Starting with TransferWise, which I unfortunately only discovered last year but pretty much changed the way I transfer money. FOR THE BETTER.
For the past four and a half years, I transferred money between Germany and the UK for at least once a month. During my semester abroad in Texas, I did the same between Germany and the US. Sooooo many times I was frustrated by the amount I received and the fees I had to pay.
For every SEPA transfer that came in from my German account, my Scottish Bank RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) charges me 7 freaking quid. Everytime, no matter how small of large the sum of money. Additionally, the exchange rate was horrible and I felt sad everytime I had to make this transfer. Let's not talk about transferring money from the UK to Germany, because apparently that would at least cost £35 in fees. Ridiculous, to say the least.
For my MA here in Birmingham I pay quite a lot of tuition, something that I didn't have to pay in Scotland. So not only was I looking at transferring money each month but also transferring a lot of money. I did not want to lose money to a horrible exchange rate and started googling for alternatives. I stumbled upon TransferWise. This project has been backed up by Richard Branson and was developed by the founders of Skype. After more research I conidered them safe to use and went ahead and transferred some money from my German account to my UK one. It is not only super fast (2 days, maximum!) but also safe and transparent. I can see the fees they charge me (about 1 or 2€, depending on the amount) and the exchange rate. Instead of an annoying bank transfer, I can use a kind of direct debit (Sofortüberweisung for the Germans) and it works perfectly.
This video explains how you do the transfer. When you have made the transfer, you can track the progress of it and you also receive status updates via email if you like. I wish I had known about this service before, it would have saved me sooo much money. Actually really depressing to think about it. That's why I have made it my mission to share this with everyone who transfers money abroad.
If you like this service and might make us of it, sign up here: https://transferwise.com/
By signing up through this link you will receive a free first transfer (if it's under £$€3000). Signing up is obviously free. And for transparency, yes, for every three people that sign up through my link and make a transfer, I receive £100. But even if I didn't, I would still tell the whole world about it.
This is a company I have full faith in and I hope they will get much much bigger, so that eventually everyone will know about this.
Let me know if you have any questions :)
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