Transferwise

[thermionic]

A few months back a friend tipped me off about using Transferwise. Being cynical about any service of this nature it took me a while to get around to using it. That was a shame, because I'm consistently finding it's around 4% cheaper than using my bank or Paypal. Even if you pay via card, the additional rate is far less.

I just paid a guy in the USA for components @ $1,350 USD. Paypal wanted around $50 USD more than Transferwise.

If they operate in your country and you're selling to someone you trust, you'd be mad not to look at Transferwise.

edit - just looked at my paperwork. The saving was more like $60 USD. This was using bank transfer. If I'd used a card the saving by using TF would've been much more than this. 

 

[ruffrecords]

Excellent. I am already in to peer to peer lending so peer to peer international funds transfer looks very good to me. Thanks for the tip.

Cheers

Ian

 

[rob_gould]

Yep, used it for pounds to euros and vice versa a few times and it's smooth and cheap. Recommended 

 

[dmp]

and you're selling to someone you trust

So that is the key issue, right? Paypal has buyer protection.
If you just want to send money to someone you trust with no recourse, you could use bitcoin and it would be no fee?

 

[thermionic]

On top of being charged around $60 USD more because the receiver insisted on Paypal, he's just emailed me saying he only got $1,311 USD - not the $1,365 that I gave him.

If I paid him via bank transfer how can this be?

I will now have to send him the missing dollars. This means that, by using Paypal, I have paid $100 USD more than what Transferwise would've cost me.

Paypal is such a total ripoff. I think I ought to just cancel my account, and if people ask for it I'll just say I don't have an account.