HiFX to charge

 Just had an e.mail from HiFX informing me that from 1st Aug 2011 there will be a £9 charge added to transfers below £3000!! This according to the girl I spoke to about it is what their "feedback" from customers told them we wanted??? "So let me get this straight" I said to her, we, the customers have asked to have a £9 charge levied? "Yes" was the reply!! YCNMIU!! 

I informed her I would be taking my business elsewhere!! Has anybody had any dealing with the new "Currency Fair"? I'm tempted but it looks a bit complex to me!

Have you tried the Post Office?  A friend recommended it to me and I tried it out by sending 1000 euros to my Spanish bank last week.  It can be done online, is quick, easy and gave a good rate with no additional charges even though they go through HiFX.

Dear Tony

I agree that the lady you spoke to could have been clearer in her explanation of the changes we are making but she was correct when she said that they are very much based on feedback from clients.  Let me therefore try to clarify the situation for you. 

Previously, on all transactions, the fees were wrapped up into an all inclusive rate of exchange.  The feedback we have had is that clients transacting smaller amounts would prefer to see a complete breakdown of their quotations so that they can be totally clear about what the total cost is made up of.  Essentially most banks and brokers charge fees and clients were finding it difficult to do the comparisons. 

Therefore, from August 1st for transactions below £3,000, we will be showing clients an improved exchange rate and the transfer fee as separate items. We are confident that the fee of £9 for such transactions is one of the lowest in the market.  In addition by choosing HiFX  you get the peace of mind of knowing you are dealing with an FSA regulated company and that we use Verisign security used by 97 of the worlds top 100 banks etc.  With regards Currencywise, from memory I think they charge a small fee (£7) but this is on all priority transfers and not just those below £3,000 so as you rightly say it just depends on what you're looking to do and how much you're looking to transfer. 

I hope the above reassures you that it has been a carefully considered business decision which has taken our clients feedback into account.  We are confident that you will continue to find us to be competitively priced and would like to reassure you that our overall offering and service hasn't changed. 

Best regards

Mark Bodega

Director - HiFX

 Hello Mark,

Thanks for your input. Well I'm a client, where was my feedback form? Nobody from HiFX bothered to canvas my views! Oh thats right I don't transfer thousands of pounds at a time!! I'm just the little guy but someone who has put quite a few thousand though your company. At a time when money is tight I found HiFX to be a convenient method of sending enough to cover morgage payments, bills etc. I liked the online ease with which you could transfer.

As to being competitive a quick look at your rate to send £200 euros gives me 1.10ish(bank rate of 1.14ish when I checked, so 4 cents mark up!). Over at Travelex I get roughly the same rate but the charge is .99p! Sure it might take a little longer for it to get through but hey whats the rush. So you see I take your £9.00 charge to be, lets say excessive! But the real idea behind this charge as I see it is to get rid of people like me who don't send enough for your liking. So as I said to your lady on the phone I shall take my business elswhere!

Regards

Tony Naulty.

Hi Tony

My apologies for not making myself clear.  These changes do not come into affect until the beginning of August.  At this point we will separate out the fee from the exchange rate.  The fee is not additional so the exchange rates offered will automatically improve as they won't incorporate this fee which is currently bundled into the rates. 

As I said we are not levying an additonal £9 fee on each transaction.  Quite the opposite in fact - we are simply trying to be more transparent with clients who undertake smaller transfers as the fees can have a significant impact on the rate received.

Best regards

Mark

Hi Mark,

I have just received my e-mail updates from your company.

I did use HIFX for my transfers up until today.

You see, I use La Caixa and they charge for receiving, because of the Beaurocracy and Spanish banking system I have not time or the inclination to move to another Spanish bank.

So if i don't send ££3,000   I get hit for £9 - also last time I did send a large amount to la Caixa and to be fair you did refund the receiving charge (30euro  ). So it looks as though it is going to cost me around £40.

I will be looking elsewhere from today.

Ken

HSBC charge £9 and give about 2.5 cents less than the advertised business exchange rate, if the transfer is done on line in the morning the money is in our account in the afternoon.  Solbank now do free transfers if you bank with them, by direct debit, this takes 3 days.  Both are better than using HIFX.

 **Update**

Just to let those of you who are looking for a cheaper way to send over small amounts(less than £3k). I have just tried out  https://www.currencyfair.com/  Firstly i'd like to make it clear I have no connection to this company, just trying to avoid the charges that my usual brokers(HiFX) have seen fit to introduce!

The CurrencyFair model is like Betfair, in that instead of dealing with banks, brokers, you are in fact dealing with other people like you who are trying to get the best deal. You deposit funds into your CF account and when cleared you offer a deal at a rate selected by you! If you ask too much for your money you get no takers, however if you pitch it right your sterling is snapped up very quickly!

Now to tell you how I did. Just to try it out I deposited the smallest amount £100 on Tue. By Thur this had cleared and I offered it for exchange on the site and received a match at 1.13ish(the bank rate at the time was 1.14ish). Allowing for the 3euro transfer charge I sent the 110euro on to my Spanish account the same day Thur, the money arrived the next day!! So from paying in to arriving in Spain took just 4 days.

I know where I shall be going to transfer my money in future!

Tony.

 xe.com for me. I have transferred as little as 45€ in the past with no fees and decent rats.

Mark

 Cheers Mark, I'll give em a go. Not sure about the rats though!

Tony.

 Not sure about the rats though!

Good book by James Herbet 

Yeah, really not sure rats are a good selling point here....but hey, each to their own!

Justin

** Edited - Spam **

This message was last edited by EOS Team on 20/07/2011.

 I have been using Currencies Direct. Very good 

at the end of the day it's simple maths

How EUR will I get for GBP???

and whoever gives you the most EUR gets the deal

I now use Xe.com every time, their rate is about 1.5% below advertised rate and changes in real time.

i make the deal, transfer the £ to them by direct transfer, which is instant, and the money is in my Euro account within three days with no charges.

Steve

 Thanks for starting this post. It is interesting to see the reply for HiFX.

Some recommendations already made but I would like to add one - I have used SAT Worldwide who are based Henley.

I have used these twice and I also recommended them to my employer when I was last working in London. They are very transparent and you can ask them however many questions you wish before you make a decision whether to use them or not.

I just looked at their site and they have some excellent customer testimonials.

Hi all,

I used to use HIFX and they were quite good but I now use RationalFX as I get more Euros for my £s. Their spread depends on how much you send over. I sent £6000 over on 12/09/11 and got 1.1550 to the £. Thats 6930 Euros. At the time the £ was at 1.1630 (inter bank mid price) so thats a spread of only .80 and no charges at either end. It took 3 days from online banking transfer to them to the money being in my account.

Jack