I'm honestly happy with Transferwise.com. You can get a free transfer with an invitation link, here's mine: https://transferwise.com/u/5d78
Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?
31–40 of 78 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?
#32I use India specific services which are ICICIDirect and XOOM.
Re: Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?
#33I've used TransferWise ( https://transferwise.com ) several times to move money from SEK to USD, but it seems they don't support CAD yet. Super easy to get started, and very low fees.
I just tried this yesterday, but ran into a wall: To transfer USD to GBP, you need to get your bank to initiate an international wire transfer.
If I could remotely trigger a large international wire transfer from my bank, I wouldn't need a 3rd party service.
Living abroad, requests to transfer money are usually met with "just step into a branch and we'll take care of that". But my nearest branch is 2,000 miles away and I'm not planning to step anywhere near there in the next year or so.
The best I've gotten is "then just overnight us a notarized letter", which works, except for the part where Notaries are mostly a US invention so the few existing overseas ones will happily charge you $150 to put their stamp on the document. ... which the bank will then find some tiny flaw with (when the FedEx package trickles through their mailroom a week later) that can be corrected by simply overnighting a new notarized letter.
It's infuriating.
Re: Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?
#34You live in Canada and get paid in USD? Just deposit the check in your bank. It take a while to clear (up to 30 days), but the big Canadian banks give pretty good exchange rates since they exchange a lot of USD -> CAD.
" but the big Canadian banks give pretty good exchange rates " Not this sadly.
They really don't (unless you compare them to PayPal, I guess). They take 2-3% of commission to convert your funds, which would mean that they charge you $200-$300 for currency exchange on a $10,000 payment.
If you want to convert your funds at a "Big" Canadian bank, please do so at Tangerine, which has the best rate I found (they take 1.45%) - otherwise, there are plenty of other suggestions in this thread that could help. The best rate will most certainly be with Interactive Brokers (max(0.01%, $2.50)), but the account set up is a bit tedious and they have a few restrictions.
Re: Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?
#35Bitcoin. When that is not an option, I use a bank that has zero foreign transaction fees, and refunded ATM fees. First Republic Bank's ATM refund account, in my case.
BTC seems a bit volatile as a vehicle for transferring between currencies. I personally would want something much more stable if I were transferring any significant amount. If it was just on the order of holiday cash -- and it was convenient to find buyers and sellers -- then maybe, but it seems a lot of trouble to go to!
Re: Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?
#36How are you currently depositing the US cheques? Both TD[1] and RBC[2] offer cross-border banking accounts, meaning that you can open a TD/RBC account in Canada and a TD/RBC account in the US and link them together, which should allow you to transfer funds between them at an optimum rate. You should be able to deposit US cheques with their smartphone apps. The issue with this approach is that you will have to maintai…
I use RBC US (RBC Georgia) + XE Trade. Results in 1-2% more money. As long as you can wait 3 weeks to receive it, it's a good option. Transfers are free.
I recommend XE as well. You can transfer using EFT, which saves you money in wire transfer fees a bank would normally charge you. You'll also get the best exchange rates from them.
Re: Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?
#37I have used ozforex.com.au for business; they have a consumer-oriented branch http://www.tranzfers.com/
A friend of mine used ozforex.au while he was living in France, working for an American company, and wanted income to show up in his Australian bank account. He said it was quite painless.
Re: Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?
#38I'm honestly happy with Transferwise.com. You can get a free transfer with an invitation link, here's mine: https://transferwise.com/u/5d78
I'm living in the UK and am paid in USD in the US. My wife and I investigated a bunch of options on how to bring the money to the UK as cheaply as possible and this was the best one we've found so far.
Re: Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?
#39If you are converting large amounts and you are comfortable with purchasing and selling stocks online then a viable option is to use Norbert's gambit. This involves buying stock in companies traded on both Canadian and US exchanges, such as TD. You buy on one exchange (in your case on a US exchange), journal over to the other exchange, and then sell on other exchange. With the right online broker, journaling is autom…
Why not just use a forex broker instead? Better rates, lower spreads, and higher liquidity. I would personally recommend Interactive Brokers.
Re: Ask HN: How do you transfer money internationally?
#40I've been using Xoom for money transfer to India. For amounts larger than 1000$, there is no fee.