Best bank for receiving Euros

Hello,

I am a happy Smart Currency Exchange customer (I transfer a few thousand euros to my HSBC account from Spain every month) and was wondering if you had any info on how your service stacks up against a firm called TransferWise.

There has been a lot of talk about hidden bank fees when sending euros (and other currencies) to sterling accounts lately on the Proz.com translator portal. For example, have a look at this recent thread:

http://www.proz.com/forum/translation_in_the_uk/270529-best_bank_for_receiving_euros.html#2308496

It would be great if you could outline your fee structure and how it compares to the banks so I could mention it in the forum.

Michael

Email 1:
Hello Michael,

Thank you for your e-mail.

I have had a look at the article in the link below regarding bank and post office fees and hidden charges and believe it is slightly misleading. The quoted charges are actually their only fees for sending money overseas, the hidden charges are purely in the rate of exchange that they can offer. The market rate that you see on google or on the BBC is the market or interbank rate of exchange; this is the rate at which banks trade their millions between one another. The rates of exchange that the bank will offer their private clients and the rates that companies will offer will always be margin below this market rate.

Taking HSBC as an example based on €1,000:
Market rate at the moment @ 1.24 buying £806.45. (This is the rate that one would achieve if they were exchanging millions)
HSBC rate @ 1.1904 buying £840.0
HSBC charge of £4
= £836.00

The hidden charges are therefore the rate of exchange that they offer. The research has been done by a company that has called to get quotations from all of the different entities; unless the transactions have actually been made the rates may not actually be accurate. The rates of exchange will also vary depending on the different bank accounts that clients have with the different high street banks, the different relationships with bank managers and number of different factors.

We have never charged you to make transfer through us, we make our money purely in the rate of exchange. The margin that we transfer your Euros into pounds is a little over 1% from the interbank rate, this covers our cost of transfer and a small profit for the company. Transferwise can offer closer to 0.5% from the market rate but do not guarantee the rate of exchange on booking. If you look at the quotation page, they do warn you that they cannot allow for rate movements but will wait for a better rate if the market moves more than 3%. This could therefore represent up to a 3% margin on the transfer. This is because they are a peer to peer service and match your transaction up with another client, if the rate moves in this time delay the margin can increase. We will buy the Euros at your instruction and therefore guaranteeing the rate of exchange.

Transferwise is also purely an internet based service; we provide ourselves on a much more personal touch, agree deals over the phone and can help our clients with the timing of when to book in transactions as the market is constantly moving.

I do hope this explains the pricing structure within the industry; we will always be transparent on our costs and will always quote our best rate first time around so you can make a direct comparison.
Best regards,
Paul Whittington | Trader

Email 2:

Hello Michael,

Apologies – my maths was slightly wrong there.

HSBC rate there would be 1.2896 and therefore buying £775.43. (Obviously less pounds achieved than the market rate).

Many thanks.

Best regards,
Paul Whittington | Trader