Buying 5k USD

J

jister

Guest
When sending 5000USD to a supplier overseas, what is the best way to do it?

When I look at the Yahoo Finance site the rate is 1.221USD / EURO. What rate should the banks be charging me?
 
Jister - the banks will charge you anything they want, but it should be around that figure +/- a few %. Don't forget that the exchange rates quoted by the various banks change throughout the day, and the Yahoo rate you see is only indicative - it is not an actual official rate which *must* be honoured. Currency exchange is an open market.

The *only* thing to do in this situation is to ring around at a particular time and chose the cheapest including all charges, but don't forget that if you send money from anything other than your own bank then there may be delays in clearing your money before the transaction can start and by the time the transaction starts the rate could well have moved making it more (or less) expensive.

In my opinion, the best (least hassle) way is get in touch with your branch manager, tell him/her you want to wire some money and then let them take it from there. It may not be the cheapest (or it may well be the cheapest) but it will save you time. Depends on whether you want to save time or money.

z

z
 
exchange

Thanks Z,

I usually just send an email to the person in the bank who looks after my a/c and tel them transfer XXXXUSD to a certain account.

This time I rang the back and asked for a quote first, which I am waiting for a written reply on.
 
Re: exchange

I would be interested to hear if you were able to get a fixed rate for the transaction. My understanding is that unless the amount involved is pretty significant the bank will just give you theie current rate.

z
 
quote

Zag


I got this email back from my bank (Bank of Ireland)

Best rate I can get is 1.2057 which will cost you a total of Euro 4162.82
including charges of E15.85.

The rate on yahoo was 1.2283 at the time, say about a 2% charge.
 
Re: quote

Jister - I really meant whether the bank would hold that rate for a period of time, like days.

z
 
quote

Zag - according to my own recent research no bank will do that irrespective of the amount to be converted which makes sense given the volume of these transactions and the size of - for example - Lloyds TSB or BoI! However I was assured they apply the 'trade'/'commercial' rate for large conversions even if one is an individual rather than a business. They can't and won't 'quote' a rate in advance.
 
Re: quote

Marie - this ties in with my experience. I didn't think people would be able to fix their own rate, but so many people seemed to be asking about it I thought I had missed something.

The currency market really is a bankers market - people just have to take what they are offered (for better or worse).

z
 
Fixing exchange rate into the future

"I didn't think people would be able to fix their own rate"

The futures & options markets enable this to be done....but not worth it for 5k
 
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