I'm getting about GBP50000 sent from the UK
When I compare my bank rate with XE, the difference is about $3000
Is XE safe? My quick research says it is, just wondering if anyone had used them or can recommend another way
Thanks
Transferring GBP 50,000 to Australia
oscargamer on 26/07/2025 - 10:10
Last edited 26/07/2025 - 18:00 by 2 other users
Last edited 26/07/2025 - 18:00 by 2 other users
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I'm just curious if there were supposed to be any spaces or commas in that amount.
Apparently, we can't take those kinds of things for granted these days.
What you said is what I would expect people to ask too.. but so many negs. Can't seem to please anyone here!
Have a + from me! :)
I use OFX
Better rates than XE and great for transferring European currencies
Also very quick
you can transfer the 50k to me, it will be safe.
Compare with Wise and Revolut as well.
And make sure you factor in all fees. Not just the FX rates offered.
Tbh I would expect you end up with more AUD after all costs with Wise or Revolut.You do realize banks still scrutinise these transactions? If anything it's more dubious - looks like you're trying to hide something following some old wives tales on how to avoid being flagged.
If it was this easy to go under the radar criminals would be laughing.
It’s not just dodgy it’s a crime, it’s called structuring
breaking it up into batches does NOT avoid scrutiny. If anything it attracts even more scrutiny.
you can't be this naive!
Finally after a search spanning more than 20 years you were accepted as the long lost relative of the deceased Nigerian prince?
I think they will provide OP with clear instructions on how to do the transfer…. there will probably be a small fee upfront to cover the costs of the transfer.
I'm getting about GBP50000 sent from the UK
Blimey!
I'd prefer my family member to still be alive….
I'm in a similar situation. A relative in the UK passed away, and they willed a similar amount to me.
The best and easiest way to receive funds and transfer them to Australia is via Wise.
The process is to apply for a Wise card in Australia. It's essentially a debit card that gives great rates when you spend overseas. One of the lesser-known features is that you can apply for a UK bank account that can receive funds without any fees. You get a unique Account Number and Sort Code (BSB) so that anyone can transfer GBP into it just like they would any other UK bank account. You can transfer the GBP funds into your Australian account at very close to mid-market rate with relatively small fees.
The Wise application takes a few days to set up. You get a physical Visa card, which Wise sometimes charges $10 for. Once set up, you can apply for a number of overseas accounts to receive funds in their currency. I have UK and USA. The process is straightforward and you are up and running in minutes. Then send your UK bank details to the executor who will transfer your money.
The ATO will be aware of the origin of the funds and is highly unlikely even to question it. Even so, inheritance is not taxable in Australia, and the source of the funds will be well documented as the estate will have been through probate.
Feel free to DM me for further information.me
Cor blimey.
why not?
If I was him/her I'd answer 'none of your business'
Because they need it?! What kind of question is that?
We have used XE for all of our business FX transfers for over 5 years without a problem.
Thanks
If you don’t need it instantly I’d consider using the auto-transfer on wise and setting the rate a bit higher than it currently is to maybe get a couple more dollars out of it
Wise can be the best. Depending on the sender they might find it easy to deal with local bank details. Fees and exchange slip on Wise aren't high but if you don't need to convert to AUD right away you can earn GBP interest in account. About a month sitting there you'll probably earn enough to pay for all the fees.
I plugged your question into an AI chatbot which suggested Wise would achieve the best outcome.
I'd say this makes you a prompt engineer, but OP's post was over 5 hours before you replied.
It's credit to you who suggested this earlier; but I'm interested in the breakdown as I'm doing the a similar transfer myself next year and forex stuff is kinda complex. For some it would be worth bringing it home as carry on baggage but I don't get that vibe from OP.
That would make for a stressful trip and a lengthy interview at the airport. Have you ever carried anywhere near that amount of money?
Please report back how your trip goes.
edit: I'm curious. Would you use a suitcase handcuffed to your wrist, or a laundry bag with a big $ sign on it?
@SlickMick: 1,000 UK £50 banknotes @0.9g = 900g, add a few rubber bands or protective outers, less than 1kg
@sumyungguy: Sure, I wasn't questioning your physical strength.
