Exchange houses hike fee for international money transfers

Fee increase comes after 20 years; customers must pay five riyals extra per transaction

NT Bureau

DOHA: Exchange houses in Qatar have increased fees for international money transfers by five riyals per transaction for various countries worldwide, sources told News Trail.

The increase marks the first time exchange houses have hiked their fee almost 20 years and is purportedly aimed at addressing mounting operational costs while ensuring the delivery of quality services to customers, the sources said.

“Exchange houses didn’t increase the fees for such a long period due to competition and other factors. But now we have been forced to go for a hike due to rising costs and diminishing margins,” an official at an exchange house in Doha said, requesting anonymity. “Almost all the customers accepted the fee hike without any objections,” he said.

While the transfer fee is not uniform and differs for various countries, the hike has been uniform, which is five riyals for all the counties. The current transaction fee to India is now 20 riyals which was previously 15 riyals.

Meanwhile, a report in Al Sharq said a number of customers said the increase was high. “Such an increase will affect the customers, especially since the customer pays this fee for every transaction, and in some countries, the local exchange or bank there charges another commission on the transferred amount, which increases the amounts collected as fees on transfers,” the report said, quoting customers.