First question, how long are your studies in UK?

Is it a short-term exchange e..g 3 months?
Or 1 year (final year)?

Or full 3 years?

If it's longer than 6 months, it's better to open an account in UK.

As you can't open Transferwise account in Malaysia anymore, this would be my suggestion:

Keep your RM in regular savings accounts/FD/ money market fund like Versa for now.
Then once you get to UK, apply for a Transferwise account, and use it to transfer money from RM to Transferwise.

You should be able to use Transferwise (get a debit card too) without problems in UK, or you can also apply for a branch-bank account like Llyod's etc.

Alternatively, you can try getting a debit Visa/Mastercard like Big, I heard their exchange rates are pretty competitive. So just use this card to pay for stuff in UK.

By bank transfer, I hope you don't mean wire transfer from Malaysian bank to foreign bank. I had to do it a long time ago, and there are additional fees on top of the bank's unfavourable exchange rate.

This post has been edited by jonoave: Aug 24 2021, 09:26 PM

Well, I don't use Big for foreign purchase yet, but that's what I heard from those who do. if you're not impressed by that, then you will probably be disappointed if you use regular banks exchanges.


Honestly, unless there is wild swings between the forex rate, there is little need for you to worry too much about this. 5.9 and 5.8 isn't that much of a difference. How would you react if you exchange now, and then by October the rate dropped to 5.6?

The only plausible solution, which I don't recommend is to just go to a money changer and change now. Well maybe you can also see their rates and whether they're better than Big's. Hoard the cash, and bring them with you over to UK, I think the limit is less than RM10,000 equivalent or you'll need to declare them. Then once you arrive, deposit your cash in your newly-opened UK account.