Purchasing DVC from UK - money transfer?

[meryll83]

Looking for some advice!

I assume you can't purchase using a bank/credit card and need to do a money transfer?

I've seen there are many money transfer companies who handle the currency exchange - can anyone who has done this guide me through the exact process and make any recommendations?

Much appreciated!

 

[Surveyboy]

We used our credit card when we bought in 2013

 

[meryll83]

Was that direct with Disney?

 

[onestitchloose]

We used hifx. It's fairly straight forward. Once you've committed to purchasing the title company should send you the bank details you need to pay the money into. When we bought we didn't get the option of a credit card but we never asked either.

We opened an account with hifx which tbh if you are going to use them, do it now as they send you something out in the post you need to use to verify your account. The whole process can take 2 to 3 days to get setup. You would then create a recipient when logged into hifx and add the details for the bank account.

Once that is done they tell you the transaction can take up to 7 days but I think that's just a general warning, ours took only 3. We got text messages at every step of the way which was nice.

Afterwards we found out that Fairfx do the exact same process and the difference in fx rates were minimal.

Good luck

(ours wasn't direct with disney obv)

 

[meryll83]

Ah, I already have an account with Fairfx (just from using their currency card), so I wonder if that might be the easiest thing to do?
And the rates were comparable? Any fees?

 

[onestitchloose]

hifx charged me £9 for the transfer of the deposit as it was less than 2.5k GBP. However even with that, we saved much more versus the bank. The bank would have given us a rate of 1.49 that day, hifx gave 1.56.

They have a calculator that u can use which gives you an estimate but watch out it literally changes every 2 minutes (marginally but still...). The rate you buy at won't be confirmed until you have put in your details for paying for it.

Fairfx, if you go onto their homepage, they have an international/money transfer section. Just click that and you can see what the rate is. They advertise no fees (to me that usually means the rate isn't as good). All you can do is check on the day you want to transfer and see which one works out better.

 

[meryll83]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[onestitchloose]

No problem, the only other thing I'd recommend is purchasing sooner rather than later if you can. Nearly everyone on the forums agree they wish they had done it sooner

 

[meryll83]

We hope to, thanks!

 

[Minniesgal]

We used currency fair they saved heaps over the bank.

 

[finchy3]

HIFX for us which has been resale 3 times. Seamless

 

[tropicalstorm]

I used Hifx for my first purchase many years ago but have just bought a new contract and used Fairfx this time. Their rate was a few cents more than Hifx and no charges. They were really helpful on the phone too.