@dgullo, thanks for sharing your experiences...
Well, as usually, all depends on the benchmark / the perspective. From my perspective, 8 USD fee for a SWIFT transfer is pretty cheap. Be advised that e.g. 20-25 USD is absolutely normal elsewhere and it is not considered expensive at all... To be honest, I am actually not aware about cheaper SWIFT with︀ no maintenance fees and no minimal account deposit...
Sure. This is a feature of︃ SWIFT transfers and you will encounter it with any provider. Correspondence banks take their pennies.︄
Just be advised that if you perform EUR payments
and your counterpart has SEPA capable︅ account (usually has, if accepting EUR)
and your company is non-EU, you can open an︆ EUR /SEPA account with Currenxie, in addition to the Global (multi-currency) account – for free.︇ Then you can make EUR payments just for 3 USD (IIRC) omitting correspondence banks.
Yes, it's probably possible to get better FX rate with︉ XE.com. Take into account that they are just currency exchange and remittance provider, they do︊ not give you a current account. As for Wise, I consider them cheap AND not︋ predictable / not reliable.
And generally, again, when comparing with some major banks, FX with︌ Currenxie is nice.
Note: I am not associated with Currenxie in any way. Just using︍ their services for years.
To be honest, I have not learned about paypal rates for a long time. It always used to be quite expensive, unless you were making really micro payments. Also payments used to be flawless between paypal users only. But it might have changed...
You are welcome
🙂