OFX Review (Best for you?) - 7 Must Knows Before Sign Up (2024)

• Quinn Askeland
• June 20, 2024

7 Must Knows

Simply using your bank to transfer money might seem like the easiest option.

The problem I found is banks are usually expensive – often extremely expensive with hidden fees that can go unnoticed.

Fortunately, OFX is an excellent option, although it’s not always the best.

Although I have personally used OFX for over 10 years, I will share when it works and when other services could be better for you.

What’s Best for YOU Now?

Before I get into the juicy details for OFX, let’s check out the Pros and Cons!

OFX is a leading money transfer company with offices globally including Australia, UK, USA, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Canada. It is mostly focused on customers transacting online and has a strong phone-based support network globally which can be very helpful.

Upon signing up (see current market rate), you can see exactly what I am getting for an exchange rate.

OFX may charge a fee of $15 below $10,000, however, you can avoid these fees forever.

Most review sites are pretty positive when it comes to reviews, but not all.

On Trustpilot OFX has a rating of 4.3/5 from over 6,500 reviews in 2024. 78% of these are considered excellent (5 stars), with another 8% considering OFX as great (4 stars).

But what about those negative reviews?

The key is to go deeper into what the reviews are really telling us – these can be found in the negative ones – the one and two stars.

Why not just read them?

I tried that.

If you are anything like me, reading hundreds of reviews is pretty unhelpful and honestly a waste of time (unless you categorise them).

This is because different individuals, currencies, countries, amounts and banks all make for very different experiences.

There is however a lot of great information to be gained when you put the issues into categories, and see the bigger picture.

First, I must point out that I only focused on the one and two-star reviews. I did this because I wanted the most recent information and enough data to learn something meaningful.

Interestingly OFX actively solicits reviews for Trustpilot after you complete your first transaction. This seems to be an automated process which does not discriminate if the review will likely be positive or negative.

These one and two-star reviews make up 9%.

After categorizing all the one and two-star reviews we found 3 main categories:

• Lost/Delayed Funds
• Getting Signed Up
• Better Rates/ Fees

1.1 Lost/Delayed Funds

Almost all these complaints (some even claiming OFX is a scam) are related to the time it takes money to arrive. As I discussed below in “How Fast? (below)“, the time it takes OFX to get the money to you is a 3-step process. This is the case with all companies like OFX and in most cases, this is simply miscommunication.

Some very isolated transactions go on longer than 6 days and in these cases, it appears that the incorrect bank details or some other problem with the receiving bank. In all cases, OFX looks to be actively working to sort out the issue, even if it is no fault of their own. In the cases where money seemed to go missing for longer, it does seem like the person gets the money back.

1.2 Getting Signed Up

Almost all these bad reviews come from people who have difficulty signing up with OFX and meeting the requirements to sign up. This is frustrating no doubt for those who have trouble, but as we discuss below in “Safety”, OFX is highly regulated and for those that have no problems this is a good thing.

1.3 Better Rates/ Fees

A handful complain about getting better rates elsewhere or being hit with hidden fees. Most of these are related to banks charging “Hidden Fees” (explained below). Generally OFX is hard to beat when it comes to keeping these bank fees low or zero. One reviewer also mentioned the $15 fee which you can get removed by simply clicking the link above or below before you sign up!

Companies like OFX charge you fees in two ways – Fixed Fees + The Exchange Rate they offer.

In addition to this, there are Hidden Fees that no one else seems to talk about, but I will be!

Many money transfer companies have fixed fees so that they can cover costs, especially for smaller transactions.

Others have no fixed fees, but they limit the size of the transactions or simply make more money on the exchange rate.

OFX may charge a small fee of $15, however, if youclick hereyou can avoid the fees altogether.

Banks and large financial institutions (like OFX) give you an exchange rate that is different to the exchange rate they use when they swap money with each other.

This difference in exchange rates is by far the biggest contributor to your costs and their bottom line.

Money transfer companies often proclaim “No Fees” or “Fee Free” but they never give you the so-called interbank rate they get or they would not be in business.

Fortunately, with OFX you can work out the difference (after you sign up) and the rates they offer are very competitive, especially as the amounts you transfer increase. For smaller amounts, OFX is still very competitive compared to a bank or other similar services but there are possibly better alternatives if paying the least fees is your main concern. See: (When They Don’t Work below)

Here is How they Compare

To work out the fees they charge.

Look up the interbank rate for your currencies at a particular point in time and compare it with the exchange rate offered.

You can do this after you have signed up, but after many years of using them, I have noticed their fees have remained pretty steady for major currencies.

One of the biggest costs associated with money transfers is not talked about!

These are the fees banks charge you at each end.

You might think, “But that has nothing to do with OFX”.

This might be the best bit.

One of the most important things companies like OFX can do is have local bank accounts in as many countries as possible. This enables very cheap and often no fees to be charged by banks that have to be used at both ends.

