Transferwise Borderless Account

[SuperLooper]

I work remotely for US-based clients, and hence all of my company's income is in US Dollars.

My current setup is that my company has a USD bank account with HSBC (UK) to receive the payments from my clients, and I've been using HSBC's own service to transfer funds to my company's Sterling account. I recently experimented with using Transferwise for a one-off transfer from the HSBC USD account to the Sterling account, and it worked out slightly cheaper (saved £30 in exchange rates and fees on a US$5k transfer) but not really enough to make a big difference.

I see that Transferwise have just launched Borderless Accounts. This looks like it would be cheaper still: set up a USD borderless account in Transferwise, receive client payments directly into that account, and convert from there to Sterling, thus cutting HSBC out of the loop entirely.

I may give this a try. I wouldn't plan on using the Transferwise account to hold funds long-term (not clear to me yet if it is a genuine bank account with FSCS protection) but merely as a route to get USD funds cheaply into the UK. If anyone else has experience of this, I'd love to hear about it. If not, I'll give it a go when I send my next invoice at the end of the month, and I'll report back.

(I have no connection with Transferwise other than being a customer.)

[jmann]

One of my friend has been testing transferwise borderless account and he is really impressed with the service.

I am in similar position like you. I currently have USD and GBP account with HSBC. So I am planning to open transferwise borderless account but I am going to use it to withdraw all my USD funds in PayPal since they require USD bank account with US routing which HSBC doesn't provide. Then transfer the USD funds from transferwise to HSBC USD account since I am not comfortable in having large balance in transferwise.

It seems a perfect solution for businesses which deal with multiple currencies.

[whats]

Thanks for this OP.

Worldspan are working on something similar. This sets the benchmark for fees.
WS are more business orientated - they offer forward contracts which was something I wanted to look at.

Today I receive EUR into CurrencyFair. Convert and fund GBP account.
But I can't do EUR>EUR payment (not that need to) and don't have IBAN number.

[washed up contractor]

Ive used transferwise for personal transfers and purchases. Id recommend them.

Im not familiar with TW for a business though.

For a personal transaction, you have to bear in mind the conversion and transfer isnt instant. In fact, it can be up to 7 days depending on the transfer rate variation you specify ie if you're prepared to accept a rate x% below the interbank rate, conversion may be quick be closer to the interbank rate, conversion and transfer could be upto 7 days.

Essentially what they do is match you to other people who want to convert out of the currency you want to convert into ie $ to £.

I dont know if same applies for business use.

[petergriffin]

I have a TW account and I've opened a Borderless account but it doesn't seem to work. I click on Add EUR, but it keeps on saying I can't add any euro yet.

I also want to know how to get my own bank details. I emailed TW last week but got no replies yet.

[seanalltogether]

My current setup is that my company has a USD bank account with HSBC (UK) to receive the payments from my clients, and I've been using HSBC's own service to transfer funds to my company's Sterling account. I recently experimented with using Transferwise for a one-off transfer from the HSBC USD account to the Sterling account, and it worked out slightly cheaper (saved £30 in exchange rates and fees on a US$5k transfer) but not really enough to make a big difference.

So I have the exact same setup as you. HSBC GBP current account with a USD currency account for accepting incoming money from american wire transfers. I just quoted a 5K transfer on HSBC right now and its exactly £100 less then what transferwise will quote me. (£3,731 vs £3,831). Did you have to something special to get a better rate with HSBC or something? I feel like I went through all this trouble to get setup with HSBC and it's never come close to what transferwise or XE give me?

[Eirikur]

Haven't tried the borderless account yet but I'm using transferwise for years now to transfer foreign currency and can only say, very good, quick and cheap

[SuperLooper]

So I have the exact same setup as you. HSBC GBP current account with a USD currency account for accepting incoming money from american wire transfers. I just quoted a 5K transfer on HSBC right now and its exactly £100 less then what transferwise will quote me. (£3,731 vs £3,831). Did you have to something special to get a better rate with HSBC or something? I feel like I went through all this trouble to get setup with HSBC and it's never come close to what transferwise or XE give me?

So I did a USD transfer from HSBC to Transferwise, and used Transferwise to then convert the funds to GBP. HSBC charged some fees for this transfer, which is why the overall saving was only around £30.

My next step is to have my clients pay the USD directly into my Transferwise account, so avoiding HSBC altogether. The first such payment is due to arrive this week. When it arrives, I intend to transfer the same USD amount from both my HSBC account and the Transferwise account on the same day. This will give me a more useful comparison, and I hope it will show a significant saving with Transferwise.

[jamesbrown]

What's their business model? If the client is required to pay a commission, the "saving" will depend on whether they pass that on. I have a bunch of US clients, but they would never entertain making such third party payments. No banks accept third party payments, nor most FX providers. Personally, I have a USD current account and then use HiFX for immediate exchange or to purchase forward contracts, depending on my overall exposure to USD and valuations at the time. Works for me, although Transferwise is interesting (not third party payments though).

[SuperLooper]

What's their business model? If the client is required to pay a commission, the "saving" will depend on whether they pass that on. I have a bunch of US clients, but they would never entertain making such third party payments. No banks accept third party payments, nor most FX providers. Personally, I have a USD current account and then use HiFX for immediate exchange or to purchase forward contracts, depending on my overall exposure to USD and valuations at the time. Works for me, although Transferwise is interesting (not third party payments though).

I'm not sure I understand your question. With a TW USD borderless account, you get a "proper" US bank account number and routing code, so from a client's perspective it's no different from a domestic wire transfer.