When I was 18 I was sent to the bank with a $1M check and I was so nervous I would lose it. Cash is on another level.
I don't think you would seriously consider carrying GBP50000 in cash??
(I gotta admit, I thought there was an extra zero until you made me re-read.)@SlickMick: If I was nearing 67 and deploying the genius part-pension asset concealment hack I would totally be bringing home those notes; it's not illegal, just needs to be declared at the border.
@SlickMick: I bought back USD20,000 from the middle east, after doing some short term work there about a decade ago. It was all legit and all I did was declare in on arrival and explain how I had earnt it. That was the easy part.
The harder part was keepeing it on my persons for the duration of the 14 hour flight.
On a separate occassion I carried USD10,000 from JB, over the causeway and into Singapore and then onto a flight at Changi and it went fine too. It was back in 2011 when AUD was 1.11 to 1 and so I didn't need to declare it when I landed back in Sydney. Those were the days.
I've used Wise for similar transfers. It's easy to use and I've never had any problems with it.
Wise shows you the conversion rate and fees upfront, and also gives a comparison with the other money sharks in the business. On GBP 50,000, you will get about $2,000 less if you do the transfer through the banks.
If the money is coming from a solicitor or executor, you may have to do the transfer in one hit.
But if it is sitting in your bank account in the UK, you can wait until the conversion rate is best (though at the moment it's on the way down after reaching a 10-year high). So I would personally do it pronto.
You will need to prove your identity to establish a Wise (or XE) account.
And I've had issues with sending large amounts of money from my UK bank account to Wise. My UK bank account didn't like sending over GBP 10k at a time to Wise. Shouldn't be a problem if it's a solicitor transferring your money into Wise in the UK.
I usually send $10 across first to check that it's going to the right place, but I'm ultra-cautious.
And it's a smart move to retain records of where the money came from, as the Tax Office or worse may come knocking for their share. You may need to prove where it came from, as over $100k landing in your account will trigger alarms.
PS Sorry for your loss.Thanks for all that
I used to live in the UK. Try this mob it is recommended by the Aussies in London/UK community.
https://www.halofinancial.com/partner/aussies-in-londonThere is another company as well. I will try to find them. I wouldn’t use wise for that amount.
I’m not sure I’d use wise for that amount. I transferred quite a bit less than that and they thought it was suspicious and closed my account and it was a huge pain to get it reinstated.
Care to share more regarding the suspicious activity flag and issues?
They don’t tell you what caused them to be suspicious or to block/suspend your account.
I was transferring money regularly. They contacted me and I told them I was living overseas, I had to send in a photo of my passport and eventually they reinstated it,
Interesting. From memory I had to send in passport photos to even set up my account in order to verify ID
AVOID WISE AT ANY COST, I REPEAT AVOID WISE.
They can confiscate cash, block accounts, give no explanation, and you will become a rolling stone between courts and wise customer support, telling you from personal experience.
It's not a company, it's a crime syndicate that lures customers with reasonable exchange rates, but after a certain transactions, they pull the rug. There is a Facebook group for wise victims; search and read the stories before you think about doing business with these crooks.
toolate
Mr
Care to share more? Your comment comes across as more of a conspiracy theory than helpful information.
I have used wise several times for large amounts from USD to AUD without issue
Very quick and the best rates
lol most people are recommending Wise, but this one warning may trump them all. What if everyone's wrong and there is a conspiracy?? They could have set up their business doing small transfers legitimately just waiting for someone to transfer GBP500000.
All I see is:
You must log in to continue.
Alas I have no fartbook account.
Can you archive all the pages of the group using something like https://web.archive.org/ ?
So do you think the banks are any better?
I mean just looking at the most recent posts, to me it sounds like it's mostly due to people not adhering to their policies.
One post for example - guy was having a sook that they decided to close his business account 'out of the blue', but the email they sent to him clearly explained that it's because his business is no longer registered? Like come on now, why would they continue to let people operate BAU if their company is not even registered lol… do you think a financial services company that's under so much regulatory scrutiny would ignore red flags like that under KYC procedures?
I've been using Wise without issue for several years. So far this year, I've made 140 transfers to India & Sri Lanka totalling $40,000. I also use my Wise card extensively for online/in store purchases as well as ATM withdrawals in Asia.
