Transferring money back to the UK

[AndyandJo]

Hi, just wondering if anyone can help me with something?

I have to send money back to the UK and have an account set up with TORFX. They quoted me an exchange rate of 1.64 and as I wanted to send approx £1000 home I arranged for ANZ to transfer in AUD not GBP (and paid $32 for the service) $1640.00, TORFX have received approx £940.00 GBP in to their AUD account, am I missing something? Accounting is not my forte so hoping someone can put me right before I approach the bank.

[liloharry]

Could possibly be overseas bank fees.....this is on the ANZ website - Please note that an international money transfer sent via an overseas bank may be subject to commissions, fees and other charges applied by that bank. These commissions, fees or charges will generally be deducted by the overseas bank from the funds paid to the receiver.

 

When I do transfers I get the fees taken out of my account not the money I am sending, so I know I will always transfer the correct amount

[StraighttothePoint]

Hi, just wondering if anyone can help me with something?

I have to send money back to the UK and have an account set up with TORFX. They quoted me an exchange rate of 1.64 and as I wanted to send approx £1000 home I arranged for ANZ to transfer in AUD not GBP (and paid $32 for the service) $1640.00, TORFX have received approx £940.00 GBP in to their AUD account, am I missing something? Accounting is not my forte so hoping someone can put me right before I approach the bank.

 

Welcome to Australia...... First thing you can possibly save on when doing this is the bank transaction to put the money into TORFX. If you get yourself Internet access to your bank account and then you do a BPAY or bank tranfers yourself, via online banking, and it is free. No $32 fee required. (I use OzForex for my tranfers and they accept BPAY's so assume TORFX will.) Then you have to decide on how you want to handle the fees at the UK end as the bank receiving the funds will no doubt want to take their cut. I do the same as lilo lil and pay the fees at the OZFOREX end to make sure that I put the full amount into the UK bank. So if you want 1000 pounds into the UK bank pay the fee at this end to the transfer company. By following the processes above my total fee for transfering any amount up to $10k has only ever been $15 in total. Might have increased since I last did it but would not have thought by that much if it has.

 

Looking at what you are saying it looks like $32 at the bank and another $90 (circa 60 quid) at the UK end, total $132. If that is right think you just need to work out a better method of transferring cash. Do you need to consider more options open to you rather than following what you thought was the obvious method? Not an accounting issue more a research issue really.

Edited June 26, 2013 by StraighttothePoint

[AndyandJo]

Yes really looks like I need to research this a bit more, I did the bank transfer via online banking as you say and that is where the $32 dollars was charged, added to the initial amount. It was being paid to TORFX in the UK so would have gone UK to UK bank and TORFX do not charge commission -???

Thanks for the input, much appreciated

Jo

[elfie]

Hi

We send money back on a monthly basis we used ozforex for sums over $2000 under that we use tranzfers. It takes roughly 2 days to show in UK bank account if transaction carried out in the week. They charge $15 per transfer if fee paid in Oz £15 if paid in the UK hope this helps. Fee sum can be taken out of money to be transferred or as an add on to the amount - does that make sense hope so

You can book a deal and money can be transferred automatically or you can do it yourself. You can also get rate alerts sent via email or texts.

[AndyandJo]

Hi Elfie, it's something I need to do monthly too so really glad of the advice, thanks:confused:

[StraighttothePoint]

Yes really looks like I need to research this a bit more, I did the bank transfer via online banking as you say and that is where the $32 dollars was charged, added to the initial amount. It was being paid to TORFX in the UK so would have gone UK to UK bank and TORFX do not charge commission -???

Thanks for the input, much appreciated Jo

 

Sounds like the $32 has been a bank fee for tranfering dollars to UK pounds direct from an Aussie bank account and then to TORFX, could it have been that? I am in Westpac and if you do it that way they charge $20 per transaction. I put it directly into the Nationwide with no extra fees at the UK end. If you do it that way you can put it direct to a UK bank account. That is one process.

 

The other process if you do it yourself is the Ozforex one, the same company as elf is referring to, is cheaper in fees and you tend to get a better exchange than the bank. It was good to read that Ozforex fees are still the same because it is a great service. You set up an account with them and then BPAY the dollars via online banking to them at no charge and they charge $15 to transfer it direct to your UK bank account.

 

Just wanted to clarify to be sure.

[elfie]

Hi Elfie, it's something I need to do monthly too so really glad of the advice, thanks:confused:

 

 

Its easy to set it all up AndyandJo both tranzfers and forex as the same company your welcome

[Bobopaulsy]

i was thinking about using paypal when i get there just link my paypal account to my new Oz bank account and transfer money back to my dad's paypal account in UK !!!!!

[AndyandJo]

Yes the $32 was for ANZ to transfer but they have done it in AUD as requested, I got a rate of 1.64 so should have been straight forward, it seems that the fault lies with TORFX and it's being looked in to but it sounds as if I need to be a bit more street wise and can possibly get a better deal elsewhere. interesting about paypal though, would like to know how that goes.

[liloharry]

I've been having issues with fees lately, I use moneycorp to do my transfers and up until recently don't get charged anything but the $22 NAB international transfer fee, however since moneycorp changed their bank from HSBC to Barclays approx $50 would come out of my NAB account a few days later...anyway after an investigation it turns out Barclays Bank have been charging me for receiving money into their account, Moneycorp have been great and refunding it but it a right pain in the ar$e having to sort it every time.

[AndyandJo]

Fess up time - I gave ANZ the GBP bank account No for TORFX!!! So....in summing up....ANZ charge $24 to transfer in GBP but give a poor exchange rate, $32 to send AUD to TORFX who seem to give pretty good rates, no fees from them to UK bank account. What a plonker, cost me £53 for the mistake won't do that again.