[E-trademarks] using XE.com to receive transfers (was Good, Inexpensive service for bank wire payments)

[Carl Oppedahl]

On 11/22/2023 4:23 PM, Jim Larsen via E-trademarks wrote:
>
> I just started using XE.com for U.S.->foreign transfers.  No 
> (separate) wire fee.  Indeed, the entire cost of the transaction is 
> built into the exchange rate.  Example: I recently sent payment to a 
> Canadian firm.  Spot rate was 1 USD = 1.3405 CAD.  My calculations 
> suggest this is about 2.9% worse than public spot FX price (average of 
> about 1.38 that day).  So, similar to credit card fees for most 
> services for domestic transactions.  Customer service (on my 
> admittedly low volume so far) was excellent.  I had several calls 
> setting things up and they were very helpful.
>
For our firm, the big need in money transfer service providers is not 
only sending, but also receiving.  Receiving a foreign bank wire is 
expensive at many bricks-and-mortar banks.  We used to use Wells Fargo 
to receive bank wires and there was a fee (a gouge fee of a minimum of 
$25 and sometimes $37).  So one of the great benefits of Wise is that we 
can receive a Swift wire from overseas and the fee we pay is only $4.14.

Does XE.com provide an inexpensive way to receive a Swift wire from 
overseas?

There have been sort of three phases in this money transfer service 
provider world over the years.  The first phase was bricks-and-mortar 
sending and bricks-and-mortar receiving.  The second was the sort of 
upstarts like Afex and Reusch and Travelex.  The third is the fintech 
world such as Wise.

In the first phase, everybody knew what to expect, namely gouges at both 
ends.

In the second phase, there was the sort of unexpected breath of fresh 
air in the special case where both the sender and receiver happened to 
use the same money transfer service provider, namely that neither the 
sender nor the receiver got charged any fee.

In the third phase (today's fintech service providers) we have all 
really gotten used to the notion of the money transfers being free of 
charge and instant, when both sender and receiver are using the same 
company.  There are patent firms that we regularly do work with in 
Poland and in Netherlands, that use Wise (as we do) and we are spoiled 
by the no-fee nature of the transfers.

Which raises my question.  I guess you are a customer of XE.com for 
money transfers, right?  Does XE.com provide a way for you to receive 
money transfers?  Doe XE.com provide a way for you to receive Swift 
wires inexpensively (in the neighborhood of $.14)?

>
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