Watch out for the banks
There are many and varied ways of paying for your motorhome in the UK from Australia – it is just that some methods cost much more than others.
We had been banking with Westpac for years, both personally and with our business and learnt the hard way that certain accounts carry very heavy monthly fees and operating expenses not to mention fees at both ends for an international transaction as well as currency conversion fees.
We put up with it for small transactions made overseas on the internet but decided that there was no way we were going to get slugged on the payment of the Hymer.
When we first became really serious about looking for the motorhome around February 2016 the spot rate for the AUD was around 49 GB pence.
When we paid for the Hymer on 30/11/2016 the spot rate was around 60 GB pence so we were considerably better off
We started researching Westpac alternatives and finally came up with XE.com as the vehicle by which we would pay for the Hymer.
They were very easy to deal with as we just needed to establish our identity with them and provide a copy of the bank statement from which our funds would come.
The payment was made at 1 AUD = 59 GB pence with no fees for us and no fees for the vendor.
The rate Westpac were offering was around 55 GB pence plus there would have been fees at our end and possibly fees for the Vendor.
Cleared funds were received in the Vendors account in around 2 business days
It was a very smoothe transaction indeed.
So we had considerable savings what with the AUD going from 49p to 59p plus no hefty bank charges.