For those of you heading to SRS (or any surgery, for that matter) in a country outside your own, I would like to offer a recommendation for transferring your money to the surgeon, especially if you are sending it as a foreign currency. I live in the US, so some of these services and recommendations might not be applicable to you if you live elsewhere.
If you need to exchange foreign currency, do not use your bank. They will give you a lousy rate on the exchange. All this lube I'm buying for post-SRS? Let's just say that it is not meant for getting screwed by bank exchange rates.
What you want to use in lieu of a bank is a forex (foreign exchange) service. I have two in particular that I have used and would highly recommend. They are Currency Fair (http://currencyfair.com) and OzForex (http://ozforex.com.au). These companies have bank accounts in several countries, and the basic idea is that you make a domestic transfer to their account in your country in your home currency, you place an order to exchange currency, and then they make a domestic transfer to your recipient using funds from their account in that country. Using this system, you avoid fees of a foreign exchange (versus a domestic exchange) and intermediary banks, and they are able to give you a much rate for that. By using them, I paid about $450.00 less than I would have using my bank (for reference, the total amount exchanged was $16750).
Currency Fair seems to have better rates (by about $100) than OzForex, but OzForex allows you to secure and hold a rate before you transfer your money to them. With Currency Fair you have to deposit your money before you can place an order for an exchange, so you have to watch the market rate and make your deposit based on that. That's not as scary as it sounds; I tracked in a spreadsheet the USD to CAD rate twice a day over 2 weeks and made a decision based on that.
With OzForex, their fee per exchange is usually $5-10 USD depending on the currency you transfer (and the fee would be in the currency you pay in), but over certain thresholds, there is no fee. Currency fair has a flat fee for outgoing transfers (in my case it was $4 CAD), and the fee is about on par with OzForex. OzForex also offers a larger selection of currencies which are absent from Currency Fair (such as Thai Baht, which might be important for some of us).
If you decide to use one of their services, be aware that it may take a couple of days to set up your account and that you need to provide identifying information (social security number, passport/other identification, bank information), but once you are set up, there isn't much else to worry about.
Both of these services are backed and insured, so it's not as if you are sending your money off to some shady figure of questionable nature. I used OzForex to transfer money to the US when I lived in Japan and Currency Fair to transfer money from the US to Canada, and it's easy to search Google for positive reviews of both companies.
thx for useful info.
barbie~~
XE.com is another one that works on a similar basis with bank accounts in each country, I have not been charged a fee for using their service, quite easy to set up, even for a large amount (my first transaction was for a rather expensive car!) and another one where you book the rate and then send in the money.