical bank rate/ The rate today has been fairly stable. At his precise moment (18.57 French local time) it is between 1.4039 and 1.4058.
Roger I don't see the problem, obviously they are buying the money for less than they are selling it to you. Trasferwise tell you this automatically every time.
Honouring the deal is the name of the game as far as I'm concerned.
Steve, check torfx careully. I stoped using them, and switched to TransferWise, when they sent me an internal note and not the contract note I expected. I discovered £60 had been sliced off from the sterling I was transferring. This is what torfx said when I challenged them:
'The Contract Note you received is an internal Note & not for clients copy. This was sent out by mistake – apologises for that. The £60.00 is showing the difference between the client rate achieved at the time of trading - to the live interbank rate where we were buying below. The figure (i.e £60) was the margin between your client rate & the wholesale market rate. A margin would appear whether you are dealing with a bank, a broker or even dealing with Travel Money. This is how we all make any money on a trade.
Transparency is the name of the game as far as I am concerned.
I mean that it's not at all obvious that the amount they say you'll get is only sort of the amount you'll actually get. I just did a dummy transaction just now, looking for it, and the only sign I saw was on the page which says what their slice will be, where it says estimated exchange rate. It's hidden. I think if they said something like, for your £1000 you'll get between £1320 and £1380 probably £1350 I'd understand and I wouldn't moan. But when I was trying to compare with Torfx I thought it was a straight comparison, whereas in fact Torfx'x quote lay inside Transferwise's margin of error, so it could have turned out that I'd lost out, in which case I would have been banging hard on their door demanding they made up the difference.
I'm sure they've done user testing and I'm sure they think that fessing up to the uncertainty loses them some business, but it's a poor show in my view.
Meant to have said 'asked if it was possible to transfer that recommended person to my account rather than leave them in his account which can no linger be operated'
For the past few months Transferwise have been changing my money themselves, ie not with other poeple wanting to move the money the otherway, probably because it's not a good time to buy Sterling. From start to finish the whole transaction has only taken 3 hours and on each occasion the money has been in the bank account in Spain or France the same day. This week I got a rate of 1.4176 (less the £4.98). The rate did go up to 1.4255 later that day but who ever manages to hit the peak? If we could we would all be millionaires. They were also very kind when I mentioned that my husband Keith Munday, who was a member of this forum, had sadly passed away very recently here in Spain. I mentioned that he had one person he had recommended sitting on his account waiting for two more in order to recieve the customary £50. He said it wasn't possible but he gave a me a free transfer for that day, effectively almost £15, which was a singular act of kindness. I have absolutely no complaints and I never hesitate in recommending them to any of my friends.
Hi Steve Not sure what you mean by well disguised but I track the "cost" of the transfer against the market rate, that is the interbank rate, which you and I cannot get. Over the last 11 transfers, the average cost to me has been less than 5 Euros per £1,000 and that INCLUDES their charges.
Look I am no advocate of TransferWise but equally I cannot complain. From time to time I have had problems, almost invariably my error and their on-line help desk has been very responsive and helpful.
I cannot say others might not be better as I haven't looked.
Steve, what you get at first is the rate they expect to obtain, but the deal is that they match your transfer from the UK to France (£'s to Euros) with a transfer to the UK from France (Euros to £'s) so that actual rate will always vary a bit.
Further as you know there is some volatility in the currency market with the £ weakening against the Euro, maybe profit taking by the big traders or that the £ is seen as now being over priced.
In any event you are getting a much better rate than from the banks.
Steve you can apply a maximum deviation percentage (0.5%, 1% etc) from the base exchange rate, it can help to reduce the amount it fluctuates by but the conversion seems to take a little longer.
I've just discovered that transferwise seem to change the rate betqween when you place the order and when they send the money, which was a big surprise. (As it happpens I gained a bit, but really I was pretty unnerved, all the other brokers operate on - a deal is a deal basis)
Quite possibly Irene, one of the reasons I stopped using HIFX who seemed only interested in house buying amounts. It was some months after they revised their policy and did better deals for monthly transfers but they had already lost me. I tend to keep the math easy if nothing else to use £1000 as the amount. maybe if others did similar we could actually compare but the near 1.40 must surely be a mistake.