Historically, sending any type of funding abroad was a long and arduous procedure. It typically involved long waiting periods (for all parties involved) and, more often than not, the financial cost to place the transaction was substantial.
Thanks to the convenience and efficiency of modern day technological advancements, especially in the financial services sector, there are plenty of great money transfer opportunities on the market today.
As a matter of fact, there are so many options to choose from that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find the best overall deal for an individual.
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Professionally licensed currency traders like KnightsbridgeFX help you save the most money on international money transfers by guaranteeing better rates than the banks. Not only do they offer highly competitive exchange rates, as long as you’re transacting over $2000 you can place secure wire transfers completely free – no more wire transfer charges or hidden fees.
Call KnightsbridgeFX today for a complimentary no-obligation quote on our exchange rates: 1-877-355-5239 (toll free)
We’ve compiled a list of other great ways to send money abroad to and from Canada. This guide can help you more easily compare the alternatives and see how they stack up to each other.
At the end of the day, you’ll be hard pressed to find any publicly available currency conversion deals as favourable as the ones offered by KnightsbridgeFX.
TransferWise is a newly emerging platform that leverages P2P (peer to peer) lending strategies to fulfill money transfer orders. Their services are performed exclusively through digital markets – in other words they do not have any physical branch locations.
Many of their trusted customer ratings and reviews suggest that the company manages to place cost-efficient and timely fund transfers overseas.
As a general statement, any money transfers you book to Canada using TransferWise is subject to a fixed percentage fee of 0.45% of the total transferred amount. Naturally, fees and overall transaction values can also vary based on the currency pairing you wish to convert.
For instance, if you’re looking to exchange cash from GBP to the Canadian Dollar, you’ll be paying the TransferWise exchange rate, plus 0.45% of the transaction value (as mentioned above), plus a fixed charge of 80 pence.
To get the most accurate quotes on TransferWise exchange rates, you’ll need to contact them directly considering that currency prices are always on the move. Regardless of what you ultimately end up paying by using TransferWise, their service is quick; your recipient can expect to see funds in their account in under 48 business hours.
The Equitable Trust Company, now referred to as EQ Bank, is a direct competitor to major Canadian banking institutions – also known as the “Big 5” banks – since the rise in demand for online-only financial services.
Instead of offering a proprietary money transfer service, EQ Bank provides their clients with international funding via TransferWise’s native platform. The partnership between the two online financial service providers gives EQ Bank users convenient foreign exchange opportunities as long as their accounts stay active.
Although sending money with EQ Bank/TransferWise is a relatively simple process, it’s only available to actively registered EQ Bank accountholders. In simple terms, to take full advantage of this partnership you would have to open an account with EQ Bank first (such as chequing or savings). Even then, you would still be subject to TransferWise’s international money transfer policies and fee structures.
The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is the first Canadian banking giant to make it on our list of fund transferring options. Relatively speaking, the big banking system in Canada has historically failed to provide their clients with favourable exchange rates and dollar-saving money transfer opportunities. Sensing a chance to change the game, CIBC releases their proprietary fund transaction service called CIBC Global Money Transfer.
Similar to EQ Bank, you’ll need to first be a registered accountholder with CIBC to reap the rewards of this currency platform. Once you open up a financial instrument with them you may receive access to this service.
While CIBC brings a lot to the table in terms of providing their customers with a fast and zero-fee international money delivery service, there are a few considerations you need to be aware of.
The advantages to the service are simple, and highlighted even more by the existence of a physical branch; you can walk into your local CIBC to book transactions and have your questions answered. Certain CIBC GMT partnered countries around the world (namely: China, US, Australia, UK, and more) come with zero wire transfer fees.
However, there are a few downsides to CIBC’s “no charge” Global Money Transfer system.
First off, there is a transaction amount ceiling that varies from country to country which means that you cannot send more than “X” amount at once. Second of all, any bookings you place using this service are counted as a banking transaction – to put it simply, if your bank account comes with transaction fees then you’ll be charged accordingly.
The most important consideration to make when debating whether or not to use CIBC GMT is their exchange rate. Truthfully, even if their zero-fee offerings beat the competition in that regard, they may not beat other financial institution’s exchange rates. This is a vital concern, since exchange rate mark-ups are areas where you can stand to save/lose a ton of funds.
Very similar to TransferWise, CurrencyFair is yet another online-only foreign currency exchanging company that is fulfilled through leveraging peer to peer funding. In fact, CurrencyFair’s money transfer offering is so comparable to Transferwise, even their fee structures are somewhat alike.
If you’re planning to send funds to Canada from an outside country you’ll automatically be charged a fixed $4 fee in Canadian dollars. On top of that you will be subject to a varying percentage charge of the total amount transacted.
There are essentially two ways this variable percentage fee can be calculated: either your order gets filled with a “peer” (you are paired with someone else looking to make that exchange) or your order gets filled by CurrencyFair (signifying that you failed to match with a peer).
The variable percentage charge acquired from matching with a peer can range anywhere from 0.25-0.3%, while on the other hand not matching with a peer will present you with a rate of 0.4-0.6%. Like the majority of foreign exchange providers out there, your exact rate will also depend on the specific currency pairing you decide to transact.
Although these examples might be less efficient than the aforementioned options, they’re still valid and mostly respected money transferring platforms. No matter which way you look at it, KnightsbridgeFX’s offerings still come out on top.
If you’re solely interested in the convenience aspect of money transferring and are not interested in saving money/spending time evaluating different options, your current bank likely has its own international money transferring offerings.
Of course by doing this you’re most likely sacrificing huge cash saving opportunities at the expense of sticking with the same bank. If you’re subscribed to Canada’s “big 5” banks, the chances of getting a competitive foreign exchange deal are slim – the overall best FX transactions (most bang for your buck) can be booked through a third party service.
PayPal can be an effective money transferring method, especially if both parties utilize PayPal digital wallets – that way you’re just moving funds within PayPal’s native system.
As expected, if you wish to book currency transactions using PayPal through your bank’s credit card you’ll witness much higher rates.
All in all, we highly recommend that you side with KnightsbridgeFX for all of your money transfer and currency conversion needs. With KFX you can expect to see extremely competitive rates and full transparency on our exchange rates.
Here are just a few benefits to picking KFX:
If you’re prioritizing USD in your currency transactions (whether it’s for investing or travelling purposes) check out our article on the 7 Best USD Bank Accounts that you can open in Canada.
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