Brother is moving to Aus, next week
Whats the best way/place to xfer cash to Aus?
Only has $15k in savings but just wondering if there's a better way than bank transfer/travelx to take that over there with lower fees & better conversion
People have mentioned Wise/Xe
last time I used one was with https://www.asb.co.nz/foreign-exchange/cash-passport.html but that stopped and was mainly for travel, not moving.
have you used it before?
edit: seems some have used it
https://www.cheapies.nz/node/29321
https://www.cheapies.nz/node/33783
I have used Wise for this - although the other way around.
AUD transferred to my NZ Wise card from family in Oz. That part is fee free as it is a local transfer from their AUD account to my Wise AUD account.
The money can sit there as long as I like and no fees are paid.
Can be converted to NZD when you wish.
There are fees but it was much lower than having it done via the banks.
I presume it would be the same going the other direction.
I've just plugged into the Wise app what 15K NZD would come out at right now.
The breakdown is as follows:
$15,000 NZD
less $65.71 NZD Conversion fee
=$14,934.29 NZD
x 0.903102 conversion rate
=$13,487.19 AUD
Yes, I have used them for a few transfers. Still waiting for the chance to use the physical card, though
Hey mate, have a look into Wirex. I understand it may look like a crypto card and what not. But I use it only for FX.
They have no fx fee unlike wise (0.5% flat rate) however have a marginally lower rate than wise. But after the wise fee, wirex still comes out with a better end rate.
Let me know if you need a referral code, I’ll DM you one, that way you may get free shipping for the card :))
I have used both Wise and CurrencyFair. As others have said, Wise is probably the way to go. Sadly CurrencyFair no longer has a local NZD deposit account, which makes deposits more tedious, so I can't recommend them for NZD-AUD transfers, but they're good in the other direction.
Wise is a good way to go. I have used it to transfer money from/to India couple of times. As mentioned above use the referral. One of the cheapest conversion rates available and probably the most easy to work with. Plus if you get the wise card basically you can use Wise as your bank.
Other option can be Western Union, I haven't used it in more than 10+ years so no idea on rates etc.
I assume you can use wise to go nz bank - > wise -> aussie bank without needing to get thier card just like most other fx transfers
In order to create multi-currency accounts, you need to order your card. That's part of their verification process.
However yes, you can easily transfer 'fee-free' from NZ bank to Wise and then NZD->AUD conversion, then send it to an Aussie bank as a 'local' transfer.
Dunno how relatively effective this is but when my daughter went to OZ and needed some money and she tapped the 'bank of dad' I just put a few $ into her Nz Westpac account and she used her money card at the ATM in OZ to get the cash. I think it cost $5 per transaction.
ETA the same thing my Wife and I did when we went there on Holiday a few years ago. We'd just hit the ATM for $1000 cash once a week or so….
Yep, I agree with most. Wise is the best (and easiest). I help a friend do all sorts of transfers overseas and it was one if the cheapest and quickest.
Haven't tried the card, but might be a good idea.
I would suggest wise as you mentioned and apply for wise card to use when in Aus.
Edit: also make use of the referral offer to get one free transfer.