Anyone here use Currenciesdirect?

[Dryden]

As per title has anyone used them to move money out the country and was it a positive experience? I need to find a way to get 700k to the uk and its either the bank or one of these 3rd party outfits.

And any other company I should consider? If nothing else I'll go via the bank (fnb) but that comes with much higher fees it seems...

Please help. All my other stuff's in order but I've been avoiding this so I need to get moving now. Who did you use to get your cash out?

Thanks guys

 

[r4nd0m]

Also try shyft from Standard Bank. Their rates are better than FNB.

 

[RandomGeek]

As per title has anyone used them to move money out the country and was it a positive experience? I need to find a way to get 700k to the uk and its either the bank or one of these 3rd party outfits.

And any other company I should consider? If nothing else I'll go via the bank (fnb) but that comes with much higher fees it seems...

Please help. All my other stuff's in order but I've been avoiding this so I need to get moving now. Who did you use to get your cash out?

Thanks guys

Yup, have used CurrenciesDirect to move money out the country, good service with better forex rates than the banks

Counting down for the next person to say Bitcoin in 3....2...1......

 

[jman]

Are you able to open a Revolut account? You can open one of those, get a ZAR account which will have swift details to make payments to.

Then make a swift ZAR payment from FNB for example (costs about R700), cash arrives a day or so later in Revolut, then you can exchange for £ at the market rate (I.e. no spread).

Just make sure you upgrade to the premium account (£7), which enables you to do unlimited currency exchange, then when you're done downgrade back down to the standard free account because the premium account locks you in for 12 months, but you can cancel within 14 days.

This is probably the cheapest way to do it

 

[Johnatan56]

Are you able to open a Revolut account? You can open one of those, get a ZAR account which will have swift details to make payments to.

Then make a swift ZAR payment from FNB for example (costs about R700), cash arrives a day or so later in Revolut, then you can exchange for £ at the market rate (I.e. no spread).

Just make sure you upgrade to the premium account (£7), which enables you to do unlimited currency exchange, then when you're done downgrade back down to the standard free account because the premium account locks you in for 12 months, but you can cancel within 14 days.

This is probably the cheapest way to do it

Note this route:

For certain conversions we apply an extra percentage-based fee, which may change according to when and how frequently the currencies are traded. These fees are set out below.

All Standard users can make a set amount of exchanges at this rate every month. The set amount depends on what your base currency is and is set out on our Fees Page. Standard users who exchange more than this amount start paying a fair usage fee (but Premium and Metal customers do not).

Everyone on Revolut whose base currency is can €1,000 of exchanges at this rate each month. Standard customers who exchange more than this will begin paying a fair usage fee of 0.5% on any additional amount. A Standard customer is anyone who is not a Premium or Metal customer. Premium and Metal customers do not pay this fee.

We charge a fee of 1% for currency exchanges on weekends and bank holidays (in London) because exchange markets are generally closed and less currency is traded during these times. You can avoid these fees by making your exchange on weekdays. We may charge this fee if these or other exchange markets are closed at other times too.

Weekday exchange fees​

If you are a Standard customer and make an exchange on a weekday, these are the fees that will apply to your exchange.

Remember, if you exchange more than €1,000 during the month, a fair usage fee of 0.5% will begin to apply in addition to the fees below. You can avoid this fair usage fee by signing up to a Metal or Premium plan and receiving unlimited exchange.

Standard money currencies: USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD, NZD, CHF, JPY, SEK, HKD, NOK, SGD, DKK, PLN, CZK (or any other currency not listed as a “less traded money currency” below)	No fee
Less traded money currencies: THB and UAH	1.0%

So you're going to pay 1% on free (standard is free), and then 0.5% on standard if over 1k EUR. Weekend is 2% for rand.

They removed rates everywhere, going to sign up and check the rate compared to FNB one. FNB usually ends up being a R295 fee for forex for ~R40k (assuming the R295 is ~100 for exchange fee and R195 for SWIFT), then rate difference for my last transfer was 17.302 vs FNB's rate of 17.5874, so FNB gave a 1.65% worse rate than interchange.

Will check the Revolut rate once sign-up goes through.
EDIT: My number port just went through and I don't have a needle to swap SIM card, so guess I'll set a reminder and check tomorrow.
Currencies direct is supposedly interbank exchange rate + 1%, so should be close to Revolut costs probably due to SWIFT transfer.

 

[jman]

Note this route:



So you're going to pay 1% on free (standard is free), and then 0.5% on standard if over 1k EUR. Weekend is 2% for rand.

They removed rates everywhere, going to sign up and check the rate compared to FNB one. FNB usually ends up being a R295 fee for forex for ~R40k (assuming the R295 is ~100 for exchange fee and R195 for SWIFT), then rate difference for my last transfer was 17.302 vs FNB's rate of 17.5874, so FNB gave a 1.65% worse rate than interchange.

Will check the Revolut rate once sign-up goes through.
EDIT: My number port just went through and I don't have a needle to swap SIM card, so guess I'll set a reminder and check tomorrow.
Currencies direct is supposedly interbank exchange rate + 1%, so should be close to Revolut costs probably due to SWIFT transfer.

I did this with Revolut 3 days ago. Sent a fair chunk of ZAR from FNB using the global payments feature to my Revolut ZAR account, which cost me R700 or so for the swift transfer (so I hadn't exchanged any currency at this point).

ZAR arrived a day later.

I upgraded my Revolut standard account to a premium account for £7, so that the £1000 fee-free currency exchange was lifted.

I exchanged my ZAR for GBP, at the market rate (no fee).

Cancelled my Revolut premium sub back to standard, and they refunded me the £7. Done