Banks

[euan2020]

10 hours ago, TDYER63 said:

If you are dealing in ten of thousands or more then you may be able to obtain better than 0.5% but most likely through boutiques. Unless you are sending large sums on a regular basis you will be doing well to get better than 0.5 % from a clearing bank, though i would always try and negotiate. 0.25% is very competitive for a one off transaction. 

There is no  correlation between the weakness/ strength of a currency and the rate you will receive in either country . If both banks are quoting simultaneously  they are both working off the same interbank market rate and it will just be dependant on each banks margin .

Normally it is not possible to book a rate with a bank if they have not received your funds therefore it is usually only the remitting bank that can actually fix the rate. Unless you have a credit line with the recipient bank you cannot fix the rate until your funds have arrived, by which time the market rate could have moved for or against you as the rates move so quickly. 

If you have been able to book a spot rate with a bank in SA before you have actually sent the money to them then they are taking a big risk as there is no guarantee the funds will arrive and they would then  need to close out the transaction potentially at a loss. You may of course have a credit line to do forward contracts which would allow you fix a rate in advance. 

Either way , anyone regualrly dealing in Fx or has a large one off purchase should be able to negotiate the rate. If you find your bank is providing a poor service there are loads of boutiques who will be happy to quote competitively. 

 

I used to work for RBS and I booked forward contracts for customers quite often - I'm not so sure the risk for the banks would have been high because it would only have been the margin between buy/sell and any movement on a currency, so not any more risk than giving me overdraft facility which i hold - cost would be the liquidation, and even then the liability would exist for the customer to repay same as any other liability. 

Maybe Nedbank were balancing their books but i found they were only taking around 0.2% off of mid rate because they call you to agree rate, and i was immediately checking what mid rate was with oanda/xe   ie I was getting 23.97 off of a mid rate of 24.2. South Africa banks are quite good in that they call you even for GBP 10K xfer and give you 7-30 days to let the market move, and you choose a better rate.  RBS were only quoting me pishy rates same as < GBP 10K - would be pissing in the wind guessing what RBS are doing - they wont even fix the rate wen they have the instruction in their hand - which is what we used to do all the time previously by calling Treasury

seeing both sides - 11 years as RBS staff and now 17 years as customer - the service now is fecking awful, and i can see straight away when they staff have no clue and are bullshitting me cos they don't know what services are available - only interested in sales, and that is reason that I left

Now made 2 complaints of which their service standard is response back within 48 hours, and not a cheap 

 

 

 

[TDYER63]

I have worked within the treasury dealing room of banks doing fx for 30 years , 26 of them either on trading desks or on corporate hedging as i currently am and i have never heard of a bank that will give you the opportunity to choose a better rate if the market moves so if nedbank are giving you that along with the tight margin  i doubt you will get anything better. I dont profess to be an expert on the SA banking system right enough. Seems like a 'have your cake and eat it too' facility.  Or maybe its run by Neds ?

The overdraft facility you mention  is the equivalent of a credit line hence the reason you can fix a rate without the funds being there. The ZAR is a volatile currency and without a credit line banks could lose a fortune even in a couple of days if they allowed every client to fix a rate then walk away from it. 

Your situation with RBS is a common problem with centralisation and i agree the lack of knowledge is concerning. Most staff have no idea the impact a short delay can have on the rate. Good luck with the complaint.  

 

 

[euan2020]

4 hours ago, TDYER63 said:

I have worked within the treasury dealing room of banks doing fx for 30 years , 26 of them either on trading desks or on corporate hedging as i currently am and i have never heard of a bank that will give you the opportunity to choose a better rate if the market moves so if nedbank are giving you that along with the tight margin  i doubt you will get anything better. I dont profess to be an expert on the SA banking system right enough. Seems like a 'have your cake and eat it too' facility.  Or maybe its run by Neds ?

The overdraft facility you mention  is the equivalent of a credit line hence the reason you can fix a rate without the funds being there. The ZAR is a volatile currency and without a credit line banks could lose a fortune even in a couple of days if they allowed every client to fix a rate then walk away from it. 

Your situation with RBS is a common problem with centralisation and i agree the lack of knowledge is concerning. Most staff have no idea the impact a short delay can have on the rate. Good luck with the complaint.  

 

 

The banks in ZA do this - they have to contact you anyway to identify the source of the inward Xfer and its purpose due to currency controls - sending money out, you need to prove money was xfered in or subject to yearly limits 

This is when they give you the opportunity to exercise the sale of GBP - Nedbank give you a week to accept a moving rate and FNB give you 30 days - my language was maybe wrong - you can choose a better rate if the market moves in your favour, so a gamble - if moves against you you lose - what i was meaning is you don't need to accept spot on that day - thinking back I think RBS would phone customer if value was above GBP 50K.

I didn't even bother complaining on them losing my payment request, or not offering solution

This was me complaining about being being locked out of online banking, and having signed new registration forms twice inside an office, and they still didn't action, in addition to twice again they were meant to mail me sign up forms which never arrived - so around 4 failures in their process.

I haven't got round yet to being the kent,  that will tell them i am more qualified than them in banking, and still hold my chartered banker qualification - god knows why i still pay the fee's   

I still have GBP 100K to move, and there is no fecking chance RBS are getting to convert and get a margin off it 

 

 

 

 

[TDYER63]

20 hours ago, euan2020 said:

The banks in ZA do this - they have to contact you anyway to identify the source of the inward Xfer and its purpose due to currency controls - sending money out, you need to prove money was xfered in or subject to yearly limits 

This is when they give you the opportunity to exercise the sale of GBP - Nedbank give you a week to accept a moving rate and FNB give you 30 days - my language was maybe wrong - you can choose a better rate if the market moves in your favour, so a gamble - if moves against you you lose - what i was meaning is you don't need to accept spot on that day - thinking back I think RBS would phone customer if value was above GBP 50K.