For example, if OFX only had bank accounts in the UK and you wanted to transfer money from Canada to Australia your bank would charge you a fee to get the money to OFX and the receiving bank would also levy a fee to accept funds from the overseas bank.

Fortunately, OFX has one of the most comprehensive networks of local bank accounts in the business.

At the time of writing OFX claims a “global network of 115 bank accounts” which is very impressive and a testimony to their focus on driving fees down

OFX has faced some stiff competition over recent years and for some people, the alternatives may be better.

The biggest competition has come from companies like Wise(formerly TransferWise). Check out my full Wise Review. When it comes to smaller amounts the fee structure and transparency are hard to beat. Moving smaller amounts, less than$7000 USD/£4000 GBP/€4500 EU/$9500 CAD/$9500 AUD) will most likely be slightly cheaper. That said, you certainly can use OFX for smaller transfers and if you use one of the links on this page they will remove the $15 fee if applicable.

The killer app for Wise: Their upfront transparency on fees when you use the Wise calculatorthey show you exactly how much will arrive and the fees – no B.S.

Beyond these amounts and difference in the costs narrows.

TorFX (review)is also a very worthy competitor who is more telephone oriented with offices in Australia and the UK. If you really like the idea of getting personal assistance at each step, TorFX is possibly a better choice for larger amounts (including OFX). To emphasise this point, they score a ridiculously high 4.9/5 on Trustpilot.

You might also like to learn more about banks, remittance companies and money transfer companies.

Because OFX was designed to transfer larger amounts right from the outset all the necessary ID checks are done when you set up the account. This means there are no surprises when larger amounts are transferred and anti-money laundering laws kick in.

So while the service designed for smaller amounts tends to make it a little easier to sign-up they also have a tendency to ask for more ID and other proof as the amounts increase. This can cause issues like frozen accounts, making OFX a much better choice in our opinion.

Some people would prefer to be able to do everything online. As it turns out when you are dealing with different banks and different regulations (depending on your country of residency usually) it can be really helpful to have telephone support. The reason is if there are any problems with signing up or you simply need help understanding how a bank works being able to speak to someone 24/7 (who is knowledgeable and helpful) is a huge advantage.

Not to say all other money transfer services don’t have telephone support – they do, the difference is that OFX has “dealers” in Australia (Asia), Canada (North America) and the UK (Europe) which operate 24/7 and also ensures they are very knowledgeable in their regions for the different banks who all have different rules and ways of working.

4.1 Sign Up

Initial sign-up is very straightforward.

1. Sign up for an account! (Use this link to avoid a possible $15 fixed fee).

At the outset, you will be asked if you are operating a business or if you are an individual.

Registration then takes less than five minutes if you have all your information at hand, then you’ll be on your way to verifying your identity.

4.2 Verify ID

OFX uses the latest systems to check your identity online this can mean that automated checks help you to sail through.

Generally, it is as simple as providing some photographed documents and uploading them.

You may also get a call from someone at OFX which can be really helpful in answering any questions you have.

4.3 Moving Money

Once everything is set up, you can log in online and “Get a Quote” and “Lock In” the deal after checking your bank details.

From here you can head over to the “Notifications” tab so that you can see when “OFX funds are paid out to your recipients”. Email is automatic, but you may also like to choose SMS as an option.

4.4 Tracking

Once signed up online, get the latest version of the App enables transactions on the go and has a very simple and user-friendly design for IOS and Android.

Having been around for over a decade and transacted over $84 Billion, I feel quite confident in their ability to move my money safely.
Like a bank, they also have to maintain a bunch of licenses but in addition to this, they are also regulated in numerous countries including Australia, the UK, NZ (registered), Canada, and the USA. Part of this is safeguarding your money should something happen.

OFX is also obligated to comply with the international anti-money laundering laws of these countries.

5.1 OFX Security

OFX claims to have very strong security including:

• Passwords, security questions and automatic time-outs are used.
• A fraud system that checks registrations, logins and transactions using a multi-layered approach to detect and prevent fraud.
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption.

In practice this is 3 to 6 working days end to end.

There are really three steps to the whole process

1. Time to receive funds from sending bank
2. The time it takes OFX to process
3. Time to send funds to the receiving bank

When it comes to money transfers, the time it takes the banks at either end makes up most of the time it takes to transfer your money.

No one money transfer company is the best for everyone’s needs.

For smaller amounts (below about $7000 USD), if you are happy to do everything online and want to get every last cent to your destination see our alternatives (“When they don’t work”) above.

For larger amounts, OFX is hard to beat because of its cost structure, a mix of telephone support, online services, international reach and knowledge.

Finally, if you do want to send the occasional smaller amount, OFX may charge a fee of $15 below $10,000, and you can avoid these fees forever here.