XRP
100%, but the cost effective on-ramps aren’t quite there yet.
Hawala
We’ve used OFX several times going both ways.
https://www.ofx.com/en-gb/personal/They’ve always offered us a better rate over the phone than that quoted on site/app.
Yep, our business has done millions with OFX and they've been great. Great rates.
https://airwallex.com/ is an Australia based provider you might consider too. If we hadn't already implemented OFX happily, we would probably go with them.
Atlantic money is the cheapest as they only charge £3 and no spread. However, they only accept payments by Faster Payment.
Most UK banks don't let you send £50k in one go by FP, so you may have to split it into several transactions.
Splitting it up is not illegal in this case because you have a valid reason. It is still likely to be cheaper than Wise.
Are they any good for USD transfers from your knowledge? Never heard of 'Faster Payment', is that the equivalent of Zelle or PayID?
Faster Payment is the UK equivalent of OSKO / NPP.
Yes, they are good for USD, but they only support sending GBP from the UK and EUR from the Eurozone, you can't send from Australia
I’ll second Atlantic money, £3 flat fee, bank rates make it the #1, better than Wise.
That said they officially closed their Australian operation (didn’t say why) so you’ll need to open an account and run it ‘from’ the UK (UK ID and phone number)
There are a few KYC hoops, but we’ll worth it for the savings.
I recommend Wise. I recently sold a piece of land in Europe for a large sum of money.
Obviously I needed an account that accepts Euros, so I opened one with Wise.
When the buyer sent the deposit, Wise sent an email asking what the money was for. I just uploaded the contract and they released the funds into my account. Same thing happened when the buyer sent the balance.
Now I'm just keeping an eye on the exchange rate so I can convert it to AUD when the rate is in my favour.
I compared fees from similar money transfer companies and also the Com bank Forrign Transaction account. Wise came up on top.That's interesting that they asked what the money was for - I've sent 5 and 6 figure USD sums without any enquiry from them. Was yours larger than this such that it triggers their email? The mrtoolate comment above needs clarification for me as I have a potential 7 figure transfer coming and was planning to use Wise again.
It depends, they may want documentation for $100, but not want anything for $1000000.
At a guess it is based on what they know or what they can find out about the sending account. If it's from a known large business or solicitor etc they may not ask anything.
If it's from a random person (like the comment you replied to) they may be more likely to want to know what it's for.
If you are sending from yourself to a large business that lots of other Wise users have sent money to before, maybe they won't ask anything. If a random person sends you a large sum and then you use that large sum to buy some random investment company that some other Wise user reported as a scam, it is more likely to get blocked
The mrtoolate comment above needs clarification
Have you looked it up to see if it there are a large number of similar complaints?
Yes I have, multiple forum posts but I can find similar experiences with other big transfer companies like XE
The point is more that someone shouldn't post a comment like that without a bit more information behind it, otherwise it's not hugely helpful
The first was a 6 and the second was a 7 figure amount, they paused both transactions until I uploaded proof where the money was coming from and why.
The approval was very fast, within hours.
Used xe many times and they're perfectly fine
Had a friend who transferred 200kUSD. He told me he got on the phone with OFX and got a personalised account manager straight away. So he could call for any issue’s assurance.
He had his ID scanned already so was able to transfer a small amount (1k from memory) to OFX to be doubly sure and got it in his commbank 2 days later.
It took one day to clear from US bank to ofx and another day from ofx to commbank.All pretty easy and smooth, saved him over $6,000 from normal rates.
Not sure uk to Aus but I have used Revolut to transfer money to other foriegn bank accounts and was a great rate and cheap. It transfers in hours.
can a crypto bro please show us all how to do this? As x-border payments are one of the main cases for crypto, apparently. I'm sure it'll be really straight forward!
Buy XRP on a British crypto exchange using GBP. Send the XRP to an Australian crypto exchange. Sell the XRP for AUD. Simples?
This may trigger some potential tax issues. My NAB has been frozen 3 times.
