Question on Custom House

[redmen99 1]

My hubby, being the procrastinator that he is, has finally realized that he needs to get money into his Canadian account to pay his bills and he is looking for the cheapest way to get money up there. I found a thread on here about Custom House and know quite a few of you use the service. I went to the site and see that they are now a Western Union Company. Has their service changed any since they switched over? Do they charge any fees to transfer your money to Canada? Is it still as easy to use as it was previously? Do you still pick a rate to transfer your money? Any info would be most greatly appreciated...

Thanks!

[Flames9_RN 358]

I have used CH since 2005 with NO problems. Most of my transaction shave been under $1000, but have had a few in the big buck range,lol thats how much I trust them! I used them for the first time since being acquired by Western Union a few weeks back prior to heading back to Canada on a short visit. Still the exact same process, but i thought (maybe) the exchange rate was a tad less than what it had been in the past!!

There are NO fees if you do it Electronically (EFT), takes around 4-7 BUSINESS days for the transaction to take place. Thays from the time you initiate the exchange, until its in the desired bank account. On average for me, i would say 4 days, but that depends on both of ur banks.

Very easy to set up, it doesn take a bit of time to initially set up the account, as you have to provide them some info that requires verifying, such as ur ID and ur bank info. You can get that info to them by a few different methods 1)snail mail 2)fax or 3)scan and email it in thru their secure email! I scanned/emailed it in. For ID I believe you can use ur passport, drivers license and birth cert. Not sure, but u may have to provide 2 sources. If u can email or fax it, you can have the acct set up pretty quick, same day or next. As well they call you (at ur desired time) to verify the info! At least they did back in 2005!!

I have always found them extremely friendly, but trailmix did find 1 grumpy guy,lol I ran by their head office in Victoria BC many times when I resided there!

As wel they offer a wire service for same day $$$ transactions, but they do charge a fee AND i believe your bank MAY charge a fee as well! Good for emergency cases!

But so far so good under Western union, in short no fees if ya do it EFT.

They will walk you step by step thru the trades, its very easy! You see the exchange rate, so its not a suprise. You can almost make it a casino game as you can either 1)accept the exchange rate 2)just cancel the transaction or 3) hit the refresh button by the exchange rate and try ur luck, it may go up, down or stay the same!! Of course the rate doesn't jump a whole lot, but if ur dealing with big $$$$,it can make a difference.

I did have 1 minor problem, but it wasn't with CH, it was when I added a new bank to my account. CH had sent the bank a fax, but the bank didn't respond. So CH initiated a 3 way call between me, my bank and them, and within minutes the problem was solved, excellent service!

As well I think you can put in a rate your looking for, and if the rate ever gets that good, it will send you an email, but I have tried it that way!

[redmen99 1]

I have used CH since 2005 with NO problems. Most of my transaction shave been under $1000, but have had a few in the big buck range,lol thats how much I trust them! I used them for the first time since being acquired by Western Union a few weeks back prior to heading back to Canada on a short visit. Still the exact same process, but i thought (maybe) the exchange rate was a tad less than what it had been in the past!!

There are NO fees if you do it Electronically (EFT), takes around 4-7 BUSINESS days for the transaction to take place. Thays from the time you initiate the exchange, until its in the desired bank account. On average for me, i would say 4 days, but that depends on both of ur banks.

Very easy to set up, it doesn take a bit of time to initially set up the account, as you have to provide them some info that requires verifying, such as ur ID and ur bank info. You can get that info to them by a few different methods 1)snail mail 2)fax or 3)scan and email it in thru their secure email! I scanned/emailed it in. For ID I believe you can use ur passport, drivers license and birth cert. Not sure, but u may have to provide 2 sources. If u can email or fax it, you can have the acct set up pretty quick, same day or next. As well they call you (at ur desired time) to verify the info! At least they did back in 2005!!

I have always found them extremely friendly, but trailmix did find 1 grumpy guy,lol I ran by their head office in Victoria BC many times when I resided there!

As wel they offer a wire service for same day $$$ transactions, but they do charge a fee AND i believe your bank MAY charge a fee as well! Good for emergency cases!

But so far so good under Western union, in short no fees if ya do it EFT.

They will walk you step by step thru the trades, its very easy! You see the exchange rate, so its not a suprise. You can almost make it a casino game as you can either 1)accept the exchange rate 2)just cancel the transaction or 3) hit the refresh button by the exchange rate and try ur luck, it may go up, down or stay the same!! Of course the rate doesn't jump a whole lot, but if ur dealing with big $$$$,it can make a difference.

I did have 1 minor problem, but it wasn't with CH, it was when I added a new bank to my account. CH had sent the bank a fax, but the bank didn't respond. So CH initiated a 3 way call between me, my bank and them, and within minutes the problem was solved, excellent service!

As well I think you can put in a rate your looking for, and if the rate ever gets that good, it will send you an email, but I have tried it that way!

Wow! What a review! Thanks for your time in typing all that. It is very much appreciated. After reading that to my hubby he feels a bit better about using them.

[lgg 2]

Hi Redman99

I joined them about a week or so ago and did my first transfer! It was easy and fast and they're very good and helpful. They charge no fees save for any sort of bank exchange rate. It's not bad at all.

Go ahead and set up an account -- they are super friendly and good to do business with. Good company and yeah, Western Union bought them a few months back.

They still charge no fees.

let me know if you have any other questions, I JUST did this so it's still fresh information.

Good luck and go for it.

LGG

and yeah, I agree with Flames on anything. I've only done one transaction so far but will do more over the next while. I am just very impressed with how nice they are and how helpful this service is -- I just didn't have time or brain power to transfer my money to the US.

Edited April 18, 2010 by lgg

[Flames9_RN 358]

I even talked hockey with 1 guy last year for a bit,lol They start off giving you a "low" limit, but it can easily be increased by a simple phone call. And even if you only plan to use it once, it is still worth it--as you just never know when one needs it! And if ya do, its set up and ready to go, and its free to do so!

Few yrs back I was transferring a few thousand dollars--so I got my dad to phone bank of Montreal and another bank to see what their exchange rate was going to be, and then i logged onto CH to see their rate. CH was better! Of course that can change. Its just soo easy to do. When I head back to the Free world (canada) I Tx $$$ to my Cdn bank. When Im back in the USA,just Tx back the $$$ to my USA acct. I leave less than a $1 in Cdn acct, for tax purposes!

[puckstoper9 2]

I use Custom House to transfer money on a regular basis and have only had one issue but it was resolved quickly. When I was setting up my account they where very friendly and it was straight forward. I have been using them since 2008 and the transactions are the same as before the change to western union.

[Spoom 8]

Custom House is great. I'm waiting for a transaction to go through as we speak. Usually they take about a week if you use ACH from the US to EFT in Canada (the normal and free* method).

* They charge a two cent surcharge on the forex rate.

On another note, if you ever need to wire money (the quicker way), first examine with your bank in Canada and the US if there's a way to get the money directly there without using a third party like Custom House; most likely there is, you just need to know the SWIFT code for your bank in Canada.