TransferWise

[Niela]

I thought I share my experience here as I used two of these services on my trip to Thailand and was very impressed.

I got two cards, one from TransferWise (MasterCard) and one from Revolut (Visa). Both companies offer very cheap currency convertions as well as cheaply sending money abroad. The way it works is they have bank accounts in various countries with various currencies. If you want to exchange ? to $ for example, they take the ? and then simply send you money from their $ account. So you get the actual exchange rate for a tiny fee (like 0.3% or something).

But it gets better. You can use their cards to pay in almost any local currency, without any 'foreign currency fees' you normally get form banks. You also don't need to exchange money, as you can pay by card for free or withdraw cash at ATMs. Withdrawing cash is free for up to ?200/month and incurs a small fee for anything above, which was still cheaper than what my bank would have charged me.

You can even get bank details for almost all currencies, so if you need to collect money from someone abroad, they can simply to a local bank transfer to send you the money.

The box of Bolivar's I bought in Qatar cost me ?150. If I had my card charged in ?, instead of Qatai Real, it would have cost me ?160. Quite the difference.

You also get instant notifications for all transactions etc.

Now, both services are pretty much the same, but I preferred TransferWise, as Revolut is very pushy and sneaky, trying to sell you an upgraded account that costs you for a whole year.

If you travel abroad, give it a try, it's an amazing service and you can save good money. If you need to send larger quantaties of money to another account abroad, it saves you even more.

Should you give TransferWise a try, feel free to use this referal link.

https://transferwise.com/invite/u/nielsv50

It get's me a few quid and you some free transfers.

Hope this helps some people save money, I won't travel without this card anymore.

[Hookmaker]

I thought I share my experience here as I used two of these services on my trip to Thailand and was very impressed.

I got two cards, one from TransferWise (MasterCard) and one from Revolut (Visa). Both companies offer very cheap currency convertions as well as cheaply sending money abroad. The way it works is they have bank accounts in various countries with various currencies. If you want to exchange ? to $ for example, they take the ? and then simply send you money from their $ account. So you get the actual exchange rate for a tiny fee (like 0.3% or something).

But it gets better. You can use their cards to pay in almost any local currency, without any 'foreign currency fees' you normally get form banks. You also don't need to exchange money, as you can pay by card for free or withdraw cash at ATMs. Withdrawing cash is free for up to ?200/month and incurs a small fee for anything above, which was still cheaper than what my bank would have charged me.

You can even get bank details for almost all currencies, so if you need to collect money from someone abroad, they can simply to a local bank transfer to send you the money.

The box of Bolivar's I bought in Qatar cost me ?150. If I had my card charged in ?, instead of Qatai Real, it would have cost me ?160. Quite the difference.

You also get instant notifications for all transactions etc.

Now, both services are pretty much the same, but I preferred TransferWise, as Revolut is very pushy and sneaky, trying to sell you an upgraded account that costs you for a whole year.

If you travel abroad, give it a try, it's an amazing service and you can save good money. If you need to send larger quantaties of money to another account abroad, it saves you even more.

Should you give TransferWise a try, feel free to use this referal link.

https://transferwise.com/invite/u/nielsv50

It get's me a few quid and you some free transfers.

Hope this helps some people save money, I won't travel without this card anymore.

Great info [emoji123][emoji123]


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[simwells]

I use revolut personally but one of these kind of cards are definitely the way to go if you don't travel with a CC that has no exchange fee.

[Deano]

TransferWise

I?ve been a proponent of Starling. They have a bigger amount of cash per day from cash machines then any one else. It?s cheaper than getting your currency converted prior to travelling! (Make sure you check the rate and any charge as some machines vary though).

Non cash transactions match MasterCard rate and can?t be beat. I?ve used it all over America, Sri Lanka, Europe, Mexico etc etc. Also on foreign currency online transactions - you?d really be silly to use anything else like a normal credit card.

Staring has won awards for best bank etc and is now big, there?s no risk involved.

Also like most of these, application is all done via iPhone and is as simple as a photo of your passport and face.

[ha_banos]

New banks. Look out old banks for sure.

I got a post office travel money card a couple of years ago. Barely used it because of all the fees. Now there's these options for sure I'll check one out.

Thanks for the info.

[gojira]

I will have to look into an alternative payment method for my sales as it won't be too long before the French government will be given access to accounts of the service most of us use. They have just been given acces to my ebay sales and I will have to pay taxes on those now. They are bleeding us dry here!

[Niela]

I will have to look into an alternative payment method for my sales as it won't be too long before the French government will be given access to accounts of the service most of us use. They have just been given acces to my ebay sales and I will have to pay taxes on those now. They are bleeding us dry here!

