posted on August 24, 2001 05:32:00 AM
I am going to need to do regular wire transfers into a New Zealand bank account and my bank charges $30 to do an international wire. That is too much. Do any of you have a cheaper way to do it? Do any of the internet banks offer it cheap?
posted on August 24, 2001 08:03:19 AM
gravid: $30 isn't too much. Our bank charges even more. In our RL business we make several international wire transfers a month. One bank we use charges $35...that is the best we can get. You'll just have to factor that cost into the business transaction. Only the banks come out on the winning side!
posted on August 24, 2001 08:23:53 AM
Yes, that's right, $30 is standard. There might be a cheaper way, but it depends on the recipient... here's what you can try -
Some foreign firms have agreements with U.S. banks. (there's a term for this, but I forget what it is... recipocral bank?) If the party you're trying to wire money to has such an agreement, you can wire the money to the U.S. bank they deal with instead (domestic wires are cheaper, about $15). Then, their U.S. bank transfers the money to the foreign recipient.
So, you can ask your foreign recipient if they have a U.S. bank they do this with. However, before you go down that road, a word of warning... I did this once and it was a huge headache. I spent over 2 weeks trying to track down money I was trying to send to India, through the U.S. bank, American Express. It took my bank 2 weeks to confirm that it had gotten to AmEx's New York office, and from there, my bank tried to wash their hands of it, to the point where the manager of the bank was telling me - "If it's gone, it's gone!" No, it's a wire transfer, with a paper trail, it's not gone... someone has a record of it somewhere, but the more switches you have to make in the banking system, the more complicated it gets. I still get mad thinking about that little debacle.
posted on August 24, 2001 09:45:09 AM
My vision must be blurry this morning... I read the subject line as "International Wife Transfers" and opened it up expecting different subject matter.
Bring me my spectacles, Henry, old age is a'comin'!
gravid:
Are you using wire transfers for the time element? Is Global Priority available?
Other expenses involved in International Transfers can be for currency exchange and a wire receiving fee in the New Zealand account.
Most banks have lower fees for Business Accounts rather than personal acccounts.
Primarily, on-line banking is limited to Domestic Wire transfers ~ I haven't found an institution that I would trust yet.
Depending on the dollar amount, the banks may also require Due Diligence on the funds ~ further delaying the transfer.
IME, wire transfers are incredibly hard to trace. An over/short is not easily balanced to remedy the "missing" wire ~ too many institutions out there.
Can you explain why you are sending these funds, how often, in what amounts? Perhaps there are other options...
only ZOOMIN here
posted on August 24, 2001 04:57:14 PM
I am selling items for a gent from new Zealand but he is seldom home to recieve a payment and deposit it to his bank. He gave me his account info so I could just wire it into his account as I sold things, but that seemed excessive to me being unused to doing that sort of transaction. He is off traveling about Europe and hard to get in touch with at all much less for banking.
I guess $30 is not so bad then. I will bite the bullet and do it if no cheaper way turns up.
posted on August 24, 2001 07:16:36 PM
gravid: Since it's $30 a transfer regardless of the amount to be transferred, maybe do it only once a month or every other month. Or, when you have reached a certain dollar amount that makes it worth while to do the transfer. This is probably obvious to you, but just to make sure the NZ gent knows you aren't going to wire money everytime something sells.
