Online currency transfers not the no-brainer they claim to be

I went looking for a quote this morning from Transfermate to exchange GBP to EUR, given the relative strength of GBP over the last few days and having used them before.

Now these days you can see the bank rates AIB are offering here: https://aib.ie/our-products/current-accounts/foreign-exchange/foreign-exchange-rates-buy.

The market mid-rate at the time I was doing my query was 86.4p. Transfermate offered 87.73p (live quote from the system), with a set fee of £10 for the transaction. This compared to 87.53p offered by AIB and with their lower commission fee (E6.35 compared to £10 for Transfermate), meant getting almost E20 more for my £5,000 by using the bank over Transfermate.
The market had only moved 0.1p in day trading, which meant their starting rate was, at best, 0.1p behind AIB at the start of the day.

I contacted them and, after 20 minutes, they asked me to log in again. The rate had magically moved to be 87.5p, which meant that, within the margins and with the bank having a lower maximum commission, AIB was still coming out (just) ahead.

The advertised rate today with CurrencyFair is coming in at €20-odd better than the other two, but that is the advertised rate and there's no way of locking that in until you have deposited the funds with them.

Have the two new-ish competitors settled back on the same fat margins the banks have always had or were they never THAT much better to start with?

Doesn't AIB own a significant stake of Transfermate? I wouldn't expect there to be a big difference to be honest.

rob oyle said:

The advertised rate today with CurrencyFair is coming in at €20-odd better than the other two, but that is the advertised rate and there's no way of locking that in until you have deposited the funds with them

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I don't think there's any reason to suggest the advertised rate is any different to the actual rate on offer. I know it takes time to deposit funds but having used them a few times I've always found CurrencyFair to be offering the better deal.

Revolut could be the way to go here. At time of writing it is quoting the mid-market rate of 0.8628 although please note that FX transactions are free up to £5,000 per month with a 0.5% margin on monthly volumes over £5,000.

Thanks TLO, that's good to know. Will check them out next time.

llgon said:

I don't think there's any reason to suggest the advertised rate is any different to the actual rate on offer. I know it takes time to deposit funds but having used them a few times I've always found CurrencyFair to be offering the better deal.

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Yes, I meant this was the rate advertised today but if you are considering all options then you have to factor in the lead time in placing the deposit with them so the 'advertised' rate would never be the actual rate applied. Going to look at Revolut now too!