Post Office International Money Transfers

The number of times I have tried to use this website and found it to be down or unresponsive is unbelievable. Someone somewhere should be sacked. A truly awful service when all you want to do is send some cash to your kin studying in Europe. their exchange rate is bad enough, but when the website is forever down it is even worse. Simply better via the bank with a better rate and some reliability.

A transfer agreed 3 weeks ago has not arrived in my payee's bank account. PO International have shown no interest in trying to sort the matter. They promise to ring back and never do. E-mails to so-called client services go unanswered. At the end of the day they have taken my money and not delivered. Another more 'successful' transfer took 8 days - not the 2-4 days they advertise. I've lost track of the number of phone calls and e-mails I've made to try and get some resolution to the problem. You never get the same story twice when you phone with queries or for help. Some of the operators appear not to understand their own systems. I have also found them disinterested and impatient

I would not use them again nor recommend them

December 2015 - I was told by Post Office that their international money transfer scheme was free and fast and encouraged by Post Office staff to use their telephone to ring and check. I was told that it was free, that the exchange rate was going to total AU$ 5050 if I opened an account and made the transfer that day and that it would arrive within one or two days. 10 days later (5 business days) and the money has still not arrived. The actual exchange rate dipped to AU$ 5015 when I made the transfer, on the day I was quoted AU$ 2050, and they charged me £46 for the transfer because I used a credit card (effectively transferring money from my account into the new PO account I had opened). I am appalled and will be taking this further with advertising standards.

I had a problem with my transfer for a holiday in Belgium. The three customer service representatives I spoke to were unhelpful and frankly sounded like they couldnt be bothered to help sort out my problem. I would rather pay the fee from the bank than use them again

BE VERY CAREFUL READING THE T and Cs,I STARTED THE PROCESS OF AN INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER ON LINE,HAD A PROBLEM SO PHONED THE HELPLINE,HE SAID YOU HAVE THE EUROS POUNDS CONVERSION THE WRONG WAY ROUND AFTER TRYING TO GET SOMEONE TO HELP ME,I DECIDED NOT TO CARRY ON AND USED MY BANK INSTEAD,I THEN RECEIVE A CALL FROM THE POST OFFICE YOU HAVE TO PAY A BILL ( £146.16p ) FOR CANCELING YOUR TRANSFER

Used Post Office International Transfer "fee free"service a couple of years ago and a charge was made before the money reached overseas account. When queried was told it was made by intermediary between HIFX (used by PO) and my Bank. Refund made and told by representative of PO to contact if happened again and would be refunded. Had to make transfer again March this year and rate looked reasonable. Charged again, over £40. Emailed 4 times, including 2 to CEO. No response so went to Financial Ombudsman. They allow 8 weeks for response from PO. At 8 weeks PO told Ombudsman that my complaint was against HIFX not them. My account is with PO and it is their site that I log on to so I hold them responsible. Ombudsman sent copy to HIFX and they just rang to say they knew nothing until then. Will refund. Very helpful so no blame to them. Will not use this service again. Totally unprofessional to receive no acknowledgement whatsoever, even from CEO. Obviously couldn't be bothered to pass to HIFX either. They are still advertising "fee free" service in three instances on first page of International Payments so beware.

The PO service is provided by HiFX. This rang alarm bells as I was planning on using the service to avoid high HiFx prices!

The interface is a branded copy, everything is the same.

If you check out the real conversion rate first using xe.com or similar you will then see that around £10 or more has been added into the "free transfers".

Very underhand way of dealing and surprised PO have put their name to it.

I need to regularly transfer money to the USA to pay for my fathers care. Having made contact by phone with the Post Office - which was the only way to arrange for a transfer of money from the UK to USA - I was impressed by the assurance that there would be no fee at either end of the transaction and in the unlikely event of the recipient being charged a fee they would sort out direct with the recipient bank to ensure no further fees are levied and the fee refunded. I proceeded although the hours of opening were not always convenient.

For the first months the transfer of money was fine and no fees were charged at the recipient end until I had to change the recipient's bank details due to a change in my father's care provider. Firstly, I had to arrange for three seperate monthly payments to be made due to some late changes in care fees. This was because the exchange rate was different at the time I contacted the Post Office with the unavoidable changes. Subsquently I found the care provider's bank was charging $15 fee - per transaction, ie $45 per month. On contacting the Post Office they advised that they had no control over the fee charged by the recipient's bank and upon evidence (pdf) of the charges levied they would refund the amount but not by refunding the recipient in dollars. I had to set up account details to receive the refund in sterling. I am now still left with the problem of transferring a further amount of money to the care provider so they are refunded in dollars for the bank fees. Otherwise I need to get the monthly evidence of the bank fees from the care provider so the Post Office can refund me in sterling, so I can refund the care provider in dollars. I am now looking for a better way of transfering the money to USA without this problem.

If anyone one has found a better way to transfer money welcome any advice.

... As the header states, it is not free ... The receiving Bank will charge you ..

I processed a transfer to my US BoA account and was charged $12 for the transfer.

This resulted in a shortfall for the actual amount I wanted transferred in order to pay a bill.

Suffice to say, the bill could not be paid due to insufficient funds and you can guess the rest ... I was charged by BoA and the compamny I needed to pay.

I had previously used Global WebPay but just wanted to check out what the PO service was like... now I know better ...

This service claims to have no charges. This is because the charges are hidden in their adjusted exchange rate. My bank charges £25 for international payments, but the cost of transferring 700 euros works out the same as with this post office service because of their adjusted exchenge rates. For larger amounts my bank works out cheaper. I find it insulting and patronising that they claim there are no fees, when in fact there are effectively fees that are hidden like this. I haven't used the service, I gave up when I discovered this deception, so I can't comment on how well it works.