“I transfer money overseas regularly, as an ex-pat, and always use the service offering the best exchange rate. On this occassion, it was a small amount of cash I was sending and Azimo offered the best rate, even taking into account their £12 transaction fee.
When the money arrived with the recipient, the $390nz transfer amount had become only $360nz. I expect the receiving bank to take a small fee but in my experience this has never been more than 1.5%. A fee of 7.7% (on top of the £12 already paid) is ridiculous and unheard of. On checking with the recipient, their bank confirmed that no charges had been applied upon receiving the funds so must have been applied by the sending company.
Assuming this must be a mistake I contacted Azimo who very rudely and abruptly told me that this was the fee of intermediary banks which they have no control over and, essentially, told me to go away and stop complaining.
In my opinion, Azimo are a cowboy outfit with astronomical hidden charges. Their claim that the fee of intemediary banks is outside of their control is a lie as having used upwards of 10 different forex companies I have never been charged anything beyond a small commission from the receiving bank.
I advise you avoid Azimo entirely.
Edit”
“Worst of transfer bunch. Avoid if you can.Use HiFx instead. Lots of excuses and red tape. Money will reach faster if you posted it . 10 days still under review. What a joke. Worst thing is they have my money in their account earning them interest and when you ask you cancel transaction , they say money will be returned to you in 7-10 days . This company is a joke. Dave Rao”
“I have been expecting a large transfer at my US bank for days. My business associate in Holland tried Azimo at my suggestion. The funds were transferred to Azimo from his account on Oct. 27. Here it is Nov 4 and I still have not yet received the money. THAT'S 7 BUSINESS DAYS! A man in a rowboat could have delivered the money faster. Lousy customer service, rude, and difficult to get anyone to talk to. They advertise time frames like "Direct to Bank Account - NEXT DAY" and via "SWIFT - 24 HOURS". What a load of BULLS#*T!!
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, SEND YOUR MONEY WITH SOMEONE YOU CAN TRUST!!”
“Stay Away! Not a honest company! I
I had scheduled a transfer on a Friday and of course I understand the banks take time to move the money, but when I get an e-mail on the follow Tuesday stating they cannot honor the transfer since the rates have fallen in my favor then something is very wrong. I never received a credit when the rates were in Azimo's favor. So needless to say I would recommend going with other companies that stand behind their product and don’t blame the customer when I was simply upset that the e-mail stated clearly to send the money to them within 3 days. Not send it as longs as the rates are in Azimo's favor.
Stay away!!!”
