money transfer Ireland - USA

clairefontaine

Is there a way to send money from an Irish bank account to a US bank account instantly and cheaply?

Thanks.

silja

Yes, costs me 5 euro from my Bank of Ireland account to my ARVEST account, I send the money via my banking 365 account (not instantly, but arrived within 12-24 hours).

ProudDUB

clairefontaine wrote: »

Is there a way to send money from an Irish bank account to a US bank account instantly and cheaply?

Thanks.

Instantly no. Due to international banking rules and regulations, all legitimate international banking transfers have to go thru a clearance process with the two banks that are processing the transaction. Even if you do it online (which is the fastest way to do it) this still involves a real live human being on the US side, approving the transaction. (Was told this by both my US and my Irish banks.) They will tell you this can take up to 3-5 business days, but it has never taken more than 24-48 hours for me.

Cheaply? Depends on what you call cheap. The fees will vary depending on what kind of account you have both here and in the US. My Irish bank doesn't charge me anything to transfer money internationally, but my US bank (Wells Fargo) does.

MadsL

Using Paypal at the moment.

clairefontaine

Ive usually used paypal, was looking for something instant. Ah well. Thanks everyone.

clairefontaine

ProudDUB wrote: »

Instantly no. Due to international banking rules and regulations, all legitimate international banking transfers have to go thru a clearance process with the two banks that are processing the transaction. Even if you do it online (which is the fastest way to do it) this still involves a real live human being on the US side, approving the transaction. (Was told this by both my US and my Irish banks.) They will tell you this can take up to 3-5 business days, but it has never taken more than 24-48 hours for me.

Cheaply? Depends on what you call cheap. The fees will vary depending on what kind of account you have both here and in the US. My Irish bank doesn't charge me anything to transfer money internationally, but my US bank (Wells Fargo) does.

How much does Wells Fargo charge to receive money?

conorsheehan89

Hey

This helped me a lot. My brother was struggling in America to get cash and all the money I was putting into his account was costing both me and him a bomb to transfer. So I used this card. Its called the FX card from An Post. You basically top up in a post office in ireland and it goes straight into the account and it only costs like a dollar to take out. Might be handy if you wanna scrounge money off the rents. Oh and its free so it wont cost you a sent. Hope this helps.

Also if you do you get put into a draw to win a free trip to America.

http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/GeneralTemplates/ProductsAndServicesForex.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID=%7BB8423F5F-D514-4306-8176-684BFD3C6C28%7D&NRORIGINALURL=%2Fanpost%2Fmaincontent%2Fpersonal%2Bcustomers%2Fmoney%2Bmatters%2Fforeign%2Bexchange%2F&NRCACHEHINT=Guest#PostFX

clairefontaine

I need to find a US bank that won't charge a lot of fees to receive foreign money in a wire transfer.

mikewest

Try some of the local banks or credit unions in your area. The smaller banks tend to have lower charges than the majors. Use something like http://www.findabetterbank.com/

crapmanjoe

HSBC charged 50 bucks to receive money - i (stupidly) transferred money one day after another, so i paid 100 bucks to receive money into my US account.

Head nearly exploded with rage :mad:

mikewest

Off Topic: Bank of America charging $25 to transfer money from a BOA personal account to a BOA business account is the one that does my head in. Europeans don't realize how lucky they!

ProudDUB

clairefontaine wrote: »

I need to find a US bank that won't charge a lot of fees to receive foreign money in a wire transfer.

I have found that the fees are largely dependent on what kind of account you have with the bank, and how much business you do with them. What kind of an average daily balance you maintain with them can also be a big factor in what they will charge for additional services, such as transferring money between your US and your overseas accounts.

In general, the highter the daily balance that you maintain in your account, the more freebies they will throw in such as free third party check cashing, free money orders, free wire transfers, free international bank drafts etc etc. Give them a call and ask them, as these fees can vary hugely from person to person and account to account.

SpaceTime

It's a lot more complicated than intra-EU transfers which are now 100% automated using our IBAN and BIC codes for the account.

Wire Transfers in the US are actually pretty expensive, even domestically and they're not very high tech either.

clairefontaine

I found one for anyone looking. Ally bank. Free incoming international transfers. Also free checking. Not sure about outgoing wires.

C.D.

Be careful you add you the three costs:

• Cost to send money
• Cost to recieve money
• What exchange rate you get (i.e. if market rate is 1 EUR = 1.3 USD, and you get a rate of 1.25USD)

I transfer with currencyfair.ie (a peer to peer money exchange that matches you without somebody selling USD). Takes <5 working days and I pay 0.5% - 0.6% total (incl. all fees), which is well below the 2-6% my friends have paid using banks or conventional money brokering services.

ddarcy

C.D. wrote: »

Be careful you add you the three costs:

• Cost to send money
• Cost to recieve money
• What exchange rate you get (i.e. if market rate is 1 EUR = 1.3 USD, and you get a rate of 1.25USD)

I transfer with currencyfair.ie (a peer to peer money exchange that matches you without somebody selling USD). Takes <5 working days and I pay 0.5% - 0.6% total (incl. all fees), which is well below the 2-6% my friends have paid using banks or conventional money brokering services.

