I really love Amazon.
Right now the benefits of a crap exchange rate are working in the favour of people already living in New Zealand – so it’s worth making the most of it. Even at $3 to the UK£ its often more cost effective buying books from the UK than buying them in New Zealand, but with the rate at nearer $2 to the UK£ – we are laughing.
On an Amazon order of about £180 (the whole family really loves books), I’ve saved about $200 on Christmas pressies purely because of the exchange rate.
I guess that the thing with currency – when it’s bad for one person – it can be great for others.
But there’s also been an interesting development at Amazon.co.uk which can be even better for us. They are now charging in local currency – so if you live in New Zealand and have an NZ Credit card – you can be charged directly in NZ$. You will be told at the time of order, before you confirm, what the NZ$ cost is, and if you switch the currency conversion on, you will have the option of changing your mind before you confirm the order.
This means that you can avoid paying the banks their extra charges and fees they always like to screw us for. You wont get the Interbank rate – but then the banks never give you that anyway – and then they add all the extra fees on top of a crap rate.
I’d use the Amazon converter on principle just to take the fees away from the banks.
It’s worth noting that all the items in your order have to be in stock and ready to ship to be able to use this service. If anything is out of stock or on a delay – you cant use it and have to pay in UK£.
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Avalon’s Money Thread: Moving your money to New Zealand
Well, I found the whole concept of currency transfers a bit daunting at first. We got caught with the exchange rate in the floor (2.5:1) at the time we had to buy our house so it was all a bit depressing. We only brought over the minimum to start with, and then brought over the absolute minimum to buy the house with. We still have a bit of money in the UK to pay our insurance premiums and stuff over there.
I use HiFX to do all my transfers. I have found that they are really excellent for explaining this without making me feel like an idiot for not getting it the first time. There are no extra charges to pay with them either. No flat fee, payment fees, electronic transfer fees, fees to pay to your NZ bank for the privilege of putting money in. They make a profit but it’s on the difference between the rate they give you, and the rate they buy at.
So when you ask for a quote (for example “I want to sent £10,000 to New Zealand” they tell you the rate and what you will get for it at the other end “The rate is 2.9000 and you will get $29,000” (in my dreams!)
Hifx pay the money direct to your New Zealand bank Account – like this:
Your UK account -to- Hifx UK account (just like paying a bill) -to- your NZ account.
It’s teh same the other way round as well:
Your NZ account -to- Hifx NZ account – to- to your UK account.
Coming from the UK to NZ the delay is in getting from your UK account and clearing into their UK account. This delay is because of the UK clearing system. Update: This should be quicker these days. My UK bank (First Direct) now does the move in 24 hours.
Whatever happens (and again this is what I know of Hifx only), you will be told when you get your quote and agree to the trade exactly how much money will hit your UK account.
It’s worth registering with a few money transfer companies (should be free, if not don’t touch them), and then when you want to transfer, ask all of them for a quote. Get not only the rate but also the total amount in $ that you get at the end. Then take off any fees that are going to be charged at the UK end. And go with the one that gives you the most $$$$ for the least amount of hassle. It’s also worth asking your UK bank for their exchange rates and fees, and comparing that as well.
Hifx have a service where you can set up regular payments from UK to NZ (or vise versa).
From UK -NZ:
The minimum amount is £500 per month, you form a contract for 6-18 months and the rate you get is fixed at the start of the contract.
So you know exactly how many $$$ you will be getting in your NZ account.
You set up a Direct Debit from your UK account to HIFX UK account
Money hits your NZ account about 5 days later
NO CHARGES .
From NZ – UK
Same deal but the minimum is $1000 per month.
If you are in the UK currently, its worth knowing that if you have a Nationwide account you can use your ATM card to withdraw $$$ here with no charge which can be very handy for smallish sums when starting out.
Updates:
MoneysavingExpert keeps a current list of credit and debit card fees for taking money out of ATM’s abroad, and keeps a list of the cards that have no charges for doing this. This is something its worth being aware of way before you move over here, because you will not be able to open an account once you leave.
There’s a new Online company called Currency Online that are part of HiFX. You can do all the trading online without having to call someone and bother with filling in forms. Its very easy to open an account, and they have now removed their silly charges. The rates are still crap compared to HiFX, but its convenient, and you can see the amount of money you get straight away.
Avalon’s Money Thread is a series of posts which were originally written in 2007 for an Immigration Forum. They came about by answering questions that forum members asked, about how to cope with the often difficult financial situation they face in New Zealand. They formed the basis of what was eventually to become the book Avalon’s Guide: after another year or so of drinking way too much coffee and finding out way more about taxes, money and investing that any sane person should.
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New Money Transfer company.
Filed under: For the numpties amongst us, General Budgeting, Getting to New Zealand
I was contacted a few weeks ago by a company called Currency Online, offering me the chance to become an affiliate and market their product. Of interest was the fact that they said they were part of HiFX, which is the currency transfer company I have always used and recommended.
So I took a look.
HiFX confirmed that indeed CO was now a part of them, and so I looked at the rates.
One of the reasons I really like HiFX is the lack of extra charges. So I was a mite miffed to find that CO were going to charge a whopping £12 every time I made a transfer from the UK. To cover the electronic transfer of funds. {Cough} BS {Cough}.
But hey I thought – the rates are supposed to be the best around – so maybe the rates are so good it will counteract the silly charge.
Um. No.
I’ve been checking these numbers for a few weeks now – and I can categorically say that HiFX still beats CO hands down. In fact the only benefit I can see to CO is that it is – well – online.
So – how did I compare the two?
Well, firstly – I made a spreadsheet to keep all the info together, and make it easier to compare. So at random times (like when I remembered) I would look at three things:
1/ The HiFX website charts which give you the current Interbank Rate.
2/ The current Currency Online price for £5000 to be converted to $NZD
3/ I phoned up HiFX for their current rate for the same trade.
But – you also have to remember the £12 it will cost you to transfer using Currency Online. So – to take that into account I took the amount of $NZ that I would get using CO, and divided it by 5012 (£5012) – which gives you the EFFECTIVE rate at which you are transferring. I then worked out how many $NZ I would get in real terms taking that charge into account.
I also made a note of the difference between the HiFX Rate and the Interbank rate and the CO and Interbank rates. What I got was this:
What this shows is that if you were to transfer £5000, you would overall get about $100 MORE if you went with HiFX, and today – when I actually made a trasfer, I came out better by a whopping $337.
Now – there are some advantages to Currency Online, and ill cover those in a separate blog. But if the main issue is how many $$$ you get – I’m still sticking with HiFX!
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