To make bank transfers from UBS to EU banks what do you suggest?
As UBS asks for currency exchange fees and another fee to make the international transfer, what do you suggest?
Any experiences with Revolut, Wise or other tools?
Thanks.
Hi to all,
Both Revolut and Wise work well. Have never made big transfers but have heard that money can be stuck for a while if the platforms decide to do a money laundering due diligence.
With both of them I only ever had a problem with transfers to/from Canada. Never with an EU country.
For a one-off big transfer there are many platforms, I used XE in the past they had competitive rates, Wise is also recommended
For regular smaller transfers I use Revolut - works very well, but if you exceed 1.2k per month you'll need to look to their paid plans as the fees start going up. Revolut also works for big transfers, if you already have it with a paid plan, and is more convenient longer term. It also helps if the receiving party has Revolut as Revolut to Revolut is almost free (for now)
For all big transfers with any decent platform (even with the bank) you have to go through AML checks so you need to have your papers in order and be prepared for delays.
You can also try YUH Bank. It's online, easy to open EUR account (and other currencies) with extremely good exchange rates, and no charge for transfers. It's owned by Swissquote and Swiss Post so is very safe.
Thanks for the comments.
Depends on amount really.... The fee of UBS for Sepa payments is 30cts so that alone should not be a big deal.
For very big amounts I have always sucked it up as wanted to avoid issues with wise etc but was outside of EU.
I like WISE. Load money for free from Swiss account. Pay a small fee to convert it into euros. Then send for free to a euro account. You also get foreign account number so that people can send you money for free in their currency.
Another vote for WISE from me.
Wise is also my preferred choice for transfers like this. Also use their debit card while traveling.
Just be aware you can't currently get CHF bank details so it's not yet possible for someone else to send you a bank transfer in CHF from outside Wise. They would need to first load the money to their own Wise account.
The only thing I dislike about wise is they offer only Visa, not Master Card. I got rid of all my Visa cards as they were a sponsor for the Qatar world cup.
Regular Revolut user here. But you can also do N26, Neon (swiss neo bank, pretty cool btw), etc. Really no issues.
Remember that CH is inside the EU-money-trasnfer-scheme. Which means that what you do is:
1) First convert the amount to EUR (like having it in our EUR account)
2) And then you make EUR -> EUR transfer. That falls under SEPA rules where a bank may not charge more than for a local national transfer.
The best is: move CHF out of UBS to any of the neo banks mentioned before. And then make a SEPA transfer. On regular agreement, UBS will charge you an annoying exchange fee AND their exchange price (CHFvsEUR) is also not the best.
Revolut seems to have changed the way it does its exchange rates and it's nowhere near as good as it was say a year ago. To the extent where last week it was cheaper for me to use Wise and pay their fee.
I'd like to find an alternative. Primarily for converting CHF to GBP and sending it to a UK account. Smallish amounts of 5-10k.
I make SEPA transfers from my account at BCV in Euros without any fee whatsoever.
I use revolut for "beer money" on trips abroad. App works great, but every time I needed anything from their support was it a catastrophe... so I would never trust them with a large amount of money.
I have been regular user and recommender of Revolut for quite some time now but their new app layout is appalling in my opinion. The usability of the app was never great but it is needlessly difficult now.
If I can motivate myself I will check out Wise and N26 as possible alternatives.
WISE's app is great!
Second this. I do such transfer regularly, and had the "Premium Plan". The exchange rate is by far the best, and no fee, no limits.
(Better than WISE, etc.)
It uses SEPA payment, so transfer made during the day usually arrives in seconds/minutes (better than Swiss Banks?)
For the Revolut free plan, I think you got 1250CHF / month.
But whatever plan you choose, the exchange during the weekends will still cost extra fee -- So do it during weekdays.
Old thread, but I still use currencyFair - it's one of the few platforms where you can select your exchange rate.
They've recently changed the setup, so now you can't leave the money with them until the rate hits your wanted level... but still one of the best platforms out there.
Just to check, I ran a sample across three platforms (all in the same 5min or so)
100,000 CHf -> EUR
Recipient gets:
Xe: 104,720 eur
CurrencyFair: 105,020
Revolut: 104,929.53
This is good to know that some other service beat Revolut... I'll check the details and limits to see if I should change my platform.
Edit:
Wait, I just registered CurrencyFair and did the same test:
For 10,000 CHF:
CurrencyFair: 10,519
Revolut: 10,599
I have Revolut plan, so no fees. I guess your comparison is based on Revlut (with fees, Revolut has only 1250CHF free quota / month).