Bank or Building Society?

[feder1]

I am expecting a bank transfer of Australian dollars in due course.

My receiving bank/bs will convert to GBP.

Of TSB Bank or Nationwide Building Society, which is likely to be better in terms of cost please?

I have tried researching both but cannot find any clue.

[dealtn]

I am expecting a bank transfer of Australian dollars in due course.

My receiving bank/bs will convert to GBP.

Of TSB Bank or Nationwide Building Society, which is likely to be better in terms of cost please?

I have tried researching both but cannot find any clue.

Neither would be great in my experience of their treasury departments (in terms of exchange rate, I don't know about charges). I assume you have asked them, so could they not provide an answer, or is it not something you understand?

[Howard]

I don't think there can be a straightforward answer to your question.

The reason is that, in the end I assume you are asking which organisation will give you the most GB£ for a given amount of Australian dollars.

The answer is that you can get a lot more £ if you use a specialist money transfer agency whose charges will be smaller and who will offer a better exchange rate. The problem is that you might think this is a riskier route than using a bank or building society. If you think this way then you are accepting that an "expensive" route is better.

In my view it is pointless asking a bank or building society how much you will get in £ because they can only give you a historical answer. They won't predict what tomorrow's exchange rate will be because they are sensible. If they could they'd be clairvoyant billionaires not bank employees! They will however tell you what they charge for this type of transaction.

Hope this is helpful and you can decide your risk attitude.

I have some experience of sending largish sums to family abroad and have used a money transfer agency who were very professional but I knew that it was marginally more risky than using my bank. For smaller sums, I have just used the bank and paid their fees.

regards

Howard

[gryffron]

Solely IMO:

TSB would be "best" because they've always been a proper bank. And are more used to international transfers.
Nationwide might be a few quid cheaper, but as a former BS less practised at international banking.
Neither will quote you actual prices in advance because forex rates vary constantly. It's actually likely the senders bank will do the conversion anyway, so the cost to you is likely to be identical.

Yes, it is quite likely you could save one or two percent by using one of the broker services recommended. But do you know who regulates them? Which country? Which government? Whose rules? Who underwrites your money if they lose it or go broke during your transfer?

International transfers can and do go missing. It isn't frequent but it happens. How would you feel if this happened to yours? Banks will always find your money (eventually), and are regulated by govt ombudsmen who will help you to hassle them to find it, and ultimately underwrite the money. This may or may not be true of brokers.

To you as the receiver it is likely the sender holds all the risk if sent by a bank. Once they transfer it to a broker, the sender's liabilty ends. So in your case the risk is ZERO using a bank, small but finite using a broker.

For regular transfers, I would use an internet forex broker. For one-off life changing amounts of money, I would use a bank. Yes, the banks cost more, call it insurance. It will help you sleep at night.

Gryff

[Nocton]

I would thoroughly recommend OFX. There were originally an Australian co., but now worldwide and I used them after living in Oz and still had an AUD account and still use them for sending GBP to USD. https://www.ofx.com/en-gb/ You can easily check the rate you will get and could transfer in several lumps to smooth out any fluctuations in the rate.