Is it normal to get a test drive?

[Sea Dog]

5 hours ago, PeterCr said:

Checked out Transferwise. It's similar to some others like that I've looked at. I know someone else over here used a similar service to buy a boat over there.

They are primarily a currency transfer service and they make their money from currency exchange. So if I was to transfer $A to the UK as £UK then they will do that, they make money on the exchange rate.

But because my money is already in £UK I can't transfer that to the UK because they make nothing on the currency exchange. I suspected, but thought I'd confirm that and rang them but they did confirm that they can't help me unless I transfer in $A. I asked if I could somehow use my £UK in the UK through their service and they said no. Rats.

I had an email from a Nigerian Prince once who seemed to have a pretty good grasp of moving money around to avoid difficulties with banks. I'll see if I can find it for you and you can maybe forward him your details...

[Alan de Enfield]

I am guessing that rather than having £100,000 in GBP in cash under the mattress, you actually have a GBP account within an Australian bank, IF, that is the case why can you not just do a bank transfer from that account to the sellers account ?

Once you have purchased your boat you can live in our (almost) cashless society using your debit/credit cards until you have built up some UK documentation to allow you to open a UK bank account.

[WotEver]

6 hours ago, PeterCr said:

Checked out Transferwise. It's similar to some others like that I've looked at. I know someone else over here used a similar service to buy a boat over there.

They are primarily a currency transfer service and they make their money from currency exchange. So if I was to transfer $A to the UK as £UK then they will do that, they make money on the exchange rate.

But because my money is already in £UK I can't transfer that to the UK because they make nothing on the currency exchange. I suspected, but thought I'd confirm that and rang them but they did confirm that they can't help me unless I transfer in $A. I asked if I could somehow use my £UK in the UK through their service and they said no. Rats.

Shame. I use my account to pay bills in € and their exchange rate is one of the best around, plus their charges are a pittance.