A good transfer service should be relatively cheap to do, fast, secure and most importantly - a good exchange rate. Today I decided to browse the internet looking for a service like this. I started with the most common service - Western Union. Western Union is the most known system but the transfer is so expensive. To transfer ?500 to Poland would cost ?37 which is crazy, and the exchange rate would be 4.03 PLN to GBP.

I also found another service called Money Gram. Money Gram offered the ability to send your money for ?9.99 but then the exchange rate was pretty low - 3.97PLN to GBP. The difference between the 2 services is some 30PLN on the ?500.

Lastly I came across Now Transfer which offered a similar solution to transfer money to Poland. Now Transfer offed the service for ?10, and the rate was much better at 4.04, getting 2,020 PLN for the same ?500. As you can see there is a significant difference in the amount received. I called Now Transfer and they stated: "Money sent through Now Transfer will reach the beneficiary account within 24 hours (working day), there is no hidden or extra costs involved either on sender or beneficiary side and a fee is always ?10 regardless of amount, we are the most cost efficient money transfer business."

I also came across quite a few Polish forums suggesting to try Pre-Pay visa cards. I looked in to this scenario. It would cost you ?2.50 to load the card, then ?2.50 each time you made a withdrawl. This could work out worse than the money transfers. I then took a look at the exchange rates and well, these had a lot to be desired. The pre-pay companies made money in all angles of this transaction offering a measely 3.90PLN to GBP...

The solution is simple, use a service like Now Transfer to send your money home and you will get more PLN for your GBP and a fast secure service.