International Money Transfers

[Foreigner]

I\'ve been doing some browsing on the Internet about the best and cheapest way to transfer money from Australia to PI and came across a site called \'Exchange4free\'. 

Its a UK company that is offering free money transfers from most countries in the world to to various destinations (including PI) at the best possible exchange rate.  The only catch I can find is that the amount to be transferred has to greater than 700 GBP (or approx 50,000 PHP) in order to obtain the free cost.

Reading through the site information it seems a very good option to me, but maybe too good to be true (always the sceptic).

I\'m just curious whether any other forum members have used \'Exchange4free\' in the past and what was there experiences.

Cheers

Gavin

[Foreigner]

I did some more research and their exchange rates are competitive, at least for AUD.

They are only able to transfer to a limited number of banks in PI; BDO, Metro being 2 notable examples. If I had a bank account in PI I would try it, but as I\'m not there yet and only researching, its not possible at the moment.  I\'m sure many here would offer their PI accounts for me to try though 

Their site is informative and answered many of my concerns. Have a look for yourselves, just google \'exchange4free\', if interested.

BTW I\'m not involved in any promotion of their service, I\'m just passing on information that I thought may be useful.

Cheers

[coleman2347]

Hi, I never tried them as I am from the States, however I can tell you what works for me.  If you have Wells Fargo in AU they have an online banking system that has worked great for me here.
I just set up the account for overseas transfers before I left and every month transfer what I need for about $3 usd.  My WF card also works great here except there is a $3.50usd charge  every time I use it
I just usually transfer what I need at the beginning of the month and TRY to make myself live on that.  Sometimes successful sometimes not

[Foreigner]

The Wells Fargo deal sounds pretty good to me. I\'ll check it out as well.

For everyone\'s information, Exchange4free is available in US as well I believe.

I\'ve been doing some more trawling on the Internet concerning international money transfers and I found a forum that provides recommendations on different products. The people (mostly from UK and South Africa) on this forum gave a glowing report for Exchange4free, which prompted me to apply. I have to provided a scan of my passport and proof of my address before being accepted and given an account.  This is to satisfy anti-laundrying legislation as I understand.

The forum also gave good reports on OzForex and ClearFX as other companies that provide a similar service, ie free of charges and commissions and competitive exchange rates.  However, unlike Exchange4free they restrict the transfer to larger amounts; ie greater than $3000 AUD for OzForex and greater than $2000 AUD for ClearFX.

Cheers

[brett4gam]

I found Exchang4free on a Facebook page today and ran it through to find out what their exchange rate was.  They quoted 44.857 piso to the AU$1.00 with no fee.

I compared this to the method I have been using for about one year now to send money from Australia to a BDO account here in RP.  The company I use consistently gives me an exchange rate of 0.40 piso lower than the current exchange rate on xe.com, which at the time of my comparison was 45.761, thus I would get my money sent here at 45.3, if I were to use Exchange4free I would loose around PHP1,500.00

For this I am charged a flat AU$8.00 and once my money has hit their ANZ account by online transfer it will be available in our BDO account in piso 2-3 hours later, usually the whole transaction is completed within 6 hours from the time I transfer it.  From the ANZ account (a Sari Sari store in Chatswood, NSW) it goes to RIA FINANCIAL who actually do the international transfer.

Hope this is helpful to anyone in Aus.  Not sure how it would work in other countries, but could be looking into.

[Metz]

I used to do the bank wire transfer ($35), ATM card, and western Union.  Try paying off a 1.6m mortgage balance at withdrawals of 10k at a time.

Finally got Xoom.com to work with my present bank. My previous bank alwways blocked the transfers as a fraud alert so I had given up that till I switched banks.

Can only transfer $2999 at a time, and $7000 in a 30 day period.  However at $5.99 for a transaction and one to three hour transaction time, it has worked out much better than anything else. 

They will also do cash deliveries, if the receiver has no bank account, or you are sending the  money to yourself, (like if you are stuck in a hospital)

[halibaitor]

My previous bank alwways blocked the transfers as a fraud alert so I had given up that till I switched banks.

My bank did the same thing to me on my first attempt to use Xoom.  I phoned them and explained what Xoom was, (they had never heard of them).  Everything worked fine from there...

[Gray Wolf]

We use Xoom for all our transfers.  I started with bank to bank wire transfers.  But the fee on my end plus the fee charged by the receiving bank were too much.  We went from wire transfers, to Western Union, to ATM cards and now finally with Xoom. 

So far Xoom is the cheapest and very fast.  I can send money, get a confirmation number in my Inbox and by the time my brother in law can ride from his house to Phase 1 where the Lhuhillier is located, the cash is ready, just minutes from when I get my confirmation number.

[BudM]

Xoom is the only way I have ever tried.  I had to make an initial payment of 50% to reserve the condo unit that I am renting for my upcoming vacation.  I looked at the Western Union and Xoom sites to see what I thought the best way might be.  The unit manager was going to be at the complex the following day and then she would not be back for a couple of weeks.  The unit had been advertised at USD so I asked her if she wanted the payment in USD or Peso.  She told me USD because then I wouldn\'t have to mess with the exchange rate.  My girlfriend said she would take the money to her so I figured I better get the money there in a hurry.   I decided to go with Xoom and I also got the confirmation within a couple minutes that it was ready for pickup.  My girlfriend has an SM a couple of blocks from where she lives and it has a BDO branch that she uses.  If I remember right, the BDO there is where she would have been able to make the pickup.  The next day she tells me the condo was taken care.  Well, Xoom even tells you when the money is picked up as they sent me an email almost a week later telling me that it just had been picked up.  I asked my girlfriend about it and she says that was correct.  I then asked her about the condo and she again told me the payment was made.  It turned out she had gone there and made the payment in pesos but Xoom had come through as advertised.

[Gray Wolf]

Yep, I get a confirmation email within minutes of the money being retrieved.  Good service and decent exchange rate.

[gemstar]

I guess all banks charge different fees on international transfers.....but I belong to a Federal Credit Union in the US.....

I have transferred electronically several times to my BPI USD account.....my credit union charges $10.00 for ANY amount.....BPI, no charges.