Sending and receiving money abroad
I find myself helping my in-laws with a property/inheritance situation in Hungary. It has been dragging on for a few years, but may be reaching a conclusion this year.
In April I need to send a "small" chunk of money ($800 CAD) to our Hungarian lawyer to pay for a court hearing and some fees. Then later this year (fingers crossed) there should be 30-40K CAD coming back the other way for my father-in-law.
The question is: What is the best way to send AND receive money abroad?
Banks obviously specialize in this, but they often charge a fee plus markup the exchange rate a fair bit.
I have been reading about services like Transferwise that are more transparent and competitive with their fees and I could save quite a bit on exchange. Plus they automatically set you up with your own European IBAN, which should make receiving the larger chunk later a little bit smoother and more cost effective (in theory).
Reviews about Transferwise are generally good, and they are a legitimate company. But it still feels a bit weird for some reason, but maybe because it isn't my money and I would like to make it is cost effective as possible, but also don't want to screw this up. Does anyone have any experience with Transferwise or a similar service to recommend?
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