The only tax issues (really just obligations) I could foresee is if XRP appreciates vs AUD between undertaking the purchase and the sale. Then you'll have a small capital gain to report. On the flip side, if the value depreciates slightly vs AUD before the sale of XRP for AUD happens, then you can bank a capital loss against any capital gains for your tax return.
@tenpercent: I understand what you mean, it's just that when large sums of money are involved, I really hate the ATO asking for all sorts of tedious proof of asset origin. By the way, why not use a stablecoin like USDT, which doesn't fluctuate much?
@Hunter4597: You could. I had a quick look and it seems you'll probably end up with more AUD at the end of it than doing it with XRP (and around 8% more AUD than using Wise). And you can probably skip sending the XRP between exchanges if you just use Binance or another exchange which supports multiple currencies. Definitely the option to consider if you want to avoid price volatility and minimise conversion losses.
Buy USDT and send to your Kraken pro account. Swapped to AUD and withdraw. Might only cost you a few hundreds at most. USDT is stable coin no tax implication.
Converting fiat to crypto and crypto to fiat is considered two separate CGT events for ATO purposes.
If USDT vs AUD appreciates before you intiate the second transaction then you may have a capital gain to report.There will also be CGT implications based on how the exchange rate changes between when you received the GBP and when you convert it (either to USDT first or straight to AUD).
@tenpercent: It should take about 1hr from when you buy USDT from GBP to money in your account in AUD so don’t even worry about any CGT.
@yamahamoto: Sure it'll probably be neglible or zero with respect to USDT fluctuations vs AUD.
But there's also the CGT due to the GBP increasing or decreasing in value versus AUD. As I recall the ATO considers from the date you received the money in another currency for CGT purposes.
So if the exchange rate was 0.5 GBP per AUD when OP received the 50k GBP and weeks/months later when they convert it to AUD its 0.4 GBP per AUD then for ATO purposes they consider OP has made approx. AUD $25k capital gains (less fees and spreads).
We used XE and ofx before and they have been good and quick transfer. Way better rates than what you get from banks.
Just compare which one offers best deal for you. Remember their rates update every minute or so.What’s the process like with these guys?
In the US, for Wise you wire the money to their JP Morgan account using a reference number they give you that’s linked to the transfer you’ve set up in your wise account.
Once they receive those funds they either add them to your account for you to transfer at a time that suits you , or you can lock in a rate and get it transferred direct to your Australian account
The process is very similar to yours.
Wire the funds from your overseas bank account directly to their bank account (same country as your overseas account), including the reference number. They will notify you once the payment is received and will then transfer the funds to your Australian account.
Poms. I knew it was them. Even when it was the Asians, Muslims and Indians, I knew it was the Poms.
No, just being realistic. Stay there fix your own mess.
Nothing in the post suggests they aren't Australian.
@alexdagr8: The most common case of sending GBP to AUD is an Australian who went to the UK to work for a few years and is now coming home.
I used to use CurrencyFair for peer to peer currency exchange (amounts around 40,000 - 60,000 AUD per transaction).
Haven't used them in 5 years though, so DYOR as to whether they are still good value.
XE is okay they have presence in australia. My work used them.
Use OFX. Good rate and easy.
Have used XE and Wise multiple times without any issues. Super quick service and works every time!
Thanks all. Have had a test amount sent via XE. Assuming that works, remainder will come later.
What about buying USDT using your GBP, transfer the USDT to a Australian wallet, and then sell the USDT to get your AUD? Is there any tax obligations?
There's tax obligations however OP converts it to AUD if he doesn't convert it on the same day he receives the GBP.
use wise
I used Wise to transfer 300k GBP over a period of 6 months - it was fine but in hindsight Revolut would have saved money. When I originally transferred AUD to GBP I used Binance (back when fiat on and off ramping existed) - surprisingly going through a crypto exchange was the cheapest way back then.
buy USDT on an exchange, transfer via BSC network for zero fee's, cash out.. spend profits on avocado on toast
If you want to send from AU to somewhere, just use the UP bank as they use wise for their external transfer, and you get security of an Australian local bank. Maybe something similar exist in the UK.
I've used Wise for large transfers but may be call them first and let them know in advance.
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I stated the amount, as that would be the first question if I hadn't
Not worth the question if it's GBP100