written by alumit on 17/09/2013
I have a son in an international university and I needed a way to pay collegiate expenses. The first bill I paid was achieved using ACH/e-check. To my dismay, the receiving bank charged 3.5% above the official exchange rate. For a transaction valued at $20,000 USD, I lost $700. A friend suggested I use World First USA, Inc. Their advertisement claims that the fee for international money transfer will be 0.7%W and that they would give you the exchange rate close to the official rate postcd by trading companies like Bloomberg. I was excited and quickly created an account with World First USA. I wired money into my WF account and then used its on-line feature to send money abroad. To my dismay again, their exchange rate was no better than a bank. They promised in their advertisement that wire transfers would be free. I had to pay a fee for this wire transfer. I complained to World First and they tell me that would provide free wire transfer and better exchange rates if the transaction volume was over $100,000. I am a small customer paying college fees. In my last wire transfer with WF, I lost money because I only wired a few thousand dollars. Don't get me wrong, the people at World Frist are professionals and their best customers are corporate. But, for the average potato like me, a small customer, you can lose your shirt! I learned my lesson and I will never use World First USA Inc. again. I found another company that can provide the same service that offer the same benefits afforded to large corporate clients. So, if you plan to use World First, think twice.
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Worldfirstforeignexchange's Response to alumit's Review
Written on: 18/09/2013
We’re really sorry to hear that you aren't happy with the rate you got for your latest transfer with World First. We pride ourselves on offering competitive rates, however sometimes, even if we make zero profit on a trade, we still find that competitors are prepared to offer a cheaper rate. Some companies are happy to give you an initial rate on which they will actually make a loss, quoting a price which is even lower than the rate that banks buy and sell currency to one another – called the interbank rate – which is inaccessible to the general public. They do this to get you on-board, and then will look to recoup their loss when you make your next trade. At World First, we don’t do this. We make our money by buying the currency from the banks at just above the interbank rate, and then selling it on for a tighter ‘spread’ than the banks are prepared to sell directly to the public. If another company decides it wants undercut the market rate, and make a loss on the trade in order to win your business with a view to increasing the spreads moving forward to get their money back, there’s not a great deal we can do as we always try to maintain consistent pricing levels. We pride ourselves on always quoting an honest price, keeping our relationships with clients as transparent and straightforward as we can, whether it’s their first transfer with us or the 51st. We noticed that you rated the speed of our service and our customer service levels with 4 stars here. Thanks for that, we’re glad you are happy with that area of our offer. We believe that authentic pricing, high levels of customer care and the speed of our transfers are amongst the most important parts of the service. We very much value your custom. If you would like to discuss the matter further please don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of the team here and we can look at ways in which we could win back your business.