Five More Ways To Transfer Money Abroad

Besides actually visiting a country and withdrawing money, what other ways are there to send money abroad? We take a look at some options.

There are all sorts of ways to transfer money abroad, which is handy because Brits - particularly Fools it seems - are keen to shift their money off this little island. Recently, I wrote about Five Ways To Transfer Money Abroad. Here are five more.

1. Structured payments

As always, it helps to have a decent current account. My bank Smile, for example, offers a payment facility called 'structured payments'. Using this method, you can transfer money to EU countries:

It will always be sent in euros, except to Sweden, which, for some surprising reason, prefers to receive money in the Swedish krona!

The charge can be relatively cheap, because the fees are shared. You pay your bank's fee. To give you an idea, Smile charges just £8. However, the recipient has to pay the overseas bank's charges, which they may not choose to accept. The maximum you can send by this method is €50,000 and it can be done in five working days. The exchange rate is not likely to be favourable, as it rarely is from a UK bank.

2. Insured mail

One Fool's local postmistress provided this tip. You can exchange money into cash or travellers' cheques, then send it by insured mail.

You can change your money as you normally do when getting foreign currency. This means that you may or may not pay commission, depending on which provider you use. If you send your post by Airsure it is fast, secure and reliable. You can insure the letter for £4.20, although only the first £100-worth of currency is covered. Then, of course, you have to pay for the letter.

Letters sent by Airsure can sometimes arrive within a couple of days.

3. 'The colonies'

Another Fool wrote to me very enthusiastically about the website www.tranzfers.com, which is useful for transfers to 'the colonies' (his jest, not mine): Australia, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and, ahem, Singapore. It charges just £7, which it claims it achieves by having bank accounts in each of the countries.

It charges no commission on currency conversion and claims to work at smaller exchange-rate margins than banks, making this part of the deal cheaper too. Travelex, who are expensive when you buy in airports, but one of the cheapest online, today quoted £1 to A$2.355 online, whereas tranzfers.com was quoting a much better exchange rate of A$2.459 for a £50 transfer and up to A$2.486 for large sums. The payment can get through in just two to four days.

Another benefit is that you can send money to most credit cards in Australia and New Zealand.

4. Foreign money accounts and xe.com

You can send funds through www.xe.com/fx to yourself, another person or an individual, provided the recipient account is denominated in the converted currency (i.e. if you send it to yourself you must have an appropriate bank account already set up).

XE doesn't charge commission. Money can be transferred by wire, i.e. CHAPS or BACS. These will likely have charges outside of XE's control though, which could include wire fees, likely to be £6 plus.

I got a mock quote from XE and was offered an exchange rate of £1 to A$2.486 for just £100, which compares well with Travelex or Tranzfers.

The speed of the transfer depends on how you send the funds to XE to be converted and how XE delivers the funds. Wire to wire transactions take one to five working days, but other methods can take up to 16 days.

5. Friendly banks

One UK bank account, a Fool reminded me recently, will transfer money for free between a UK current account and a Spanish one with the same bank. This bank is Halifax. Of course, you'll have to put up with the poor exchange rate that you can expect from such a major bank!

As always, whichever method you choose, don't forget to consider the exchange rate you're offered as well as the transfer charges.

> Compare current accounts through The Fool.