Xe For Money Transfers

[Garpo]

This company claims to provide free international money transfers at best available exchange rates. Has anybody used them or have additional information on them?http://www.xe.com/

[Dave Hounddriver]

I use them. Getting an account set up was as hard as getting the keys to a bank once they found out I was sending money to myself in the Philippines. Now that it is set up it goes fairly smooth.Rates they give are pretty much exactly the same as what you get when you use your North American ATM card in a machine here. All you save is the ATM charges which can add up over time. What I like is the instant option. If you are patient you can watch the rates hour by hour and click in to lock a transaction when it gets to a point you like, but seriously, the changes from hour to hour may add up to $10 on a 250,000 peso transaction so it is more for fun than any realistic idea.Would I recommend them? No. Would you like their service? If everything goes well for you then you will like it.

[OnMyWay]

I'm surprised that there is not more information posted on experiences with XE, if it is as good as it sounds. Too much hassle? I signed up today and it takes a day or two to get approved. I will follow up with my experience.

[Mike S]

Will the transfer dollars instead of pesos ..... if you have a dollar account here there would be no exchange rate to have to deal with .... I like the check transfer I'm doing now it is just so frustrating to know the bank uses your money for free for 20 days ..... my bank in the US pays my bank here when they get my check but the bank here waits an additional 20 days before releasing the money .... but it doesn't cost me anything ..... Please post any additional information you get and experiences .... please

[Dave Hounddriver]

Please post any additional information you get and experiences

It may be better to keep that low profile.XE are paranoid about money laundering and if they believe you are sending money to yourself from the west to the Philippines, they will cut you off mid transfer. I'd also hate for them to get too popular and then 'lower the boom' on all us 'borderline' cases who do exactly what I just said. It would be exactly what Xoom did to us a couple years back.Did anyone ever here the story about the little bird who was flying south for the winter? His wings froze due to an early frost and he fell from the sky. He thought he was a dead little bird but he landed in a big fresh cowpie. It broke his fall and warmed him up so he was a happy bird, just chirping away . . . and an eagle heard him. The eagle swooped down and gobbled him up.So the moral is, even when you are in deep chit, if you are happy about it, keep quiet. Edited March 13, 2012 by Dave Hounddriver

[OnMyWay]

@ Dave, it might be possible that XE has changed their business model and fees now. In the FAQ they state that you can send the money to someone else or yourself, as long as the destination account is in the currency you are exchanging to.@ all,Here is my experience with XE. I signed up online and said the transfers would be for travel and living expenses. You have to provide full personal information including SSN, address, phone. They then say you may receive a phone call, but I never did. I got an e-mail after 2 days telling me I was approved.Only after signing up and signing in can you find out the exchange rates used, fees and restrictions. They only offer a free exchange to a short list of countries who are on ACH system, mostly Europe. For Philippines, they only offer a wire transfer. A wire transfer will incur fees at the origin bank (XE) and the destination bank. My girlfriend checked at BPI, and their incoming wire fees are a variable flat fee based on the amount, and then .03 p that is a tax. It worked out to be about $20 USD for $1000 transfer. I did a lot of wire transfers when I was in Germany and that is similar to the fees my US banks used to charge me on incoming wires.I could not check the XE wire transfer fee without putting all of the receiver information, so I did not do that, because I could already see XE was going to be more expensive than Xoom. The same as Xoom, XE is charging about 1 p for the spread on the transfer. For example, right now, on the XE main web page, the xrate is 42.970 per USD. When I sign in and get a "quick Quote", the rate used is 41.982.I have not used Xoom yet, but it appears to a lot cheaper.XE = Origin wire fee + ~1 p spread + destination wire fee.Xoom = $5.99 + ~1 p spread (Xoom rate is 42.00 right now)I found XE to be misleading. Unlike other services, you have to waste your time signing up to find out what the real cost of a transfer will be.Hope this helps and let me know if I misunderstood anything. I would not use XE for Philippines but it would be good for ACH countries. It would have saved me a lot of money when I was doing transfers from Germany to US.

[Dave Hounddriver]

I have not used Xoom yet, but it appears to a lot cheaper.

A great review. I have a couple of points that may help. Xoom used to have a maximum transaction (for me anyway) of $1,000 (but they since decided to cancel my account so that is all academic now). XE gives me a limit many times that, which can and does work out cheaper, for me, when I watch the trends on the exchange rate and send a lot of money when the rates are good. Not everyone is able to do that, though.

[i am bob]

For those of us in Canada or the UK, we can also use a company called WorldRemit. I believe in Canada it is a $5.99 initial fee and a small percentage on the exchange. I know it is cheaper (much cheaper) than Western Union or my bank (RBC in Canada). And it will be available in the US shortly. When I do send money I don't have to convert my money from Canadian to American to Pesos like I do with Western Union - it's Canadian to Pesos! Also they accept Visa, MC, Debit or you can access your bank account (online through your bank itself) to make your payments.One thing I have been trying to find out is can I send money to myself. I could not find anything on their site saying No so I sent them a queerie to find out. I"ll let everybody know what I get back for the answer.

[Ashanti]

For those of us in Canada or the UK, we can also use a company called WorldRemit. I believe in Canada it is a $5.99 initial fee and a small percentage on the exchange. I know it is cheaper (much cheaper) than Western Union or my bank (RBC in Canada). And it will be available in the US shortly. When I do send money I don't have to convert my money from Canadian to American to Pesos like I do with Western Union - it's Canadian to Pesos! Also they accept Visa, MC, Debit or you can access your bank account (online through your bank itself) to make your payments.One thing I have been trying to find out is can I send money to myself. I could not find anything on their site saying No so I sent them a queerie to find out. I"ll let everybody know what I get back for the answer.

The other thing to consider aside from the fees is what the exchange rate is like. Because like any money changers, the fee to use the service might be low or even free but the killer is the rate of exchange of your money. How competitive are they in the exchange rate.I find PNB Europe is very competitive with their exchange rate.

[i am bob]

For those of us in Canada or the UK, we can also use a company called WorldRemit. I believe in Canada it is a $5.99 initial fee and a small percentage on the exchange. I know it is cheaper (much cheaper) than Western Union or my bank (RBC in Canada). And it will be available in the US shortly. When I do send money I don't have to convert my money from Canadian to American to Pesos like I do with Western Union - it's Canadian to Pesos! Also they accept Visa, MC, Debit or you can access your bank account (online through your bank itself) to make your payments.One thing I have been trying to find out is can I send money to myself. I could not find anything on their site saying No so I sent them a queerie to find out. I"ll let everybody know what I get back for the answer.

The other thing to consider aside from the fees is what the exchange rate is like. Because like any money changers, the fee to use the service might be low or even free but the killer is the rate of exchange of your money. How competitive are they in the exchange rate.I find PNB Europe is very competitive with their exchange rate.

I'm not sure what the exchange rate is off the top of my head but I do know that I did a lot of looking at different ways to send money from Canada to the Philippines and WorldRemit was the least expensive route I could find.