Moving money to South Africa

[warrenpfo]

Due to the uncertainty in the Euro zone and South Africa reliant on them for export the Rand has taken quite a knock and I would like to take advantage of this and move a few pounds back to South Africa.

I know there are quite a few South Africans on the site and wondered if anyone had any tips or tricks to insure the best rate and assist in reducing the rate charged for receiving money on the other side.

As it stands I plan on using a company called Hifx based out of Windsor Berkshire. They are an interbank transfer company and are “free” of charge so long as you move more than £3000. They make their money by offering you a lower rate than the interbank rate that they get.

I am in the process of getting a quote from them so can’t say how good they are but have been told good things about them.

Standard Bank tell me that they charge 0.425% on incoming funds which is not too much but if there is a way of bypassing this then it all helps.

I had thought of walking in with cash in my back pocket but gone are the days of this being safe or doable

Any advice or assistance is much appreciated and if you have some funds in SA you want to bring over PM me and maybe we could do a deal

 

[Manny]

I usually use American swiss and have the cash turned to travelers. Cheques, then change the travelers cheques in SA. You will need to proof of address in SA. Not sure what they charge though..
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[warrenpfo]

Manny

Many thanks for the reply, its not for travelling but rather for when I return to South Africa sometime next year to buy a house or small business etc..

Not sure walking around with a good few hundred thousand in traveller’s cheques is wise and perhaps I should have given a bit more detail around the amount required.

 

[Gary Stockton]

I got a poorer rate on cash than I did on a transfer. Depends who you bank with here - for e.g. ABSA is part of Barclays so that's fairly straightforward. When I was working here and living there then I simply did a transfer from my Clydesdale branch direct to ABSA at fairly good rates and a one-off charge of £30 (IIRC) paid here and then no charge in SA.

I've looked at some of the forex companies but there's not a lot in it - a SWIFT transfer for amounts up to about £10k seems to be the easiest and cheapest and defo less hassle!

HTH

 

[fridayman]

I have been very happy with Transferz - fast, easy, reasonable charges, and good conversion rates. I have used them to send money to both SA and AUS.

If you do use them please mention me - I might end up getting a prize one day...

 

[warrenpfo]

Thanks will take a look

 

[Paul]

Is it possible to hold a SA currency account in this country? I have a EURO and a USD account for when i'm paid from overseas and then i can change it when rates are good.

 

[warrenpfo]

Being a South African citizen its not a problem as I never closed any of my accounts when I "left" to go travelling 10 years back.

 

[Gary Stockton]

ABSA will set up an RBS offshore account I believe. Not too sure how it all works - I ended up opening a 'proper' account here and just doing swift trfrs. I think that NatWest allows you to trfr internationally via your Internet banking facility?

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I think that NatWest allows you to trfr internationally via your Internet banking facility?

Yes.

 

[Crispin]

I used to use Halifax on a monthly basis to send money back. There was a flat fee of £9 per transaction. The thing you had to make sure of is that it is sent in Rand and not sterling or the SA bank (Std bank for me) would charge an incoming fee (R125 IIRC). If sent in Rand, there was no fee. Process was a quick call and took about 2 days to arrive.

I am now with HSBC and see that you can do it from the website but not yet tried it.
Never thought of using 3rd party companies for "small" amounts - not worth the hassle should something go wrong (It did once with Halifax but after a fight they corrected and repaid the fees)

 

[Dave Docwra]

Barclays to Flipping Nasty Bank is quite reasonable, about £30 if I remember correctly.

 

[Matt Wright]

Absolute best I know of and use is http://www.forexuk.co.uk
It's not about fees. It's all about the rate you get
These guys charge no rate over £3000 and have by far the best rates. The rate also increases as your deposit amount increases. They have a no fee setup for your irst 3 transactions under £3000 as well. Better yet, Standard bank only charge R80 odd on the other side..
Highly recommended..

 

[warrenpfo]

Thanks Matt