Sending money abroad
 

This kinda loosely falls into computers & internet I guess. Anyone have any recommendations on sending money abroad, preferably using a web based product. Am presently with Natwest who charge around 15 quid just to do a standard transfer and for that I get no guarantee of the exchange rate and to make matters worse the money mysteriously sits in unnamed holding accounts for 3-5 days somewhere in the world whilst not earning me any interest.

Am wondering if there are any reputable internet based transfer agencies where I can simply transfer monies from my UK Natwest account to another UK account (hopefully that way avoiding Natwest charging me) and then send it off to Ireland/NZ. Be good to fix a rate at the time of doing a transfer as well but hey call me old fashioned:) Cheers

I'm having to do a lot of this at the moment in the U.S. from the U.K.and find that the cheapest way to do it is via paypal - both you and the recipient have to be members. In my case, I have a friend in the U.S. who sends $ where I ask him and then I reimburse him by a request to my paypal account. It is very cheap and although some do not like the system (which is really a way of paying for goods on e-bay), I have never had problems.

P.P.

Depending on where you want to send the money...

Anything involving a credit card will include the CC fee as well as the exchange charge. That's the same whether you pay the supplier at the other end by credit card, or have a friend handle the far end by PayPal. Hence, I'd not go the Paypal route.

The banks don't want to be bothered, so have a high "base charge" which makes it "Not a good deal" for small amounts. I never found a bank offering a "better deal", although there may be one out there.

If you have a friend with an account in both countries, you may be able to "come to an accommodation". I have a US dollar account (for historical reasons) and write cheques/checks for close friends and family - more than that would get me in trouble with the authorities.

When I wanted a large sum in dollars transferred from the US (Citibank) to my sterling account, the UK bank wanted five days to clear the money and would have charged me about £50. Citibank charged me £20 and the money was in the UK bank the same day. I don't know how they did that, but it proves it can be done. The Citibank exchange rate was very slightly favourable, too.

Thanks for the tips so far. To make matters simpler the cash is all going to me albeit into accounts in my name in different countries so I am really hoping there is a simple internet based solution out there that is tried and tested. Will have a look into the paypal option as I have a UK account for buying things off ebay so that could be a goer.

PKB,
If you go down the PayPal route, I think you would need to to set up a PayPal account for each bank that you wish to deposit to, then go through the process of linking the PayPal account to the bank account. It may be necessary to have a home address for each country (not sure about that).

An individual may have one personal account and one premier / business account. Obviously a partner could also have 2 accounts.

I'm not sure how PayPal treat an individual with their accounts in different countries, as there may be questioned asked about money laundering!

Also bear in mind that a Personal account (which incurs no charges for receiving money) is limited in the amount it can send and receive - reception limit is £250 / €500 / $500 per month.

You might want to have a look at XETrade - I've not used it yet myself, but it does seem to be exactly what you want.

SD

If you want accounts in multiple currencies, then Citibank may be the answer. They offer US$, Euro, Swiss Francs accounts and a load more. The advantage is that you do it all from one home address, but with cheque/checkbooks in the relevant currency.

You can also have currency credit cards on some of them.

I use XE's forex site, but haven't done business with them so can't comment - they may offer the same service.

have a look at moneybookers.com

If you're sending so little money that a £15 charge is a big deal then just put the banknotes in an envelope and put them in the post. It's always worked for me.

Eurozone
 

It is illegal for ANY bank in the Eurozone to charge you for sending and recieving money to ANY other Eurozone Euro bank account. You mentioned Ireland, so hence this info might be of use.