Sending and receiving money abroad

[Jimmy Stang]

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?

[nfotiu]

I used Transferwise to wire some money to a Belgian brewery. It worked out great and the fees/exchange rate was so much cheaper than what my local bank wanted.

[topfiverecords]

I send money all the time to my buddy who’s a Nigerian Prince and we use Western Union.

[Nufy]

How much money can you put on a iTunes gift card ???

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Does anyone have any experience with Transferwise or a similar service to recommend?

I've only used it for sending where it's been solid. Recently I sent money to Hong Kong on an early Friday evening local time and was in the HK bank account about 8 hours later. The CAD:HK exchange rate was actually slightly better than the market rate and the total fees charged amounted to about 0.8%.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

I send money all the time to my buddy who’s a Nigerian Prince and we use Western Union.

Originally Posted by Nufy

How much money can you put on a iTunes gift card ???

Trust me, if you saw the property in question and the photo of our lawyer there, you'd have a field day. That being said, I do trust him fully as he has helped with other issues we have resolved in the past and came recommended by the Hungarian Consul General here in Calgary. Gotta love Eastern Europe though. Things are... different.

But seriously... "Sure, I'll help you with that" said the helpful son-in-law. Whoops.

[FlamingHomer]

Another thumbs up for Transferwise from me.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Trust me, if you saw the property in question and the photo of our lawyer there, you'd have a field day. That being said, I do trust him fully as he has helped with other issues we have resolved in the past and came recommended by the Hungarian Consul General here in Calgary. Gotta love Eastern Europe though. Things are... different.

But seriously... "Sure, I'll help you with that" said the helpful son-in-law. Whoops.

Now this thread is useless without pics.