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Any worldfirst users here?

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  1. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by pin:
    I see on their FAQ the following: "Occasionally, third-party banks may deduct a fee from your transfer before paying your recipient. This fee may vary and OFX receives no portion of it. If you’re concerned, simply talk to one of our team members to discuss your transfer. "

    BTW please let me know if you get a referral link. If I sign up I will use your referral link.
    I think this is unavoidable - I know that some banks charge you money for receiving wire transfers. And some transfers require going through a correspondent bank - they also charge. I won't expect OFx or other service to absorb the fee - and as long as they don't charge on top and give good conversion rate I'm better off, since a vanilla bank transfer will charge all that as well.

    I don't see a referral program on their web site, unfortunately.

  2. #12

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    I've used OFX many times, used to be called ClearFX but changed names or merged recently. Yes they have a KYC process but they called me 30 seconds after I signed up and everything was online just sending them a few scans of passport etc and was done and trading in a matter of minutes. Also every trade they call you 30 seconds after you make it to confirm it.

    I use OFX mainly for buying Malaysian Ringgit and sending money from my Standard Chartered HKD account to my HSBC Malaysia MYR account. For example if I want to transfer HKD10,000 to Malaysia then I will jump online to ofx website, I can fix the rate and see how much MYR I will get, then after I click OK they will call me 30 seconds later to confirm I want to go ahead and I say yes, then I get an email from OFX requesting I transfer HKD 10,000 into their DBS account in HKD. I use my standard chartered internet banking to transfer the 10k (no fees) and then everything else is automatic from there. Within a day or so my OFX account shows as complete and then another day or so my HSBC account in Malaysia receives the MYR.

    For other currencies, I generally just do a standard TT because OFX rates are not really much different from Standard Chartered HK. Its just MYR that is a bit exotic and SCB wont convert them for me. They only let me send HKD or USD and then HSBC Malaysia do the conversion and we all know that HSBC is shit, but in Malaysia even shitter rates than HK. So that's why I use ofx.

    Sith and pin like this.

  3. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by bdw:
    I've used OFX many times, used to be called ClearFX but changed names or merged recently. Yes they have a KYC process but they called me 30 seconds after I signed up and everything was online just sending them a few scans of passport etc and was done and trading in a matter of minutes. Also every trade they call you 30 seconds after you make it to confirm it.

    I use OFX mainly for buying Malaysian Ringgit and sending money from my Standard Chartered HKD account to my HSBC Malaysia MYR account. For example if I want to transfer HKD10,000 to Malaysia then I will jump online to ofx website, I can fix the rate and see how much MYR I will get, then after I click OK they will call me 30 seconds later to confirm I want to go ahead and I say yes, then I get an email from OFX requesting I transfer HKD 10,000 into their DBS account in HKD. I use my standard chartered internet banking to transfer the 10k (no fees) and then everything else is automatic from there. Within a day or so my OFX account shows as complete and then another day or so my HSBC account in Malaysia receives the MYR.

    For other currencies, I generally just do a standard TT because OFX rates are not really much different from Standard Chartered HK. Its just MYR that is a bit exotic and SCB wont convert them for me. They only let me send HKD or USD and then HSBC Malaysia do the conversion and we all know that HSBC is shit, but in Malaysia even shitter rates than HK. So that's why I use ofx.
    Thanks. Can I ask if any bank charges are imposed by Ofx's correspondent bank in HK to HSBC Malaysia?

    For FX transfers from SCB abroad don't you get charged something like HKD200?

  4. #14

    Join Date
    May 2009
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    Quote Originally Posted by bdw:
    I've used OFX many times, used to be called ClearFX but changed names or merged recently. Yes they have a KYC process but they called me 30 seconds after I signed up and everything was online just sending them a few scans of passport etc and was done and trading in a matter of minutes. Also every trade they call you 30 seconds after you make it to confirm it.

    I use OFX mainly for buying Malaysian Ringgit and sending money from my Standard Chartered HKD account to my HSBC Malaysia MYR account. For example if I want to transfer HKD10,000 to Malaysia then I will jump online to ofx website, I can fix the rate and see how much MYR I will get, then after I click OK they will call me 30 seconds later to confirm I want to go ahead and I say yes, then I get an email from OFX requesting I transfer HKD 10,000 into their DBS account in HKD. I use my standard chartered internet banking to transfer the 10k (no fees) and then everything else is automatic from there. Within a day or so my OFX account shows as complete and then another day or so my HSBC account in Malaysia receives the MYR.

