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Comment by seanalltogether | Hacker News Reader

Transferwise has been a godsend for me the past couple years as I've been moving my life to the UK from the US. XE was bought out awhile ago and hiked their fees up, while banks like HSBC have always had high rates to begin with.

Although I'm wondering if jumping on a bitcoin exchange like GDAX to go from USD -> bitcoin -> GBP would be even cheaper these days?

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Just to add another data point, TransferWise have been the single most useful financial service for me over the last three years.

In 2000 I moved from Australia to the UK. Transferring money between AUD and GBP accounts was always a bit painful. The banks charged too much and took too long. I even signed up with a dedicated forex trading firm, but at the time they did not offer an online service, so there was still enough friction with phone/email to limit my use.

Three years ago I moved to Central Europe and acquired a EUR account. Soon after I discovered TransferWise and have used it regularly ever since. It works, it's cheap and it's fast.

Its amazing they can transfer to the UK within the same minute now.

You're paying higher spreads, twice, and (likely) higher fees, twice, and also going long BTC for at least a portion of the day. This is unlikely to be cheaper than Transferwise unless you win at Casino Bitcoin.

BTC -> GBP is surprisingly rare (GDAX doesn't support it). Even exchanges I've seen that appear to support it just allow you to do a EUR SEPA transfer, which for example Lloyds will charge you for...

Same here whilst moving from the UK to Spain. Also, their borderless accounts are a lifesaver when working with international clients.

US -> Chile is also amazing despite the $3000/mo limit. Chilean banks are dinosaurs, especially when it comes to international transfers or freelancing.

With the ever increasing price of BTC you could even end up inadvertently making a small profit on the transaction. That being said, with the volatility of it you could also lose all of your money in an instant.

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