WorldFirst vs Amazon's currency exchange rate
Does anyone know the exact rates charged by Amazon to convert USD to GBP, or EUR to GBP
I’ve always known that Amazon’s rates are poor but never got round to doing anything about it. But I’d like to know the exact amounts that can be saved to decide if it’s worth moving to Worldfirst?
Despite lots of research, all I can find it “about 4%” and stuff like that.
If I was to withdraw $1000 from Amazon how much would hit my account in GBP, and how much would hit my account if I’d used worldfirst instead?
Thanks to anyone who has sussed this out already!
15 replies
Seller_z6B2L9xab6HlP
It’ll be worth moving to worldfirst, revolut or transferwise 
Seller_r7SzViEUCuDPM
Worldfirst have just become part of the Ant Financial group.
Given the new owners I’ll be doing all my business with Transferwise from now on.
Seller_FqalN2Equ13mj
Hi,
We have used them all over the years, currencies direct, world first, transferwise, we are now with Payoneer.
To be honest, the rates are a bit of a black art as you cant seem to compare at the time of transfer as your money is already in their account, so the assumption is that they are all better than Amazon but probably all around the same exchange rate. The only chance to compare is when the new company gives you a rate at the same time you make a transfer with your current company and who’s to say its an “introductory rate”.
The difference to me was the extra functionality, we moved to Payoneer over two years ago and we have received payments from 3rd parties in foreign currency for free and we can make VAT payments to EU countries for free from our Euro account.
The others might be able to do that now, but they couldn’t when i switched.
The charges are built into the exchange rate so there are no other transaction charges.
I do have a referral link where a new customer gets $250.00:
Seller_lBVct58q3uKGC
Both are awful. WorldFirst is less awful.
I can’t remember the exact figures but last I looked WorldFirst was about 1.5% and Amazon was around 3.5%,
The cheapest way to do this is TransferWise. They have a different business model which is essentially two local transfers rather than an international transfer.
Seriously - we pay about 0.3% above interbank for an EUR-GBP transfer, that’s 5x cheaper than WorldFirst and at least 10x cheaper than letting Amazon do it.
Makes a monumental difference when the numbers get bigger.
EDIT:
At time of writing I’m quoted:
- Interbank - 10,000 EUR = 8,684 GBP
- Transferwise - 10,000 EUR yields 8,654 GBP (33.64 EUR fee at 0.8683)
- WorldFirst - 10,000 EUR yields 8,593 GBP (11.52 EUR fee at 0.8593)
Transferwise effective cost = 30 GBP on 10,000 EUR
WorldFirst effective cost = 91 GBP on 10,000 EUR
OK so it’s 3x the price not 5x as I previously suggested. Still, why throw the money away?
The Amazon spread above interbank, last time I saw an actual exchange rate from someone’s disbursment was ~0.24 meaning you’d get 8,444 GBP from the same 10,000 EUR for an effective cost of 240 GBP. You can check your own data if you’ve had a disbursment, go to your statement and it will show the exchange rate used, it may be better or worse these days.
Seller_vmXKMgVCpmLVt
Consider also, changing banking details will mean re-verification, all over again…!!
Seller_Sp0MDHOM1olT2
Thanks everyone.
That’s in line with what I’ve found and what World First have told me. God knows how much money I’ve lost over the years. Worst thing is that I was aware the Amazon rate was bad but never got round to sorting it.
Anyway, Transferwise it is from here, Worldfirst have been very quick to respond to emails and have been really helpful but unless Tranferwise give truly awful service, it’s all about the £££
Paying the VAT is one thing. Being able to set up a SEPA B2B Direct Debit (and therefore avoiding the French 60 EUR Fee for not having one) is another issue.
Off topic, but has anyone actually been billed the 60 EUR? I’ve been sending payment for months. Expecting to get whacked for a years worth all at once at some point.