    For other currencies, I generally just do a standard TT because OFX rates are not really much different from Standard Chartered HK. Its just MYR that is a bit exotic and SCB wont convert them for me. They only let me send HKD or USD and then HSBC Malaysia do the conversion and we all know that HSBC is shit, but in Malaysia even shitter rates than HK. So that's why I use ofx.
    That's good to know that their FX rates for MYR are better. I too have to transfer occasionally to Malaysia.
    I had signed up with them a year ago or so and tried to transfer to Europe (EUR) but their rates were worse than SCB so never used them.
    I’ll try with MYR soon.

    Thanks!

  5. #15

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    Quote Originally Posted by pin:
    Thanks. Can I ask if any bank charges are imposed by Ofx's correspondent bank in HK to HSBC Malaysia?

    For FX transfers from SCB abroad don't you get charged something like HKD200?
    I just checked and NO FEES!! The last time I send HKD$100k to Malaysia, ofx quoted me RMB 55,540, I sent exactly 100k into ofx DBS account and I received exactly 55,540 in my Malaysia HSBC account. No fees were charged by Standard Chartered, DBS, OFX, or HSBC at any stage of this transfer.

    Another tip with ofx, the larger amount you transfer, the better the rate. So try to transfer higher amounts less frequently for better rates.

    Correct that SCB charges $120 for priority customers to do a TT to non-SCB account overseas (free to SCB account), plus there is often middle bank charges you dont know about and end up with less on the other end.

  6. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sith:
    That's good to know that their FX rates for MYR are better. I too have to transfer occasionally to Malaysia.
    I had signed up with them a year ago or so and tried to transfer to Europe (EUR) but their rates were worse than SCB so never used them.
    I’ll try with MYR soon.

    Thanks!
    Exactly. I also transfer AUD to Australia and find ofx rates not that attractive and better to just to a normal TT with SCB, even factoring in the SCB fees. It's just MYR in particular where ofx is a good solution and offers better rates than HSBC Malaysia (HK banks will not convert MYR so can only send HKD or USD and let the Malaysian banks do the conversion which is very bad rates).
    Sith likes this.

  7. #17

    Tried WorldFirst yesterday after hearing about it on the thread. Citibank was offering me 5.92 exchange rate from SGD/HKD, and WorldFirst was giving me 6.02. A 10 bips margin in favor of Worldfirst - left it immediately there. Bank fees or not, they are really not competitive

    OnPip at the same time was offering 5.88 so better than Citi - but haven't explored any additional fees yet with them


  8. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by bdw:
    I just checked and NO FEES!! The last time I send HKD$100k to Malaysia, ofx quoted me RMB 55,540, I sent exactly 100k into ofx DBS account and I received exactly 55,540 in my Malaysia HSBC account. No fees were charged by Standard Chartered, DBS, OFX, or HSBC at any stage of this transfer.

    Another tip with ofx, the larger amount you transfer, the better the rate. So try to transfer higher amounts less frequently for better rates.

    Correct that SCB charges $120 for priority customers to do a TT to non-SCB account overseas (free to SCB account), plus there is often middle bank charges you dont know about and end up with less on the other end.
    I need to transfer either USD or SGD to an OCBC bank account in Singapore. Last time I did it through HSBC and I think I got charged HKD150 or thereabouts and whatever rate HSBC charged me to convert HSD to SGD.

    So I could do it with SCB and they would just charge me HKD120 (a bit cheaper than HSBC) or maybe OFX might be able to do it without charge, depending on which banks they use?

  9. #19

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    @pin ofx will do it and maybe no fees, but I don't think their rates are very good for USD or SGD. I would prefer if you become a guinea pig for geoexpat users and give onepip a shot and then report back here on what fees they charge . onepip appear to have better rates for USD/SGD. I only use ofx because I want MYR and if you look at most of the online solutions such as onepip they dont offer MYR. ofx is unusual in that they offer a very broad range of currencies.


  10. #20

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    I checked quickly onepip - looks like their GBP/USD rate is crap - 1.337 something, when the current interbank is above 1.35!

    So one should always check the specific currency pair one is interested in, and then factor in the additional fees... no surprises here