Originally Posted by
stimpy
But is it really cheaper? From what I can tell it depends on how much you transfer. What is the point where it isn't cheaper? $1000?
The fee varies depending on currency. For EUR to USD transfers, it is 0.5% over the mid-market rate.
Transferwise will almost certainly be cheaper than a wire transfer at all banks for all amounts. However, there may be additional fees above GBP 24000 equivalent. If you did a wire transfer, you would be charged these same fees as well as other bank fees.
Wire transfers are very likely to use a rate with at least 1% spread, and there is no way to avoid this spread if you are transferring money between different people.
(If I personally needed to send EUR to USD between my own bank accounts at the absolute best possible rate, I would get the money into my eurozone HSBC account, use HSBC Global Transfer to send it to my Hong Kong HSBC, withdraw EUR cash in HKG and exchange it at a place which uses a 0.25% spread, deposit the USD cash and then send it to my US HSBC account. This is generally a waste of time even if I am already in HKG, so I would just send it to HK and exchange it electronically at one of my banks which uses a 0.5% spread.)