CurrencyFair

We had been using Currency Fair for a number of years transferring over $100,000. Last year, we transferred $10,000 and Currency Fair held it for over two months. After numerous lip service responses, promises of our money being returned it took a complaint to ASIC to get any action. Surprisingly enough the money was returned into our Australian… Read more

account almost immediately, I guess they didn't want to lose their Australian compliance. We have used Wise ever since. We've had a few emails from Currency Fair asking us to come back on reduced rates but after reading about other people having the same problems, we're staying with Wise. It might be more expensive but the money arrives in less than 24 hours. I believe Currency Fair problems occurred after a merger with another company but the non answers, promises and delays ensures we will never use them again.

Excellent service and big money saver – I have been using CurrencyFair since moving abroad around 8 years ago. Its easy to set up, easy to use and secure, and has saved me a ton of money compared with bank transfers. Haven't used a bank for International transfers since I started using CurrencyFair, and have not had any issues with any transfer. Show details

Efficient and Easy to Use – Have been with Currency Fair for quite a few years now. Reasonably fast transactions, choose your own rate, and quick email notifications when transactions completed. No problems and happy with their service. Show details

Good exchange rate, fast, easy and reliable – I'm surprised by the other reviews...I might have just been lucky but really, the transfer I made from France (euro) to Australia (AU$) went really well. I believe I got pretty much the best exchange rate that could be found at the moment - not only compared to banks but also to other international transfer companies. I received the funds quickly… Read more

(in just a few days) and I got a couple of email notifications during the process. I was also able to get help at the start from a currencyFair agent by email. Quite smooth and very happy with the transaction. It was the second time I used their service. The rate does change during the process - it's not booked/fixed when you start the transaction. In my case, it was good because the euro went up but it's a bit of luck there. Sorry, for privacy matters, I prefer not to give more details but it's a genuine comment; I'm not getting any advantage or reward for writing this; I'm just sharing my experience in case that helps. I didn't give 5 stars just because some other transfer companies like torFx or XE were better for helping me in the process (a dedicated agent called me). With CurrencyFair, I was just dealing with someone by email. But the process is quite straightforward anyway.

Be careful – Won’t respond to emails or phone calls after months of trying to sort it. They have ghosted me and will not pay me the money they owe. They ripped me off $$$. Not happy ! Show details

Was once good, now useless – I've used for years, transferring money from UK to Australia. Since February they've been impossible to use - but they're not transparent about it on site and one wastes ages trying to find whether they've started doing so again. Their Contact Centre is useless. Show details

Don't use CurrencyFair – Having massive problems with CurrencyFair in Ireland. They have confirmed they have received my funds but are not completing the exchange and transfer. This has result in me having to pay late fees on bills. Generic response to emails. Will not answer their phone. Do not use. Google and read reviews please Show details

Transfer service is working again now, but they need to communicate better – I recently successfully used Currencyfair to withdraw from a US broker to my Aus account. It seems that the 6 months of bad reviews were related to some sort of AML/regulatory compliance issues. So I can say that the service seems fine now as my money came through. However, the company's absolutely zero communication during this time is… Read more

absolutely shocking and should be concerning to any potential customer. They were doing exactly what scammers would do, which is taking money, providing nothing, and not responding to any form of contact. Surely there was more they could do, such as hiring adequate staff to respond to paying customers.

The Best – Undoubtably the best for transferring money overseas from Australia. I regularly transfer AUD to ZAR, and CurrencyFair has always been, and is super fast, reliable, easy to use, safe and the best value for money. Highly recommended. Show details

Still have not returned my funds after 3 months – If I could give 0 stars I would. As with other people on this site they have held my money for 3 months. Communication is appalling both by email and phone (phone line only staffed for 4 hours in the day)- called the number for Australia and just left on hold for 2 hours. Emailed with accoiunt details for the funds to be returned - even though… Read more

this was supposed to be automatic. They only responded after the 4th email and then just to apologise and request details from my original email. Since then they have responded twice more - the last time to tell me the funds were returned to the beneficiary (ie me) but they have not appeared in my account 3 weeks later. Now they are ignoing my request for proof of transfer. Very very poor.

