This might not have wide appeal to most of the HUKDer's but could be handy if you want to send international payment for free provided you have 1) a first direct account 2) the beneficiary's account details (in foreign bank)
This is not applicable if you are thinking about getting money to spend on holiday - a foreign bank account is needed to receive the money.
There is no fee for international payment although the beneficiary bank may charge a fee to process the payment. This is the first bank to offer it as free service as far as I am aware.
In most cases it is almost better to send payment in Sterling Pound (£) which will be converted into foreign currency once it hits the beneficiary account - and the exchange rate is always better than the exchange rate proposed by the bank at the point of remittance.
Sending up to £50,000 per day
Top comments
marathonic
26 Jul 173#31
The rate they offer appears to differ dependent upon transfer size - with the best rates on offer for the maximum transfer of £50,000. The following is what I could determine for a euro transfer. It does give the option for a sterling transfer. You'd probably need to check that the receiving bank would accept this as opposed to just bouncing it back.
First Direct:
Current Rate as per XE.com: EUR 1.121440
Rate offered online by FD: EUR 1.103506
GBP 50,000.00 = EUR 55,175.30
Transferwise
GBP 50,000.00 = EUR 55,786.07
Transferwise will give an extra GBP 610.77 for a transfer of this size (1.22154% more).
bigmike2028
26 Jul 173#7
Great news no fees so i can help the Nigerian prince who keeps e-mailing me $$$
Latest comments (42)
lhwjud
26 Jul 17#42
Login to your account and you will see the option to send GBP
I see a few on here speaking highly of Transferwise.
Anyone know how they compare to MoneyCorp ?
kiish to rodulett
26 Jul 17#39
Found TransferWise usually has best rates when I sent few x,xxx transfers always compared and it was cheapest and now its even same day some cases depending on when you send it.
Bank rates will be pretty bad but nice to see fee removed.
nrps1
26 Jul 17#37
I see it says you need to switch a current account to them and pay in £1k every month, or keep a balance of £1k. I have no wish to switch my account and don't want to pay a £10 pcm fee, does anyone know if you can opt out of the £100 incentive and not 'switch' as it were, and take advantage of this please?
brightonly
26 Jul 17#36
worse for me for Spain. They were giving 1.0785 euro to the pound, against transferwise, azimo, and lebara around 1.12. Makes a difference of £4 per hundred before the others' fees if any.
AndyRoyd
26 Jul 172#2
Who sets the forex rate? Can the forex rate be viewed at point of transaction? Thanks.
villageidiotdan to AndyRoyd
26 Jul 17#6
Unsure but good question - could never get across to my mum that "commission free" mean diddly if the ex rate was rubbish.
In my instance I was sending £800 to a foreign account so the exchange rate was the sellers issue.
foxabcd1234 to AndyRoyd
26 Jul 17#35
You can choose, where it gets converted - sending/receiving bank (usually better at receiving bank)
Most banks use their central bank's published rate less "1% (minimum) or more"
marathonic
26 Jul 173#31
The rate they offer appears to differ dependent upon transfer size - with the best rates on offer for the maximum transfer of £50,000. The following is what I could determine for a euro transfer. It does give the option for a sterling transfer. You'd probably need to check that the receiving bank would accept this as opposed to just bouncing it back.
First Direct:
Current Rate as per XE.com: EUR 1.121440
Rate offered online by FD: EUR 1.103506
GBP 50,000.00 = EUR 55,175.30
Transferwise
GBP 50,000.00 = EUR 55,786.07
Transferwise will give an extra GBP 610.77 for a transfer of this size (1.22154% more).
Preying_Eyes to marathonic
26 Jul 17#34
Thanks for confirming. Seems ideal for me.
lhwjud
26 Jul 17#33
Thanks for confirming the option to send GBP directly.
Rastafari
26 Jul 17#32
Transferwise every time. Rastafari is the almighty.
paulcheetham
26 Jul 17#30
I called them - they weren't very helpful to give me the rate they are charging. Even the live rate, they can only give me that if I'm a customer.
heeljames
26 Jul 17#29
This is potentially amazing for me. Im moving to Shanghai next week and will be transferring funds between English and Chinese accounts for the foreseeable future. already have a first direct account too!
intercreate
26 Jul 171#22
They good thing with this is it will be a Swift payment which means it is traceable unlike when sending money with the likes of Transferwise, Azimo etc. which utilise local payments.
With First Direct, the free payment charge is relatively unimportant in comparison to the exchange rate which is poor, coming in at close to 3% of the mid-market rate, so would avoid using them.
Better to use a International Payment specialist.
siddhant4u to intercreate
26 Jul 17#28
I compared India rates and found them charging 1% of mid-market rate and is more favourable then specialist. However, I understand the rates (commission) could differ country to country
siddhant4u
26 Jul 17#27
Just compared the live rates it's 0.99% less in exchange rate still the best I could find. Even better then Transferwise or Remitly
Master.G
26 Jul 17#26
I could say the same about you.
adi0604
26 Jul 17#25
It isn't that complicated, either they can put margin on intraday live rate or they can offer exact live forex rate similar to which I get from HSBC. FD will firstly show rate and exact amount and only once confirmed by the account owner they will proceed with transfer.
The fact is I don't have FD account, so anyone who has can check this by login their FD a/c and cross check with current intraday exchange.
scubascuba3
26 Jul 17#24
Sadly you don't have anything constructive to say about the original post
scrumpypaul
26 Jul 17#23
Thanks for this. I'm looking into the easiest and cheapest way to send money to daughter from the UK to the USA when she starts her studies there next month.
scubascuba3
26 Jul 17#21
As you are the Op I'll leave it to you, good luck
scubascuba3
26 Jul 17#20
You're not comprehending what's going on. There doesn't appear an option to send GBP and receiving bank to receive GBP. Still don't understand?
