Moneybookers increases its foreign currency transfer fees

Moneybookers - Cheap inter-country transfers

Oops!

I noticed the other day that I'd gone overdrawn in my French bank account to the tune of €160 and as I've only got a €200 overdraft limit and the French banks get really unhappy if you go overdrawn a quick international funds transfer was needed.

As usual I'm using Moneybookers for transferring money to my French bank account, as I wrote about last year.

In the intervening year it seems that Moneybookers have increased their fees though, back in July 2007 they were charging £1.30 to withdraw funds into a French account, it's increased slightly now to £1.60 per withdrawal. They've also changed the foreign currency exchange rate they use from European central bank daily interbank rate plus 0.95% to an unspecified "wholesale exchange rate" plus 1.75%.

Overall these two changes mean Moneybookers isn't such fantastic value as it used to be for overseas transfers, but I still believe it's good value when compared to the £10 or £20 that the high street banks would charge for an international SWIFT transfer.