Sending money home this month? First buy Vaseline....

[Dropp the Pilot]

It appears my thieving, incompetent, shameless bank has priced in further US dollar (and thus dirham) exhange rate deciines in anticipation. Thus, their usual extortionate exchange rate has been adjusted to gouge out an additional 1.5% from my torn and tattered pay cheque.

The better to serve me of course.

You may want to check with your particular set of bandits before sending any major amounts.

[planecrazi]

Which lovely bank is this? Thanks for the heads up

[Nightfire]

There's not much else you can do, is there. What use is a pile of dirhams here when I must to pay my bills at home.

[Kamelchaser]

Simple solution. Don't use the bank to transfer money out of the dirham. Use a currency company like Global Currency Exchange. Office here in Dubai. Set up an account with them. Purchase the dosh from them and transfer your dirhams to their account...they give you a far better rate than the banks do. Will save you a fortune over a year.

[flaphandlemover]

what about Al Rostamani?

any info's on these guys?

[ruserious]

I just did a transfer with GCEN online this evening. The saving on a 55,000dhs transfer was 990dhs compared with what the NBD online form quoted for the same transfer.

[desertflyer]

HSBC Premier rate, 3.675 to turn AED into $. Free electronic transfer to HSBC in New York, THEN FREE electronic transfer to the bank of your choice. Works all the world over!:D

[Kamelchaser]

Dirham to USD is not normally too much of an issue, as the exchange rate is closely regulated by govt...although some banks still manage to rip you off by a few percentage points.

It's the large margins banks charge for AED to almost any other currency. And of course the 100AED fee for the international transfer in the first place. So it's definately worth shopping around, and getting your process down to minimum transfers..else you'll be up for 1,200AED a year in fees alone (if you do monthly transfers) before you even start to get ripped off by the lousy exchange rate.

[trimotor]

Have tried GCEN too, though final analysis showed cost to be slightly more than Lloyds...

[BigGeordie]

Flaphandle, I've been using Rostamani for a couple of years. I don't know if they have the best exchange rates but they are very convenient, the transfers are only 45Dhs and they have better rates than HSBC. Good enough for me.

[Gulfstreamaviator]

Great to Manila, dont know about London......

glf

[GlueBall]

A practical alternative would be to give your family a debit card from your UAE bank with which they could withdraw money at an ATM.

[Demented]

Been using Rostamani to SA for many years, good rates, Dhs45 per transfer and they send Rands so you don't get scammed by the SA banks.....:ok: