XE Trade recommendations ?

March 21, 2005 11:52 PM

Has anyone out there in hyperspace used the services of XE Trade (www.xe.com/fx/) ? I want to transfer a $30k+ figure from a USD to a EURO account without incurring the ridiculous foreign exhange charges of my bank. This service looks good, but is it trustworthy ? Thanks !
posted by superfurry to Work & Money (5 answers total)

There's a vote for xetrade here.
posted by shoos at 12:53 AM on March 22, 2005

As shoos pointed out, I use XE Trade almost exclusively for any type of currency movement. Very reliable, very quick, etc. The only thing you're going to run up against is that you won't be able to trade $30k on your first trade -- I think the initial limit is CAN$12k. Good luck!
posted by lazywhinerkid at 1:44 AM on March 22, 2005

Sorry, should have mentioned a couple other things... It is going to take you a few days to get set up with the account. Since it's a currency brokerage (not unlike a stock broker in the way they work) you have to sign a trading agreement, they check your credit (as they are basically giving you a line of credit), etc. -- hence the initial restricted limit. Also, the US government has lots of new rules and regs around currency trading now (want to be sure you're not sending money to Osama) so you'll need to send XE Trade a photocopy of your driving license, etc. etc. It might take a good week to get all set up now. Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions!
posted by lazywhinerkid at 1:52 AM on March 22, 2005

Note that this service run by Custom House -- the largest currency exchange business in the world. They do $10 Billion in currency exchange per year
posted by winston at 12:26 PM on March 22, 2005

If you're changing $30K, you should look for a place that operates on a per-transaction fee rather than a "spread" (XETrade is a spread). PayPal is also spread-based, and you can from dollars to euros, so that would be super easy if you can't find a fee-based alternative. PayPal's spread is abou 2.5% of the full amount, which is a bit steep; I don't know how that compares to XE.

You don't have a zip code listed, but if you're near a casino, I hear their exchange rates are really good. Of course, then you'd have to deal with currency export forms... maybe not the best idea.
posted by rkent at 5:06 PM on March 22, 2005