# Best way to transfer cash to Australia



## HarleyDave (Jul 1, 2007)

My daughter is looking to buy a property in Australia and I have offered her some cash if she needs it to make sure she gets the place she wants.

Property sales are mainly made at Auction in Oz and she has already suffered by being just that little bit short of funds to make the winning bid.

I am looking to find the best/safest/easiest/cheapest way to transfer cash from my UK current account with Lloyds to her account (not with Lloyds) in Oz

Anyone got any views/ideas/guidance please?

Cheers

Dave


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

Contact Smart currency - we have found them brilliant and very reliable and over £2k there are no charges and a good rate - you can always ask for a better rate and we usually get it....

I will happily give you an introduction to them as that works well for us too, let me know if that would be of use...

We have found them to give the best rates and to be very helpful,

Current rate via them is for £10,000 = 20339 AUD

Dave


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## fatbuddha (Aug 7, 2006)

check out http://www.orbitremit.com/


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## HarleyDave (Jul 1, 2007)

Penquin said:


> Contact Smart currency - we have found them brilliant and very reliable and over £2k there are no charges and a good rate - you can always ask for a better rate and we usually get it....
> 
> I will happily give you an introduction to them as that works well for us too, let me know if that would be of use...
> 
> ...


Thanks Dave - that does look interesting (sorry...) - I'll let you know after I've checked out a couple of options.

Cheers

Dave


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## randonneur (Jan 25, 2007)

When we sold our house in France we used www.worldfirst.com/uk their rates were very good at the time, but that was Euros/Sterling. Sterling to AUD today is 2.03


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## Revise (May 13, 2012)

I use a company called FirmaFX. I but a lot of items from China and we always exchange into US $. In the previous 6 years we have never found a company giving a better rate at any time. The more you exchange the better rate you can get. A good point is you can lock in the exchange rate for a specific time. If you get a good rate on a particular day a small fee will lock that fee for a few weeks. 
Good luck, I hope your daughter gets the house she wants next time with a little help from the Royal Bank of Dad..


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

I used Transfewise recently for a transfer to Australia and had no problems and the rate was very competitive. https://transferwise.com/

I've also used Western Union in the past without any problems. However if it was many thousands that I was transferring I would want to make sure that my money was secure at all stages - not saying it isn't with either of these but I've not looked into the protection that might exist,


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## mgdavid (Nov 27, 2014)

I use
www.currencyfair.com
and have moved money to Oz and a couple of European countries. All done online totally under your control. If you're on the ball the money is only with the broker for as long as it takes to read an email, buy the currency and initiate a transfer out transaction. About a quarter of an hour max. Cost of a transfer is currently 4 euros.
Current rate is 2.0284 - a little off the very best. Their customer service (if needed) is excellent.


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## kenny (Jun 4, 2005)

try Hargreaves/lansdown,if you go onto there web ,go to services then currency put the amount you want to send,it will tell you what you will get,if you use them you will need a aus bank account, kenny


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Dave

I have used Moneycorp in the past - no commission, so good for smallish amounts, (e.g €250 beer money) but rate not great. 

I now use Transferwise for £2-3K - charge some commision, but low, and rates are the financially quoted ones.

I assume you are thinking of sums over that amount, so I would shop around, including the big banks, but talk to their foreign exchange desks, via their main switchboards.

Geoff


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## HarleyDave (Jul 1, 2007)

Thanks everyone for your assistance and suggestions

I am glad to say the house that they have set their hearts on is not actually being sold by auction after all (phew) and they Skyped us this morning to tell us that they have made (and had accepted) an offer that is within their budget - Hurrah!!

So I may not need to make any transfers after all - but thanks again.

They both work in Melbourne and the "new" house is in Gisborne - about 35 miles North West of Melbourne - so the commute, on the M79 (Calder Freeway) is not too bad as it was taking almost 30 minutes in town to get to work anyway.