Update on my Currencyfair experience – I am in Australia and have been a CF customer for 10 years. I made the mistake of sending money from my US account to my USD CF account without doing the transfer in CF first. If I had, I would have seen that I'm unable to create a transfer and there's a block on sending funds to Australia. After transferring a nice sum of money and seeing it… Read more

disappear I was so worried but emailed support@currencyfair.com with the bank details showing the transfer and thankfully I had in the reference my CF number. After about 3 days someone did respond saying since it related to payments they had to send it to that department. I waited another 4 days and emailed another time with my statement. Though they didn't respond I did receive a reversal of funds today. It will work just be patient but don't use CF any more!

Funds held by Currencyfair for 2 months – I’ve been using CurrencyFair for the past 4 years since I’m in Australia, never had any problem until now. I tried to transfer money from France to Australia but they’ve been holding that money since February and I can’t return it. I’ve been sending emails and got only one reply. I’ve heard people getting their money after engaging with them… Read more

constantly, but it seems hard to get in contact with them and get someone competent and compassionate. If anyone succeeded in getting their money back I’d be glad to hear how they did it.

Lots of emails and phone calls but did finally receive my money – Money didn’t arrive for 7 calendar days. It took several emails and phone calls to get them to do something about it. Finally they cancelled the transfer, had me re submit and, and they said they did the new transfer “manually”, not really sure what that meant. Still couldn’t tell me why the first one didn’t go through. Makes me a bit nervous about using them in the future. But can’t deny their good rates and low fees. Show details

Disgusting communication. Still have my funds after 3 weeks – I sent them money on the 15 March. They still have not actioned my request nor refunded my money. They reply and nothing happens then you loop into those "no-reply" emails. These people are disgusting and I am close to reporting them to the appropriate financial authority for an investigation. They should not be allowed to operate in this financial market space. I suggest you use WISE - great service great communication. John Penny NZ Show details

The money disappears, the promised rate changes, customer service is nonexisting – WARNING, FRAUD! I sent money between my accounts on the 6th of March, but I still haven't received it. Customer service is non-existing (no one answers the phone), the chatbot does not work, and help links are expired. No one answers the phone or e-mails. Show details

Difficult – I have observed on Facebook etc sites .Esp “Irish Expats Returning To Ireland” excellent and informative posts. For people who are planning to return to Ireland, I am not. In relation to Currency Fair I have put up a couple of Anon posts on “Irish Expats Returning To Ireland”. Yes, I have skin in the game as we have some funds in transfer from… Read more

Irl to Oz and at the moment looks like that money is been held with Barclays bank in Frankfort I tries calling them , but found that was an utter waste of time , just got the run round totally hopeless. We have used CF since 2013 without any problems, until now . Of course, the reason that we started using them in the first instance was that our bank, AIB made it near impossible to make any transfers from an Irish Acc to Oz, apart from the cost of transfers. I feel that CF is handling this situation poorly, Esp. in the communications dept, not answering phone calls or emails except an auto reply , as I write I am not sure if we will ever see our money , at this time it is planned that it will be returned to account that it came from Last week I made Phone contact on Fri 1st March and Tue Mar 5thwith a Currency Fair representative he was helpful, and informed me on a couple of occasions that they CF were working on the case, up to now I have not seen anything concrete to back that up . In conclusion I feel that Currency Fair is showing no moral compass in how they are handling this dreadful situation for many of their customers

Do not use this service – I have used this company multiple times over the last 5 years with great success however some major shake up is going on that put significant funds of mine in limbo and great effort to retrieve them and returned. Like so many others funds from the UK got frozen by Currency Fair with no timely information or easy remedy. What I can say is emails… Read more

are being read but not replied to but you must have your CF or account number in the subject line. I got my funds back from phoning them and being lucky enough to speak to someone and sort out what needed to happen and how to make it happen. Hope that helps.

Currencyfair misconduct (at best)? – Follow up from my original post, after 2 weeks I am no closer to getting my money back from Currencyfair. I was sent an email on 20 Feb saying deposit funds for transfer to Australia, on 19 Feb they posted on their website that transfers to Australia had been frozen, they knew a day before that the transfer would not happen but still asked me to… Read more

deposit funds that they have now Kept! I suggest we start making complaints to the police, every case will differ but if anyone wants a screenshot of the 19 Feb frozen transfers post I will happily share.

Looks like they’ve stolen my 10,000k – Looks like they have stolen 10,000K of me, have been holding my funds for three weeks now, since Feb 13. No calls answered, no complaints procedure, no customer service. I’m taking them to court, I’m fuming with anger.