I didn't even bother complaining on them losing my payment request, or not offering solution

This was me complaining about being being locked out of online banking, and having signed new registration forms twice inside an office, and they still didn't action, in addition to twice again they were meant to mail me sign up forms which never arrived - so around 4 failures in their process.

I haven't got round yet to being the kent,  that will tell them i am more qualified than them in banking, and still hold my chartered banker qualification - god knows why i still pay the fee's   

I still have GBP 100K to move, and there is no fecking chance RBS are getting to convert and get a margin off it 

 

 

 

 

Have you calmed down to a frenzy yet ?? ? 

Anyway . Not sure if you are buying a property with this money and if so if you will have the need to send smaller amounts over to SA afterwards. If you are i would def give Transferwise a go. I dont have big money like that to convert but  I got a rate that was 10 pips (0.0010 ) from the mid rate on gbp/eur when sending a few hundred pound over to spain to buy a watch and the transfer fee was less than £2. Best staff rate i could have received was 50 pips from market. I would recommend them to anyone. I think they quote you a worst case rate which they use on the conversion then they try and broker the buyers and sellers of euros and credit you back in sterling if they get you a better rate. 

Anyway thats me done, we must be boring the arse off anyone reading this. 

[Mitre]

On 12/05/2016 at 2:47 AM, TDYER63 said:

Have you calmed down to a frenzy yet ?? ? 

Anyway . Not sure if you are buying a property with this money and if so if you will have the need to send smaller amounts over to SA afterwards. If you are i would def give Transferwise a go. I dont have big money like that to convert but  I got a rate that was 10 pips (0.0010 ) from the mid rate on gbp/eur when sending a few hundred pound over to spain to buy a watch and the transfer fee was less than £2. Best staff rate i could have received was 50 pips from market. I would recommend them to anyone. I think they quote you a worst case rate which they use on the conversion then they try and broker the buyers and sellers of euros and credit you back in sterling if they get you a better rate. 

Anyway thats me done, we must be boring the arse off anyone reading this. 

Fair play to you

[sbcmfc]

Are you Dave King?

[euan2020]

On 5/12/2016 at 8:47 PM, TDYER63 said:

Have you calmed down to a frenzy yet ?? ? 

Anyway . Not sure if you are buying a property with this money and if so if you will have the need to send smaller amounts over to SA afterwards. If you are i would def give Transferwise a go. I dont have big money like that to convert but  I got a rate that was 10 pips (0.0010 ) from the mid rate on gbp/eur when sending a few hundred pound over to spain to buy a watch and the transfer fee was less than £2. Best staff rate i could have received was 50 pips from market. I would recommend them to anyone. I think they quote you a worst case rate which they use on the conversion then they try and broker the buyers and sellers of euros and credit you back in sterling if they get you a better rate. 

Anyway thats me done, we must be boring the arse off anyone reading this. 

have i feck - i have  made 2 complaints and none of them have had a response despite their service timeline is 48 hours and 1 is 1 week ago and other is 2 weeks ago 

Anyway - given you are working in Treasury - do you reckon a reamin vote is factored into exchange rates already for Brexit or a remain vote with strengthen sterling ?  

Only redeeming factor is that Rand has weakened around 10% this last 3 weeks which helps my settlement on a house purchase

 

Edited May 18, 2016 by euan2020
add swearing

[girvanTA]

Does anyone pay for an account and never used any benefits from it? Just got over £1600 back!

[sbcmfc]

22 hours ago, girvanTA said:

Does anyone pay for an account and never used any benefits from it? Just got over £1600 back!

Heard the adverts for that, is this the new PPI.

Seems a bit unfair to me.

Surely people open these accounts with the intention of using the benefits? Unless you're sold the account, but are excluded from the benefits (eg. Travel insurance due to medical condition).

Like I buy bread with the intention of making sandwiches, but end up buying lunches. Can I get compo for the loaves I've thrown out?

Good stuff getting a few quid though.

[TDYER63]

On 18 May 2016 at 10:29 PM, euan2020 said:

have i feck - i have  made 2 complaints and none of them have had a response despite their service timeline is 48 hours and 1 is 1 week ago and other is 2 weeks ago 

Anyway - given you are working in Treasury - do you reckon a reamin vote is factored into exchange rates already for Brexit or a remain vote with strengthen sterling ?  

Only redeeming factor is that Rand has weakened around 10% this last 3 weeks which helps my settlement on a house purchase

 

Sterling has strengthened the past week on the latest telephone polls showing the remain camp has increased its lead ( though an online poll would suggest otherwise) . I would say a win for 'remain ' is factored in to a certain extent however if this is confirmed on 24 june the pound will definetely get an instant added lift , though i would say it would then settle down and probably end up not too much higher than where we are now. It may get more of a lift against a currency like the rand ,  moreso than against the usd for example. 

The main risk however is on the downside. If we come out the EU the pound will drop like a stone, though i would say some degree of bounce will happen after a few days. I am not saying this to scaremonger, I am actually still undecided myself on which way i will vote, but sterling will definetely weaken initially.  If it was my money i am not sure i would take the chance of holding on for the bounce , even though i personally think the 'remain' camp will win quite comfortably .

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