The price history for this particular property is interesting - 

Sold in Sept 1981 for AUD 45,000

Next sold in July 1997 for AUD 108,000

Assuming it all goes through (don't want to jinx it) it's selling in Feb 2016 for AUD 495,000

Houses in Melbourne's immediate suburbs are so expensive and often bought by developers (with deep pockets) who want to put up apartment blocks in place of Victorian semis... (and get away with it)

The one they were bidding on late last year had a guide price of AUD 560,000 but actually went for AUD 755,000!!!

Couldn't compete with that so decided to look further afield

I can hardly wait to get out there to see them again

Cheers

Dave (Happy Grandad)



Cheers

Dave


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## HarleyDave (Jul 1, 2007)

Penquin said:


> Contact Smart currency - we have found them brilliant and very reliable and over £2k there are no charges and a good rate - you can always ask for a better rate and we usually get it....
> 
> I will happily give you an introduction to them as that works well for us too, let me know if that would be of use...
> 
> ...


Dave - you have a PM

Cheers

Dave


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

You have a PM *AND *an e-mail - the stakes are raised.... (although for an Aussie barbie shouldn't that be "steaks"?)

Hope all works well,

Dave


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

Well we can look on the bright side, it takes much less time to transfer money than it did to transfer convicts.>>

cabby


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Penquin said:


> You have a PM *AND *an e-mail - the stakes are raised....
> 
> Dave


Dave

What's this - a secret MHF Masonic-type society?:smile2:

I also transfer some large sums so I am interested in comparisons such as Smart Currency.

Is there anything in the PMed info that may be useful to us too, please?

Geoff


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## HarleyDave (Jul 1, 2007)

No No - no dodgy handshakes here.

I'll post again once it's done but I have 2 contenders on the go

Smart Currency (doesn't seem to work weekends)

and

UK Forex (gets a mention on MSE website)

I will compare the predicted end result i.e. how many AUD's will I get for my £££'s and decide based on that and how well they deal with my questions etc.

Not too scientific but it will hopefully get me the result I need

The MSE site has lots of good info and advice - worth a visit

Cheers

Dave


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## HarleyDave (Jul 1, 2007)

Update

I used UKForEx and (after I overcame a small problem - see below) it was simple.

The rate was better than Smart Money and for the amount I was sending (£5K) there were no fees, just a rate that gave them enough to make it worthwhile for them.

They have offices in Sydney so there was no charge at the receiving bank - as there can be if an international transfer is being received (apparently...)

I was looking to get 2AUD to the £ and got slightly more.

My own bank was less than 2 to 1 and so was Smart Money.

To use UKForEx you have to set up an account on-line and they will call you to confirm what is happening and validate the account.

Once the account is set up, you can log in and set up a beneficiary - in this case my daughter.

Details required for beneficiaries (in Australia - other countries requirements may differ) are :-

Name(s) of account holder(s)
Name of Bank
Branch of Bank
BSB of Bank (same format as UK sort code xx-xx-xx)
Account Number
Address of beneficiary

Once set up, you can choose either a spot deal - ie transfer the amount at the prevailing rate at that time or some other types of deal which can be based on today's rate applied later or a specific rate applied when it reaches it.

I wanted to keep it simple so opted for a spot deal.

I paid by Debit card (up to £5000 only) and it was straightforward but I could have set up UKForEx as payees on my on line banking and paid them by transfer.

UKForEx have a customer service contact who will guide you through if really necessary but they want you to use the on line system if at all possible (their traders are too busy "coining it" by moving millions around I suppose...)

The only problem I found was with using Firefox browser - their online system did not like that at all (although there was no error message or anything - the process just "hung") and I was struggling until I thought about it and swapped back to Google Chrome which worked perfectly.

Money was in the recipient bank the next morning (our time)

Cheers

Dave


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Dave

Your post (number 17) was excellent info - thanks.

Geoff


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## mgdavid (Nov 27, 2014)

glad you found it easy; your description is exactly how currencyfair work too.


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## HarleyDave (Jul 1, 2007)

*Job Done - Thanks to all*

Final update and closure on this one :grin2:

See pic of the happy family 0

Cheers

Dave


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