Show HN: I built a site to compare fees and rates for sending money abroad
transfr.io
transfr.io
My story is that I made a big transfer (400k+) on the day before the Brexit vote (cause I thought that Brexit wouldn't happen, and the pound would bounce back). Because of the trading volume on that day, TransferWise missed the deadline. So I got in touch with them, they told me that they would give me the best rate between the one that I had locked in and the live market rate the next day. Basically I didn't lose 10k+ because they're decent guys.
Are you sure you didn't build a transferwise clickbait? I know for a fact there are other services that do this transfer.
I am working on adding more providers. If you have any suggestions please let me know.
+ Failing to select an amount to send should raise a flag.
+ Entering a negative amount to send should raise a flag.
+ After viewing a result, if I hit `back` on my browser (say, to compare results for a different transfer amount), it resets the currencies to their defaults (for me, U.S. and Argentina). It would be nicer to remember my selections.
I ask because I love the idea of building a search engine for payments, given how fragmented and localized the money-transfer market is.
Also, I'm familiar with a few sites that are similar: https://www.monito.com/ https://www.fxcompared.com/ https://www.saveonsend.com/
I'm curious about what gap in these services you're hoping to fill.
In terms of the target audience, I would say it's quite broad because this is something that quite a few people use on multiple occasions. Right now, I will be targetting individuals who live abroad and remit money back to their country and then start expanding further to individuals who travel, individuals who want to purchase large assets abroad, etc.
Thanks for sharing those sites - I had never come across them and Monito pretty much looks like where I would like to be in the future. I'm going to have two angles a) for individuals and b) for businesses. After having a quick look at the links you provided these sites only seem to cover (a). I would like my site to be the go-to place for money transfers, for individuals and businesses.
- I live in a country where Revolut is available so I generally pay nothing for international transfers. Perhaps this could be addressed by adding "country of residence"?
- When I need to transfer money between my own accounts, I often use my Interactive Brokers account as it gives market rate conversions and a free transfer every month. It has inactivity fees but if you happen to keep a large amount of money there, it's "free".
2. consider publishing a roadmap that you update with suggestions from this HN discussion.
3. Some way to report errors or surprises via the web site itself.
4. A disclaimer that you are not vouching for any agency that you are mentioning at your website.
This.
I tried some random tests and often Transferwise was the only result, so at first sight I had that impression.
Maybe you could add a "detail" drop down menu (or whatever) where you list all the services you considered with "service not available from country A to country B".
As a side note, it seems to me like the "engine" has only a small subset of states/countries.
I also have some accessibility suggestions; if you're looking to improve things on that front hit me up.
Could you let me know the combinations you searched so I can get those implemented at some point?
I am planning on adding a lot more content to the site, including reviews within the next 2 weeks.
But looking right now from my dashboard, if I send with my balnace, the fee is $1.18. With ACH its' $1.73. With credit card it's $4.81. With debit card it's $2.27. The worst and most-cumbersom option is wire transfer, but that's what your system defaults too?
I am glad you picked up on this because I thought of placing a button which says "More Info" which will have a popup and display all options and fee. You've just validated my assumption and it's something I will be working on adding.
Are you just using their data and adding your affiliate link to it?
If you observe closely from that list most of the companies that are on there are banks. They don't really include competitors because they know that their rates will always beat the banks.
...trust & honor prevails.
Probably you are not trusted with huge transactions at first and there are sanctions against you and your familie und the loss of this job when you break the "contract".
People don't realize the fees banks charge for currency conversion is not the entire story. My bank offered me 'no-fee' CAD to USD transfers but were giving me a 5% worse exchange rate than competitors. Be careful out there!
Basically, but a stock that trades in Toronto with CAD, call your broker to move it to the US side, then sell it for USD.
Convert any amount for 2 brokerage charges (2x$10 for me).
Yes, it exposes you to stock market fluctuations for that stock for a few hours or days (depending on your broker), but at least you get to stay in the market instead of the money being “dead”.
Arbitrageurs keep the prices exactly in sync several thousand times per day.
If you have any more suggestions or feedback please let me know. This is only a proof of concept and I am very keen on improving it further.
If you have any suggestions regarding more providers or services please let me know as I am keen in improving the site.
However, point noted. Will add something to make this more obvious.
I'm adding them based on demand.
You should look at other companies...