Bank exchange rates
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I just had a $ amount transferred into my (irish) euro account, when I checked the median exchange rate $/euro for the date of transfer, i find that i am "light" by around 2000 euro. I've not been able to get clarification from my (irish) bank yet, but, would it be normal for a high st bank to charge such exorbitant exchange rates. I would have thought they would charge only a couple of points to the upside of the median exchange rate.
tommyboyle
1 year ago
Expert Financial Adviser Answer
James Brooke
answered 1 year ago
Unfortunately banks can charge pretty much what they want for foreign exchange (FX) transactions. It is therefore best to use a specialist foreign exchange broker for larger transactions.
Two FX brokers that I have used in the past are Ebury Partners, who will give you a personal service and where you can speak to someone on the phone, and Oanda, who are an on-line only service.
You can contact Ebury Partners on 0845 519 1009 or via the web at http://www.eburypartners.co.uk. Please feel free to mention my name.
You can contact Onada at http://fxglobaltransfer.oanda.com/
Onada also have a useful app for BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android.
You can find them in your app store or at
http://www.oanda.com/mobile/converter/blackberry
http://www.oanda.com/mobile/converter/iphone
http://www.oanda.com/mobile/converter/android
respectively.
These will give you an idea of the charges (up to 4% or more) that you could be charged for a transaction.
I hope helps
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Two FX brokers that I have used in the past are Ebury Partners, who will give you a personal service and where you can speak to someone on the phone, and Oanda, who are an on-line only service.
You can contact Ebury Partners on 0845 519 1009 or via the web at http://www.eburypartners.co.uk. Please feel free to mention my name.
You can contact Onada at http://fxglobaltransfer.oanda.com/
Onada also have a useful app for BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android.
You can find them in your app store or at
http://www.oanda.com/mobile/converter/blackberry
http://www.oanda.com/mobile/converter/iphone
http://www.oanda.com/mobile/converter/android
respectively.
These will give you an idea of the charges (up to 4% or more) that you could be charged for a transaction.
I hope helps
maxper74
answered 1 year ago
Essentially the is a secret scam by all global banks and they make large amounts of profits by implementing a random spread on their risk free currency conversions. If you are converting a larger amount of currency you can call the forex desk at the bank and get them to either quote a rate or guarantee a max spread over the bloomberg rate. There are smaller outfits, bucket shops, that can do this service for you as well.
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Expert Financial Adviser Answer
James Brooke
answered 1 year ago
Make sure that whoever you use is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and that they have suitable professional indemnity insurance in place.
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