You also have to factor in i doing a wire transfer that you will have an intermediary bank as well to do the transfer. When I wired money to the US I got stung with the following:

• the poor exchange rate (3 cents+ seems to be standard)
• a €15 wire fee from the Irish bank
• a $25 intermediary bank charge
• and a $25 US bank receiving charge

Banks love when you wire money and you can see why with all of the charges. I did this once and learned the errors of my ways:D

I actually use www.xe.com. They give much better exchange rates than banks (currently I could get an exchange for 1.2922 where the actual is 1.3122). It is also a transfer to an Irish bank, so whatever is charged by your bank to do that. Lastly they send it as a direct debit, so there are no charges at the US side (assuming free banking). There are no other associated charges and is done within <5 working days as well; usually sooner.

So, if I sent €500 it would roughly cost me €8 to do so. Whereas the wire would cost around €50. I would also look at the currencyfair as well as it seems fairy cheap to do things as well.

Ponster

ddarcy wrote: »

I actually use www.xe.com.

Because I don't see it mentioned much anywhere on Boards, I use www.xoom.com

Mush like XE I guess, no charges from the US side, 3 business days to transfer and cost $5 to transfer $2000.

crapmanjoe

KNow this thread is a little old but does any one have recommendations for getting 10k euro into the us (and into usd)

Money will be used shortly for an all cash purchase (not drugs before anyone guesses haha) so I don't event care about lodging it into my bank a/c over here.

Just looking for the most cost efficient and one that won't set of flags with customs / the IrS

Ponster

You can bring in up to $10,000 without needing to declare it.

iusedtoknow

Ponster wrote: »

You can bring in up to $10,000 without needing to declare it.

We had that coming into the US when we moved, we thought we'd have to pay a tax or something on it. The customs guy just looked for proof it was ours (bank statements etc) and we were on our way

MyPerfectCousin

Can you lodge an Irish euro cheque in a US account without unreasonable fees?

Need to send someone 100 euros and she doesn't have Paypal. It is not time sensitive, so if the cheque takes awhile to clear it's no big deal.

I know getting a USD bank draft is an option, just wondering about the practicality of the above.

jjbrien

Try using https://www.worldremit.com/en/home it costs about 3 euros and would be far cheaper than any fees the bank charges. My wife is amercian and thats how she sends money across to her family if she needs to.

SpaceTime

Would a US$ cheque / draft drawing on a US bank not procrss relatively cheaply?
Most Irish banks can issue this and they are effectively a US bank's cashier's cheque / draft.

Ponster

As Spacetime said just ask your bank for a 'Foreign Draft' (some banks like AIB allow you to download them and fill in at home).

SpaceTime

I remember using ones from PTSB (or AIB, can't remember which) but they were drawing on CITIBank in NYC and were basically a US cashiers check (draft) in every way.

clairefontaine

SpaceTime wrote: »

Would a US$ cheque / draft drawing on a US bank not procrss relatively cheaply?
Most Irish banks can issue this and they are effectively a US bank's cashier's cheque / draft.

I'd be really careful about this.

I did this in reverse once -US to Ireland and was sworn to blindly by the US bank that it was like a cashiers check, basically the equivalent of cash. I take it to an Irish bank and they tell me it would be 9 weeks to clear.

SpaceTime

What bank was it drawn upon though?

Usually the cheque will say it on the front.

9 weeks to clear!? Did they have to send it by steam ship or something?

clairefontaine

SpaceTime wrote: »

What bank was it drawn upon though?

Usually the cheque will say it on the front.

9 weeks to clear!? Did they have to send it by steam ship or something?

I had the check in my hand.

SpaceTime

clairefontaine wrote: »

I had the check in my hand.

But what bank was it actually drawing upon in Ireland?

The way the Irish banks issue them to US banks, they're effectively a local cheque.

If it wasn't drawing on an Irish bank, i.e. didn't look like an Irish Cheque and had some foreign bank behind it, it might take a while alright!

clairefontaine

SpaceTime wrote: »

But what bank was it actually drawing upon in Ireland?

The way the Irish banks issue them to US banks, they're effectively a local cheque.

If it wasn't drawing on an Irish bank, i.e. didn't look like an Irish Cheque and had some foreign bank behind it, it might take a while alright!

AIB iirc.

MyPerfectCousin

SpaceTime wrote: »

Would a US$ cheque / draft drawing on a US bank not procrss relatively cheaply?
Most Irish banks can issue this and they are effectively a US bank's cashier's cheque / draft.

Yes.

However, I was just wondering if anyone has experience lodging an Irish Euro cheque into a U.S. checking/savings account. A. Can it be done? and B. Were there any excessive charges or delays on the U.S.-payee side?