[vixxann]

Just a thought and probably one of my many "silly" questions that I will be asking on here over the next few months :o

We opened a bank of NZ account when we went to the Manchester Expo and we thought we'd transfer some money into it or our reccy holiday in March/April this year - Bank of NZ said we could pick up ATM cards when we arrive and then when back in UK get it changed back to a savings account so we don't have any charges.. so...
we are looking at sending some money over and I just wondered if there was anyway I can use paypal? I have a paypal account set up from Ebay days and can transfer UK pounds to it - then I think you can change it into other currencies and draw out to anoher registed bank account (our NZ one)

Has anyone done this - can you tell me if it works and what the charges might be?

[neilw71]

Personally I would forget that idea :) It is a service that is designed to make small transfers for payments of goods and services - hence you pay high fees effectively via the exchange rate! I think they may even transfer via US$, so you pay twice in effect!

Stick with HFIX or XE etc - those guys are experts and doing it daily - they also need to offer you good rates to get you to come back, as it is their livelyhood!

Another (among many!) option is a Nationwide account - they do not charge for withdrawals from overseas ATMs and give a very good rate. My Dad (who is VERY set in his ways and took 6 months persuading to open a second bank account) swears by this method now when they visit us most years!

Neil

[Smiler]

Yep avoid PP, just for the charges (3.4 -3.9%)and the time it takes to transfer money into bank accounts sometimes.

I've had my Nationwide account for years and we did the Nationwide route when we came on our reccie in 2005 and the same again for our start up costs when we came back in October 2005. No fees, a decent enough rate and convenient too, for both Flex account and CC withdrawals. :nice1

[NeilV]

Hi there,

To transfer larger sums, a professional money transfer company gives the best rate and service... there are threads recommending several, though I used WorldFirst (http://www.worldfirst.com/) and highly recommend them.

[TFR]

Nationwide, everytime.