Talk Quesada forum

Hi All,

I am in the very early stages of looking for and purchasing a property and like so many before me I'm try to gather as much info as possible. Has anyone every used Smart Currency Exchange, if so how do they compare to other currency exchages.

Ever get the feeling you can't see the wood for the trees!!!

Thanks

Jim

I used them when buying our place and found them to be very good. Most of the transfer companies are pretty close to each other regarding rates, but can differ a bit on any particular day or time of day.
Smart are very good with larger amounts 100k plus, but others may be better with smaller transfers depending on how they deduct their fees.
Smart works by you opening an account for free and setting up the target Bank account to send to. You then contact them and get the current (or future) rate for the amount you want to send and if OK you agree the contract and within 24 hours transfer the money into their nominee account with you reference. They then send the money (Euros) to the account you nominated earlier, it gets there within 48 hours (usually next day).

Thanks very much for the prompt reply and info. Am sure you'll appreciate it can seem like a bit of a mine feild when you're new to this.

Cheers

Jim

Scary too at first . . a large amount of your money going to someone you don't know to send to another country - what could go wrong???
BUT it always seems to get there OK and gets to be an everyday action after a while

Have a look at Transferwise cheapest I have found

Will do, to be honest I'm looking at all options.

Thanks for the advice

Jim

I agree with jpeg. I used Smsrt Currency Ex for a few years when I lived in Bulgaria and when I bought here. I found them a bit fiddly if transferring on a regular basis. You have to e mail them for a rate and then agree it etc etc But now I use TransferWise and find them much faster and all done via an app on my iPad and my online banking. Usually completed in a couple of hours I use TransferWise on a monthly basis now for about 8 months with no problems

I've always used TransferWise for regular transfers, but for our house purchase we used MoneyCorp. The only reason for this was because exchange rates were volatile when we were buying and I wanted to buy a "Forward Contract" to make sure we didn't have any shortfall, which is more likely to happen when transferring very large amounts.

It's rare for any exchange company to be able to beat TransferWises's rates - and they're the only company I know which provides a constantly updating list of competitors rates on their website, advertising whether there's a company where you can get a better deal at the time you're looking to exchange.

I've used World First many a time and all ways had the best rates.

How long do Transfer wise take to deliver your money into your account? How do bank holidays affect it i.e. easter etc.?