CurrencyFair seem to be in trouble – CurrencyFair are having major problems. I’m based in Australia and they have stopped trading here. Lots of people have money stuck in their accounts. They are unwilling or unable (legally) to say what the problem is. Their phone support has been cut down to 4 hours in Irish Timezone. I eventually got my money transferred back to the sender so… Read more

would seem they are solvent or at least willing to return funds if you persist ringing or threatening them. I’m personally just glad I have my money out. Would seem ridiculous at the moment that either ASIC or the Central Bank of Ireland who license these guys won’t step in and do something. Can believe a financial organisation is allowed to behave this way.

Credit to the phone staff who are great if you do get through. They must be dealing with some tough phone calls the last few weeks.

Long story short; if you have money in there in any country then just get it out as soon as you can. If you don’t and haven’t used them then avoid at all costs. The anxiety of having a huge sum of money stuck for weeks whilst being told via a message on the website that “we have an issue but can’t say what it is” and then no customer support is dreadful.

I hope everyone gets their money back and this lot is then closed down for good. It’s backed by a load of VC capital so hopefully regulators step in and do the right thing.

Disgusting – I have my pension transferred from the uk to Australia, they have got my pension but will not return to my uk bank , I rely on my pension to live but all I get is an email saying that they will put it back in the uk acct , has not happened, they have had my money since 23 Feb , It’s been 3 weeks now & all I get is an automated message telling me… Read more

they will put it back in the original acct , NOT happened, I am an oap and have had to borrow money to buy food

Not good to wait indefinitely if you are running a business – My money is also trapped, I got an email saying, "We do expect this pause to be short term and will notify you as soon as we are ready to start processing transactions again" I just signed up with XE money exchange. Use my code to get 25 pounds for free. "XEREF-B4MNULWT"

They are holding my funds and not responding – Do not use Currencyfair. I've been a customer of CurrencyFair for over 10 years but suddenly they are holding on to my $5000. They won't transfer as per my instructions nor return it to originating account (documentation was provided to them). They are now not answering emails or phone calls. I'm very worried I won't get my money back.

Something is not right with Currency Fair. Recommend finding another service provider! – I got sucked in based on the 10 fee free transactions for new customers. What a mistake! -They ask lots of questions when you set up the account. That's okay. Standard banking process. -Then I thought I'd try a test transfer of $50 to a family member. The transaction got stuck after I sent them the funds and they asked more "activation check… Read more

questions", most of which I had already told them as part of the set up process. They would not send the funds or return the funds to me until the questions were answered. Frustrating, but I thought okay, they've got it out of their system now. -Then I sent a slightly larger amount (less than $300) to the same beneficiary and they held up the transaction AGAIN. This time for anti money laundering requirements. Their questions were more personal this time and they required a more sensitive document for verification purposes. Funds were only released once I complied. I tried to contact them about their requirements, but they did not respond in a prompt manner.

Summary -Use at your own risk! -Whilst I understand they have anti-money laundering obligations, their requirements / checks appear overly onerous considering the small $'s involved in these transactions. -They do not tell you in advance that more information is required and as a result you can end up trapped in their system with them sitting on your money. The only way you can get out of it is to provide the additional information or probably never see your money again. -Not a good provider to use when a funds transfer is time critical. -Probably worth finding another service provider, even if it means paying a small transaction fee.

Absolutely awful - do not use this platform under any circumstance – Recently had a very bad experience using this platform. My money has disappeared into thin air. I made a transfer and the recipient never received it - online it says the transfer is still "in progress" even though it has been 3 weeks. I've emailed Currency Fair several times and tried to call them. They don't pick up the phone or respond to… Read more

emails. I think this company is now a scammer - something has happened as it was previously very good. Their social media is covered with people making similar complaints. I've complained to the Bank of Ireland and FCA. I suspect I won't be getting my money back.

They won’t release our money – My husband was transferring money to his Mum from Australia to Ireland and it’s been a month without the money being released. Very untrustworthy. Asked for no verification documents when we transferred the money but then wouldn’t release the money without verification which we have since done but they still haven’t released it. We’re contacting… Read more

them every day and get a response from a no reply email address without any useful information and you can never get through to their phone line. Very dodgy. Seems like a scammer to me. Probably gaining interest on our money. DO NOT USE!