If the governments were half as invested in taxing Ebay (and other big companies) themselves, the rest of us wouldn't have to cough up as much taxes. I guess we can all move to some crypto currency some day.

Have a look at those mentioned here. Sterling is a good alternative from what I can tell as well.

[Deano]

Starling as opposed to Sterling, I used to always search for the latter!

Typical government. Go after the little guys and ignore the big tech giants and other tax avoidance by cooperations. Infuriates me.

[SHAMZ84]

Been meaning to look at these... especially for holidays....I normally the Halifax clarity credit card which has no transaction fees and always the best rates on the day when you chose to pay in the local currency ..

Nice one

[simwells]

They?re also very good for transferring money between people say for cigar purchases! Without the chance of other transfer sites locking up accounts and things


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[Niela]

Been meaning to look at these... especially for holidays....I normally the Halifax clarity credit card which has no transaction fees and always the best rates on the day when you chose to pay in the local currency ..

Nice one

With Revolut you could see the exchange rate chaning every second. TransferWise had a new one every day. What I really liked as well though was the option to have bank details for almost any currency. So someone can also send you money for cheap.

[gojira]

If the governments were half as invested in taxing Ebay (and other big companies) themselves, the rest of us wouldn't have to cough up as much taxes. I guess we can all move to some crypto currency some day.

Have a look at those mentioned here. Sterling is a good alternative from what I can tell as well.

Yes, this is actually driving me crazy. I buy stuff with my taxed income, pay VAT on what I buy and when I decide to sell it on ebay I will have to pay income tax on what I make..... Why not directly take my salary, pay my rent for me and drop off a bag of groceries once a week. Isn't that what they ultimately want? Take the maximum amount possible?

I will definitely look into this to come up with an alternate payment method just in case.

[gojira]

Starling as opposed to Sterling, I used to always search for the latter!

Typical government. Go after the little guys and ignore the big tech giants and other tax avoidance by cooperations. Infuriates me.

It is infuriating!

[gojira]

I thought I share my experience here as I used two of these services on my trip to Thailand and was very impressed.

I got two cards, one from TransferWise (MasterCard) and one from Revolut (Visa). Both companies offer very cheap currency convertions as well as cheaply sending money abroad. The way it works is they have bank accounts in various countries with various currencies. If you want to exchange ? to $ for example, they take the ? and then simply send you money from their $ account. So you get the actual exchange rate for a tiny fee (like 0.3% or something).

But it gets better. You can use their cards to pay in almost any local currency, without any 'foreign currency fees' you normally get form banks. You also don't need to exchange money, as you can pay by card for free or withdraw cash at ATMs. Withdrawing cash is free for up to ?200/month and incurs a small fee for anything above, which was still cheaper than what my bank would have charged me.

You can even get bank details for almost all currencies, so if you need to collect money from someone abroad, they can simply to a local bank transfer to send you the money.

The box of Bolivar's I bought in Qatar cost me ?150. If I had my card charged in ?, instead of Qatai Real, it would have cost me ?160. Quite the difference.

You also get instant notifications for all transactions etc.

Now, both services are pretty much the same, but I preferred TransferWise, as Revolut is very pushy and sneaky, trying to sell you an upgraded account that costs you for a whole year.

If you travel abroad, give it a try, it's an amazing service and you can save good money. If you need to send larger quantaties of money to another account abroad, it saves you even more.

Should you give TransferWise a try, feel free to use this referal link.

https://transferwise.com/invite/u/nielsv50

It get's me a few quid and you some free transfers.

Hope this helps some people save money, I won't travel without this card anymore.

I have a question regarding this Niels. Could you please let me know who pays the fee for the transfer when we use transferwise. I have started selling stuff to the US again and the service we all use is cheating on the currency conversion and taking a fee of over 4%. When I sell something to a guy in the Us I usually pay for the fees which is normal. But it seems that it's the other way around with transferwise. Could you please confirm and if this is the case is there a way for me to pay the fees (and not the buyer)?

Cheers!

[Niela]

I have a question regarding this Niels. Could you please let me know who pays the fee for the transfer when we use transferwise. I have started selling stuff to the US again and the service we all use is cheating on the currency conversion and taking a fee of over 4%. When I sell something to a guy in the Us I usually pay for the fees which is normal. But it seems that it's the other way around with transferwise. Could you please confirm and if this is the case is there a way for me to pay the fees (and not the buyer)?

Cheers! [emoji2]

If you want to receive money, you get bank details for the local currency, so the sender pays whatever they pay for a local bank transfer. You then receive the money in said Currency and then convert it yourself at your own (minimal) cost.

Hope that makes sense.

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