Master.G
26 Jul 171#19
** first direct / would have / it's.
puzl
26 Jul 171#18
+1 for Transferwise. That service has saved me so much money in transfer/conversion fees. Especially good for larger amounts of cash.
scubascuba3
26 Jul 17#9
I've just read the small print....it's not good....no mention that you can send GBP so this means that First Direct will manipulate the rate you get and convert before currency is sent. So no guarantee it will be a good rate, certainly not worth opening a first direct account. If you were allowed to send GBP it would be good.
A big COLD vote now
adi0604 to scubascuba3
26 Jul 17#17
Rubbish, they will give you live intraday exchange rate. Also says on it 'Know your exchange rate
With rates updated by the second during market hours, you'll know how much you're sending'
adi0604
26 Jul 17#16
Azimo is ok imo as at times it does takes 2 full next working days before money is credited, means if you send money on Thursday it will be Tuesday money will show up in receivers a/c.
I my experience Transferwise is the best out there, recently money only takes 4hours to showup and genuinely live rates (much better than Azimo, lebara, xenday etc.) and I think there fees is also very competitive. Often offset against better exchange rate they give.
flamethrower
26 Jul 171#15
I found Azimo to be the best, plus you always get a code for extra £5 or £10 off the transfer.
lhwjud
26 Jul 17#14
Why don't you call them and find out? I will be very surprise if there is no option to send payment in GBP. Even the marketing headline reads “Send up to £50,000 (or currency equivalent) online with no payment fee”.
scubascuba3
26 Jul 17#13
In the details it says about confirming the exchange rate you will get, this means they decide on the exchange rate not the receiving bank. First Direct have been sneaky with this and you have to read between the lines. If you were allowed to send GBP they would of said so as its a good selling point. Cold
laurentmahe
26 Jul 171#12
No mention that you can, but any mention that you can't?
eliHd452
26 Jul 17#11
yass! I can now transfer some cash to the prince of Nigeria who sent me an email recently looking to borrow some cash for free!!
scubascuba3
26 Jul 17#8
This is very good, Santander charge £25 for a transfer.
The exchange rate you would get when sending GBP is the receiving banks rate, that can vary, isn't necessarily the interbank rate so you need to compare to see if it's any good. For large transfers it's usually better to transfer this way. Companies like transferwise charge a % so can be a high GBP charge
p9dyl to scubascuba3
26 Jul 171#10
Transferwise is the cheapest way to send money internationally, they give you mid market rate and take 0.5% commission.
I get paid in Danish DKK and spent a lot of time looking into the cheapest way of converting my money back to GBP.
bigmike2028
26 Jul 173#7
Great news no fees so i can help the Nigerian prince who keeps e-mailing me $$$
tommytbone1
25 Jul 172#1
Well this sucks... I only sent a international payment a couple of weeks ago. Spent about 10 mins on the phone arranging it as well. Cheers for update op
villageidiotdan to tommytbone1
26 Jul 17#5
Me too, but 45 mins so complained and got the £4 refunded...took some effort mind you. Good bank overall
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Opening post
1) a first direct account
2) the beneficiary's account details (in foreign bank)
This is not applicable if you are thinking about getting money to spend on holiday - a foreign bank account is needed to receive the money.
There is no fee for international payment although the beneficiary bank may charge a fee to process the payment. This is the first bank to offer it as free service as far as I am aware.
In most cases it is almost better to send payment in Sterling Pound (£) which will be converted into foreign currency once it hits the beneficiary account - and the exchange rate is always better than the exchange rate proposed by the bank at the point of remittance.
Sending up to £50,000 per day
Top comments
First Direct:
Current Rate as per XE.com: EUR 1.121440
Rate offered online by FD: EUR 1.103506
GBP 50,000.00 = EUR 55,175.30
Transferwise
GBP 50,000.00 = EUR 55,786.07
Transferwise will give an extra GBP 610.77 for a transfer of this size (1.22154% more).
Latest comments (42)
Anyone know how they compare to MoneyCorp ?
Bank rates will be pretty bad but nice to see fee removed.
In my instance I was sending £800 to a foreign account so the exchange rate was the sellers issue.
Most banks use their central bank's published rate less "1% (minimum) or more"
First Direct:
Current Rate as per XE.com: EUR 1.121440
Rate offered online by FD: EUR 1.103506
GBP 50,000.00 = EUR 55,175.30
Transferwise
GBP 50,000.00 = EUR 55,786.07
Transferwise will give an extra GBP 610.77 for a transfer of this size (1.22154% more).
With First Direct, the free payment charge is relatively unimportant in comparison to the exchange rate which is poor, coming in at close to 3% of the mid-market rate, so would avoid using them.
Better to use a International Payment specialist.
The fact is I don't have FD account, so anyone who has can check this by login their FD a/c and cross check with current intraday exchange.
A big COLD vote now
With rates updated by the second during market hours, you'll know how much you're sending'
I my experience Transferwise is the best out there, recently money only takes 4hours to showup and genuinely live rates (much better than Azimo, lebara, xenday etc.) and I think there fees is also very competitive. Often offset against better exchange rate they give.
The exchange rate you would get when sending GBP is the receiving banks rate, that can vary, isn't necessarily the interbank rate so you need to compare to see if it's any good. For large transfers it's usually better to transfer this way. Companies like transferwise charge a % so can be a high GBP charge
I get paid in Danish DKK and spent a lot of time looking into the cheapest way of converting my money back to GBP.