Lodging AUD cheque - best way to avoid uncompetitive Bank FX Rates

M

MarkyB

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Hi, I have a AUD cheque which I would like to transfer into Euro.
I've seen some good suggestions for sites like www.currencyfair.com and TransferMate to get better rates on transferring money from AUD to EUR.
But those sites only account electronic funds transfer, and not Cheques or Bank Drafts.
Are there any suggestions to the best way to transfer this AUD cheque into Euro, but avoiding the main banks, who's exchange rates would not be as competitive as the sites above for instance?
Thanks, Mark
 
Hi Mark

I would guess that it would be very expensive and time consuming for an Irish bank to cash a paper cheque in AUD.

How big is the cheque?

Are you getting regular payments like this?

Could you endorse the cheque and send it to a friend in Australia to lodge for you?

Brendan
 
Hi Brendan, thanks for replying.
Its about $22k. And its my superannuation from my time in Australia. I managed to withdraw it and (maybe mistakenly) had the full amount sent via cheque. Its a one off payment.

Regards
Mark
 
PTSB no longer do international cheques.

BOI will lodge the cheque into a BoI account but charge large processing fees (I think about 60 EUR) as well as FX fees. International cheques can take up to 6 weeks to settle too.
 
You could ask in a larger post office. They do pre loaded foreign currency mastercards. Maybe they wouldn't accept an auz$ as payment, don't know or the amount might be too large, don't know. But sure no harm asking.
 
Only way you can do this is through a bank that accepts cheques. An alternative would be to lodge it in an account in Australia and see can you transfer the funds electronically. Based on the amount involved and the rates used in BOI and fees, it'll cost you around €400 against someone like currency fair
 
I'd be surprised if anyone other than the major banks will accept it. And it will cost. I don't think banks will take third party or endorsed cheques anymore - or at least they shouldn't.

Have you tried talking to the administrator of the superannuation fund to see if they would cancel the cheque and then make the payment electronically. Though if they are willing to do this, it would need to be into an account in your name so unless you have maintained an AUD account in Oz you can forget using currency fair - it would be to your account here and you'd get the bank rates
 
You can lodge an Australian cheque to your Bank of Ireland account. You can do this with a cashier in any branch and it can take up to six weeks to clear in your account and will be subject to a lot of fees etc. As an alternative, perhaps you could get the superannuation cheque cancelled, then open up an AUD borderless bank account with Transferwise - then get the superannuation payment paid electronically to your Transferwise borderless account from where you can then instantly transfer it to your Irish EURO bank account saving you a lot on fees and no waiting time. I have a Transferwise borderless AUD account and find it great for receiving AUD payments and transferring to Euro. Good luck with sorting it out.
 
Would your ex Aus employer facilitate you in lodging the cheque and then transferring electronically. Personally use Revolut for AUD transactions and find them great. Have also used Currency Fair.
 
Thanks for all your replies and advice.
I finally went down the Post Office route. I opened an old school Savings Book account and lodged the cheque through the State Savings department. The An Post exchange rate was reasonably competitve. Certainly no worse than main banks. And no fees with An Post.
I looked into Currency Fair(or similar) but as stated thats only for electronic transfers. That does look like a great service though.
Thanks again for the responses.
Mark
 
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