from Hacker News

CurrencyFair: A P2P platform for currency exchange

by pioul on 10/22/13, 9:56 AM with 25 comments

  • by danielhunt on 10/22/13, 10:27 AM

    Hey there - I'm on the tech team in CurrencyFair.

    We've been around for a few years now, but weren't expecting to see our name pop up on HN just yet. Of course, now that it's here, if anyone has any questions about what we do, feel free to ask and I'll get back to you asap.

    If you're looking for a direct link, it's at the bottom of the OP, or: https://www.currencyfair.com

  • by jasonkolb on 10/22/13, 1:05 PM

    If you guys can somehow enable transferring between bitcoin and regular fiat that would be a game changer. Right now that's a laborious process and the closest thing to it is buying BTC in person. But this system with BTC as an option on one side of the transaction would be a wonderful way to get into and out of BTC-land.

  • by stickydink on 10/22/13, 1:39 PM

    I've been using CurrencyFair for about a year now, after stumbling upon it. Beforehand, I just sent a wire straight from Chase in the US to my bank in the UK (Oh, dear).

    It's been absolutely fantastic. I was a little hesitant at first, sending smaller amounts through at a time. But now I'm regularly transferring 5 figure sums without a worry in the world.

    The rate you end up with is way better than what you get straight from the bank. And if there's no rush, I just set an order up at a rate I fancy, and wait for the market rates to wobble a bit, and someone fulfills it.

    Because of the way it works, your money isn't actually the money coming out of the other end (it never is, I guess, it's all electronic) -- it means that I can deposit $X from my bank in the US, and have that appear as £Y in my bank in the UK, on the same/next day!

    I haven't personally had any need to contact them, but I've read their customer support is good, too.

  • by munimkazia on 10/22/13, 10:58 AM

    I was initially disappointed that India didn't feature in the list of countries/currencies, and then I realized that something like this would be shut down here by RBI/IT Dept in a heartbeat.

  • by NatW on 10/22/13, 11:35 AM

    I've actually used Currency Fair to exchange between dollars and euros (and I'm completely un-associated with the company or anyone there). My experience was positive - it was actually fun, with a bit of drama to see if someone would take my offers. It took a bit of time to set up my transfers, etc, but it was significantly cheaper than I would have paid using a regular retail bank's foreign exchange offerings. Nice work!

  • by rb2k_ on 10/22/13, 11:05 AM

    I've used this a few times to transfer money from Germany to the US. Worked fine. Only downside: US Banks seem to still recognise it as an international wire transfer and deduct the matching fees (10$ in my case).

    But the exchange rate is better than what I'd usually get at my bank and the transfer from Germany to Ireland is free too.

  • by oscargrouch on 10/22/13, 1:55 PM

    Is there a way that banks could use the system(as a peer, maybe an invented user) and cross the information with deposits in its own accounts, so they can know when a customer used this scheme?

    i mean, the moment this get more traction and the banks figure this out, the party is over and people get the international fees in their bills

  • by nly on 10/22/13, 2:38 PM

    Can the rates really be that much better than any other online FX payment service?

    2% all-in seems to be the going rate for the ones I've used. Since both sides on an exchange are looking for the market price, that only gives you 1% of potential improvement assuming the market is sufficiently liquid and efficient.

  • by jnsaff2 on 10/22/13, 3:18 PM

    Transferwise.com does the same, even have nice ads in London. https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/55865...

  • by shocks on 10/22/13, 12:54 PM

    This is a brilliant idea. I always resented changing money, it never crossed my mind that a P2P platform like this could solve the problem so nicely. A perfect example of a problem staring you in the face…