Chile Forum

Folks

I need to get 5.5 million pesos from Chile to my account in the UK. I've looked through the forum and not really come up with too much, rather than the widely different costs of wiring money between banks.

My polola has an account at Santander and they have just quoted us something outrageous (50%) to send the money. I'm pretty sure the person at the bank was talking out of their rear, but would like to know if anyone here has come up with a decent Chile-UK system. (I bank with HSBC).

I'm travelling through the US on the way home and therefore don't want to carry loads of cash...

If anyone in Antofagasta knows if a decent source of travellers cheques in sterling, I'd appreciate a nod in the right direction.

All the best

C

carry it in anything other than pesos that the local bank will give you at a good rate.... you might find someone with some pounds in Santiago

but watch out, you are over the $US10,000 mark so you need to declare it unless you have a travel partner to split with

Folks

al sorted - as expected the executive at Santander was talking from the wrong end. We went to the main branch in Antofa, and it was remarkably cheap. I paid in total ca. US$85, and got a great rate on sending CLP 6.5 million. It was in my bank in the UK within 24 hours... fantastic service, and like others have noted elsewhere, only included 2 hours of sitting around in the bank awaiting the attention of the one person trained in sending money overseas.

F-B

I sometimes send money from Chile to the UK via xe.com. Because they can deposit the money via a normal UK bank transfer, it avoids HSBC charging me through the nose just for the privilege of receiving a SWIFT transfer. Their currency conversion is also marginally better than the bank's and the fee to send the outgoing transfer from Chile is the same either way. It takes a bit of paperwork to get it set up the first time though.

Cheers,

James.