We need to pay a family member for some accommodation they booked on our behalf in Australia (where they live).

The AUS was $2,158 which, according to XE.com, is £1,233.82. However we are paying into their UK bank account (NatWest) which they will then transfer but the NatWest exchange rate is inferior so we need to pay more than £1,300 to ensure they aren’t out of pocket.

Is there any other way of paying them to take better advantage of exchange rates?

EDIT – just seen this place https://transferwise.com – anyone with experience of them?

try transferwise.

If you use my account link here we both come out if it better still https://transferwise.com/u/markj3

your first £500 transfer will have no fees. The rate is v good too

So the first £500 value will deliver $875 and the second £800, $1392 being a total of $2,267 for the £1300.
Sorry, will do that the right way around now

$2158 will cost £1236

Granted this was a year or so ago, I found it cheapest to paypal gift the money to family in New Zealand.

I had wondered about PayPal gift – how do I find out the exchange rates?

I got 1.744 today buying something using paypal from ebay Australia earlier today. Almost exactly the same as stoner’s figure by my maths

Stoner – I don’t quite get what the score is with that link – what is it doing?

The invitation link from me will mean you get your first £500 worth of transfers for no fee. The remaining £800 odd will cost about £4 to transfer.
The transfer rate is the mid market rate, you wont do better.

I get an intro fee for doing so, which I use as transfer fee credit since I regularly move € to my French account via transferwise.

I had wondered about PayPal gift – how do I find out the exchange rates?

At the time they were pretty good, can’t answer for current rates but worth a look.

@Stoner Ahh right – I see now. I will do that assuming the family member is happy getting the payment this way cheers.

I’ve not used Transferwise but I guess it’s similar to CurrencyFair, which I’ve used many times and recommend. Facilited Peer to Peer so it get mid-market rates, they take about 0.3% commission and it cost £3 to send the currency to the target bank. Typically about 5% cheaper than the bank.

no worries me ol’ cobber!

The payment goes straight into their bank account. You just set the exact amount you want them to receive and pay the deposit via debit card or with an online transfer to a transferwise account unique to you.

Send it to me as a paypal gift, I’ll do it for £1000

8)

For a transfer to France/EUR for a holiday let I studied the form on Moneysavingexpert and used OFX. Worked well but be aware that once you push the button they call to confirm the transfer and collect the payment and you need to pick up and respond. If for whatever reason you want to pause or cancel you need to let them know pronto.

Stoner – used your link so you should get your referral 🙂 cheers

had wondered about PayPal gift – how do I find out the exchange rates?

assuming you have a paypal account just login and start the transaction – you don’t have to finish it – the rate pops up and the total cost of the transaction – again assumes allows a transaction that value – never studied in detail but generally paypal exchange rates seem better than banks

I’d also be ok with transferwise though may have to do some ID checks ref money laundering rules so initial set up can be a hassle

thanks johndoh, just got the notification through from transferwise.
Should work fine for what you need.

meh, cba