161–170 of 192 posts
Hello all. I used transferwise in November to move money to Japan. The exchange rate applied was the actual fucking exchange rate. I paid Transferwsise a couple of quid. Worth every fucking penny. Worth swearing. Use Transferwise.
What's the foremost authority for realtime ForEx rates?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And almost certainly better tech. You ever check out the OS your bank is running?
Honestly, I don't care whether I am driven over by a Porsche Cayenne or a Willys MB. And while I have not worked in the banking sector myself, lots of my friends did - and it was not cobol. They are catching up and they all know that their mainframe sw is dated and act upon it. I don't think the "quality" of the tech is of any relevance here. EDIT: Well, I actually know some guys who bit the bullet and learned cobol…
But what really surprises me is that it got to where it is at all. If you look at it, their business model is not revolutionary. Their prices are not cheaper than for example UKForex (OzForex), who provide the exact same service, and were around years before.
The business is simply a click interface for exchanging money; you send in your currency, and they send in the agreed amount to the other side. The price difference between these shops is minimal.
It could not be simpler. I've traded currencies as a professional, there's not a whole lot of other steps behind the scenes.
But I doubt most people have heard of UKForex. Transferwise however are on billboards everywhere, acting as though they invented the idea of swapping one currency for another. And acting as though you are cutting out the middle man, which you are not. You still need a bank.
Well played to them though, it seems they've used some of that startup hype attitude to get themselves a nice little business.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't know about foremost, but I always use xe.com
Yeah, I was investigating transferwise because supposedly it was cheaper than xe.com but it seems like they are pretty competitive with each other. I've already been using xe.com and see no reason to switch. I transfer my entire salary from USD to EUR every year so I definitely want to get the best rate.
I am a very happy Transferwise user. I used to always check the exchange rate on xe.com, then switch to Transferwise to compare before transferring. Now I don't bother, because Transferwise has always been very close to the spot rate.
Surprised to not see any mention here of legal and regulatory risk. One of the reasons moving money between countries is hard and expensive is that it is often done by people either trying to avoid tax liabilities, and/or by people involved in illegal activities and as a result governments are understandably keen to tie transfer agents up in rules regulations and liabilities. Ask HSBC...
They're compliant with British regulations. I was given extra checks to make before my first transfer, since I was paying into an unusual type of account.
Transferwise is a great service, I use it myself. They even give you a volume discount if you ask for it. But what really surprises me is that it got to where it is at all. If you look at it, their business model is not revolutionary. Their prices are not cheaper than for example UKForex (OzForex), who provide the exact same service, and were around years before. The business is simply a click interface for exchangin…
Very English, very effective.
Transferwise is a great service, I use it myself. They even give you a volume discount if you ask for it. But what really surprises me is that it got to where it is at all. If you look at it, their business model is not revolutionary. Their prices are not cheaper than for example UKForex (OzForex), who provide the exact same service, and were around years before. The business is simply a click interface for exchangin…
If I want to convert 1000 EUR to USD, the number one thing I care about is how many USD I will get for my EUR.
The front page of Transferwise has a giant input right at the top of the page that tells me exactly how many USD I will get, and tells me that rate is guaranteed for 48 hours.
The front page of UKForex has a much smaller input, and it's "market rate" - if I want to find out how many USD I will actually get, I have to register and create an account.
This is just one example, but it speaks to my whole experience of Transferwise vs. other foreign exchange providers. The user experience is best-in-class.
I've been using this for the past 6 months. It works really nicely and removes a lot of friction - it's just like sending money to another local account. I've paid people in Netherlands, Australia, Germany and they recently started allowing US$ paid to Ukraine, so I've been able to pay software developers there.
Transferwise is a great service, I use it myself. They even give you a volume discount if you ask for it. But what really surprises me is that it got to where it is at all. If you look at it, their business model is not revolutionary. Their prices are not cheaper than for example UKForex (OzForex), who provide the exact same service, and were around years before. The business is simply a click interface for exchangin…
> They even give you a volume discount if you ask for it.
I'm struggling moving USD -> GBP, hitting the daily ACH limits & frustrated that the creaky US banking system doesn't have a better interbank transfer system than wiring funds for tens of dollars a pop (and presenting a physical form).
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Out of curiosity, what sort of (non-personality) mistakes did you see?
While I didn't quite see all of the possible mistakes pointed out by jpollock in a parallel comment, all of the mistakes I did see were nicely covered there. Another interesting data point was that only 2 of the 10 candidates had ever heard of FizzBuzz. That surprised me more than anything else.