Just wondering whats the best online currency trader as I am living abroad and would like to convert my cash into the currency of the country where I am living.
Also are there accounts available to expats with decent deposit rates. Was looking at HSBC and they will give 2% plus on a GB pound but the rate offered on a euro account is only .35%.
Any advice on where to put my wedge greatly appreciated.
I trade with Oanda and then distribute to whatever bank account you need. They basically give you real institutional level on forex trading. Banks will rip your eyes out and tell you they are giving you a mkt price. There are other webites that do similar but I only have used Oanda and Im happy with them.
transfermate
I’ve used both and was satisfied. Make sure to haggle for a better rate. You should looking at only paying .5c or so above the midrate
When you’ve made the currency transfer and the fx company transfer it into your account, how is the entry displayed on your statement? Ie for transfermate does it read ‘from transfermate’? If governments do introduce currency controls will it be easy to identify these trades on a persons account?
open an account with Swiss Quote Bank the rates are lower than Transfermate
I know that with Oanda (imagine its same with others) that the monies are wired to and from a clearing bank. RBS, JP Morgan etc. Your funds will be held in a pooled account with one of these money centre banks until your FX trade provider executes on your instructions. This brings a host of issues wrt to credit risk and pooling (see MF Global). However for the purposes of your question the wire transfer will only show up as to/from an international money centre bank with a description that you decide on. Most of FX providers and the associated bank accounts will be located outside of Ireland. Therefore the Irish Govt have no jurisdiction and cannot enforce them to disclose details or restrict them from executing on your behalf. However if capital controls were to come into place Im guessing you as a taxpayer would be under an explicit direction to inform the Govt/ask for permission. Long story short I guess it would be a case of the taxman/other official going thru your accounts and asking about certain transactions. WIth tax unlike the rest of the law you are kind of guilty until proven innocent. In the modern age (with internet banking) Id say it will be very difficult to enforce capital controls. I wonder if the taxman might claim that any unidentified monies coming into your bank account were “income” and tax you accordingly. That would be nasty… not sure if anyone out there could opine on that…
Thanks for all the advice. I will look through this stuff and will no doubt be back with some more questions soon.