Transfer Money Via TransferWise

[scoffer]

I currently use AudSmart to transfer my Australian Dollars into USD$ and deposit funds into an ABA account in Cambodia.
It's a fixed rate with no additional bank fees, today's rate for transfering $1,000 AUD$ into USD$ is USD $714.08

Transfer wise are offering USD$726.07 excluding any local bank fee.
However, I cannot get information on what the local bank charges would be.

If any of our members have used TransferWise, can you recall the local bank fees you were charged?.
Also were there any unexpected problems or charges that you encountered ?

FYI at the time of posting the official exchange rate for AUD$1,000 into USD$ was $728.24 and banks were offering around the USD$698.80 mark

[RobW]

I've used them a lot and they are very good. Never checked what the bank charges this end are but I think all Cambodian banks charge something for the pleasure of receiving your money. As ever, make sure the name on the transfer is exactly as on Cambo account.
Somebody told me a company called OFX is even better.

[ReasonstobefearfulP3]

From UK so maybe different rates but intra-bank fees were $25 from TransferWise (flat rate)

[ផោមក្លិនស្អុយ]

Local charges are $10 plus there is likely to be another $10 or so intermediary charges. These charges arent unique to transferwise, so if they are offering you more $$$ then you should go with them.

From uk only 26 hours to money lodged in my account with them last time

[Guest]

I've used them a lot and they are very good. Never checked what the bank charges this end are but I think all Cambodian banks charge something for the pleasure of receiving your money. As ever, make sure the name on the transfer is exactly as on Cambo account.
Somebody told me a company called OFX is even better.

I’ve used both TransferWise and OFX. The service and rates are better with TW.

[Guest999]

Stupidly it seems, the handful of times I've transferred $ into Cambodia I have always used SWIFT transfers through banks. Looking at the TransferWise website, I've lost over a thousand dollars doing so. (I think I looked into TransferWise after reading about some award they got 7 or 8 years ago, but I wasn't confident enough to use it.) Oh well.

In my quite limited experience, SWIFT transfers over 10K always ask the source of the funds. However, the second transfer this year, ABA wouldn't release the $ until I also explained what the $ was for. (Including the extra time for me to detail $ use, money was still available for withdrawal in 4 or 5 days, so not too bad.)

TransferWise does ask for photo ID for larger transfers, but, never having used it, is there a place to add info about where $ is from, or where it is going? Do they ask?

I will use TransferWise next time if there are no downsides vs. SWIFT. Are there any?

[Dame Edna]

Hey Scoff, You might want to take a look at Hai Ha Money Transfer from Oz. https://hhmt.com.au/

1000AUD = 716.30USD at the moment.

Transfer fee $10AUD. Can send to Wing for pickup, or to a bank account.

[badboybubby]

I currently use AudSmart to transfer my Australian Dollars into USD$ and deposit funds into an ABA account in Cambodia.
It's a fixed rate with no additional bank fees, today's rate for transfering $1,000 AUD$ into USD$ is USD $714.08

Transfer wise are offering USD$726.07 excluding any local bank fee.
However, I cannot get information on what the local bank charges would be.

If any of our members have used TransferWise, can you recall the local bank fees you were charged?.
Also were there any unexpected problems or charges that you encountered ?

FYI at the time of posting the official exchange rate for AUD$1,000 into USD$ was $728.24 and banks were offering around the USD$698.80 mark

I've used both although it's been AUDsmart for Cambodia and Transferwise for Europe. Never had any problems with either. Both competitive and streaks ahead of banks. Transferwise must be relatively new to Cambodia because when I've had a look in the past it wasn't on their list of countries.

When I've sent sent money to Europe through them I'm pretty sure there was no receiving bank fees incurred.. That's because like AUDsmart they have a local bank account in that country so when they deposit your funds to your beneficiary it is treated like a local bank transfer. That would be my guess but I haven't used them for Cambodia so let us know how you go if you do use them.

[ChristianPFC]

Update on sending money to Cambodia. Contrary to my OP, you can send USD to a bank in Cambodia with transferwise.

details for my transfer on transferwise website:
You send 550 EUR
Total fees (included) 6.01 EUR
Amount we'll convert 543.99 EUR
Guaranteed rate (49 hours) 1.18145
XXX gets 642.70 USD
Should arrive by October 30th

The money arrived already on 27oct2020, but it was only 587.70 USD. That's exactly 55 USD less than what transferwise said, of which 10 USD "International Inward Transfer Fee" declared in the receiver's receipt and a further 45 USD disappeared somewhere along the way (most probably on the Cambodian bank side, Advanced Bank of Asia Limited).

Overall 550 EUR -> 587.70 USD corresponds to a rate of 1.07, which is 9% lower than xe.com 1.18. My worst money transfer ever in absolute loss of 55 USD (for highest relative loss of 17% see Brasil report).

https://transferwise.com/help/articl...outside-the-us

TransferWise supports sending USD to people outside of the US, but to do this we need to send your transfer via the SWIFT network.

Because SWIFT incurs additional costs, we will add a fee of 3.20 USD to your transfer to pay for this. We charge the same fee for payments to Hong Kong through CHATS system.

Your bank or other banks the money passes through on the way may also charge you a fee, so your recipient might get less. These fees tend to be around 25–50 USD, but there's no way for TransferWise to know what they'll be in advance.

Intransparent and expensive, I will never send money online to Cambodia again unless it's a matter of life or death.
I can only hope that immigrant workers in Thailand have better ways to transfer money to their home countries.

(the above originally posted here: https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showthre ... post270657)

addendum: the losses are too big to let them pass without explanation, I sent an email to transferwise and I sent my receipt to my friend in Cambodia to inquire with his bank.

[ReasonstobefearfulP3]

The explanation is the intra-bank fees.

Usually somewhere between 25 & 50 depend on number and name of banks involved (as they state in the explanation)

It's well known that there will be intra-bank fees when sending to Cambodia. Sending anything less than 1-2k you should just use western union or the atm

Also, if transferred using xe there would also be intra-bank fees

[1984]

Your comments made me check two recent TransferWise transfers. Lost $55 to ABA and $35 to Acleda so the intermediary is only partially responsible. I would have been better off using my UK bank's quoted rate. I won't bother with TransferWise again. I had reason to use their customer service and it was appalling, they couldn't even understand the issue I was raising let alone deal with it. Would have had a better time smashing my face into a wall.

[ReasonstobefearfulP3]

Your comments made me check two recent TransferWise transfers. Lost $55 to ABA and $35 to Acleda so the intermediary is only partially responsible.

Apart from the $10 ABA fee the intermediary/ies is entirely responsible. Acleda & ABA may not use the same intermediary. Payments coming from or going to different places do not use the same path.

However, the most important thing to know is not to use transferwise (or any of the equivalents) for small transactions. The intra-bank fees are fixed, in relation to the transfer size, so $50 on $10k is a lot better than $50 on $500. transferwise's rate is better than standard banks so the more you transfer the better it gets.

[scoffer]

Just sent AUD $1,000 to the wife.
Posted exchange rate was .711
AUDsmart gave me .697 with no additional fees.
Banks were offering .668 to .671 with addition fees of approx AUD $38.00

So for small value exchanges AUDsmart give a fixed value very similar to what you get with the money changers in PP.

For larger value transfers( AUD $10k or more ) I'd consider transfer wise or a similar service.

[ផោមក្លិនស្អុយ]

For me, I've found that Transferwise works best for me (from UK). But my transfers would all be a minimum of $6k but normally $10k plus.
I've used plenty of competitors over the years and TW wins for me for ease of use, transparency, speed and tracking