Reply to: Transferwise Borderless Account

[SuperLooper]

Interesting, you're definitely getting a better rate from HSBC then me, do you have a business account?

Yes, I have USD and GBP business accounts with HSBC.

[seanalltogether]

Following on from my previous post, today I transferred the same USD amount ($4200) from both my traditional HSBC USD account and from my Transferwise Borderless account. The Transferwise came in £43 cheaper.

GBP received from HSBC: £3175
GBP received from Transferwise: £3218
GBP at spot exchange rate from Google: £3248

So on a $10k transfer I'd expect to be saving around £100 which is worthwhile.

Interesting, you're definitely getting a better rate from HSBC then me, do you have a business account? I just did a quote now and got.

$4200 on HSBC = £3129.59
$4200 on Transferwise = £3,210.70

[SuperLooper]

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.

Following on from my previous post, today I transferred the same USD amount ($4200) from both my traditional HSBC USD account and from my Transferwise Borderless account. The Transferwise came in £43 cheaper.

GBP received from HSBC: £3175
GBP received from Transferwise: £3218
GBP at spot exchange rate from Google: £3248

So on a $10k transfer I'd expect to be saving around £100 which is worthwhile.

[yasockie]

My only concern with this is Transferwise don't seem to allow transfers in a given currency to an account outside a given country.
So if you wanted to keep your USD as USD in an actual bank in the UK, you'd have to convert to GBP first and let your bank convert back to USD or something crazy like that.
If you feel that USD will do better over time than GBP, your only choice is to keep it on Borderless account and the new 'fintech' aren't that good with the 'tech' bit of it just yet:

Why Monzo, Revolut, Loot, and Curve went down on Sunday March 5 - Business Insider

and there is another outage of many 'fintechs' today.

Not good if you absolutely must do a transfer today.

[seanalltogether]

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.

Ok that makes sense. I still have a USD bank account in America as well, so I don't pay any fees to get money from that account to Transferwise, it's simply a direct debit. So my total savings is £100 on a 5k transfer vs HSBC internal exchange, which I imagine you will see as well with a borderless account.

[SuperLooper]

Is the USD account a holding account operated by Transferwise? To whom do your clients direct payments; YourCo or Transferwise?

Here's a screenshot of the dashboard. It lists my Ltd as the account holder, but Transferwise as the address. I gave these bank details to my client and it "just worked".

[jamesbrown]

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.

Is the USD account a holding account operated by Transferwise? To whom do your clients direct payments; YourCo or Transferwise?

[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.

[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]

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.

[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

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.