Money

[catbalogan]

Hello.  Can anybody suggest a bank operating internationally where it will be easy to send funds from, say, the Philippines, to the United States?  Do any American bank do this type of service?  I've heard of exorbitant fees with correspondent banks so I want to know.  For expats, which is your bank of choice to move funds from one country to the

Comments

[dichroic]

I cannot vouch for this personally.

But I was just reading discussion on this on an expats group on Ravery (of all places) and several people seemed to be very happy with the transfer service from xe.com, which transfers money between your existing accounts.

[catbalogan]

thanks!

[catbalogan]

Thanks. Credit Unions are really cheap but I was warned that they do not have access to international money wire, so that theyw ould ask the bigger banks to do it for them which tehrefore increases the end price to me, the consumer....***arghhh* I'm starting to get really frustrated......... anyway, on another matter---why on earth would you go to manila for a job? what kind of job? my curiosity is exploding now...

[kamamamama]

I have a credit union and transferred money recently to another credit union in Germany. I used www.ozforex.com as a go between and was very happy with them. They charged a flat $10 fee on an almost $2000 transfer. My credit union charged $15 for their part of the wire.

[catbalogan]

Not bad. The price is very affordable!

[gyre]

I don't know about the Philippines in particular but I had good luck with Citi Bank in both Europe and Asia.

[catbalogan]

DId you have to open a bank account in both Asia and/or Europe? Or did you just have an online bank account with Citi in the US?

[gyre]

For short term, it was fine having just the account in the US and withdrawing money overseas. When I was in England for 15 months and being paid in GBP (but still had expenses in the US), I ended up with a Citibank account in GBP, a USD account in England, and an account in the US.

[catbalogan]

My main concern is wiring funds more than 10 grand. I udnerstand that if it is more than that amount you have to declare it....How did you do yours?

Re: a vote for citibank

[catbalogan]

wow.... 25 is not bad at all....thanks for the tip...by the way, you should consolidate your student loans with nelnet. they're the cheapest....

Re: a vote for citibank

[catbalogan]

oh! You're a history student too! Is it ok if I add you? It's so rare to find history ex-pats writing on lj these days. I hope you'd be alright if I add you to my friends list?

[solituddegitana]

HSBC is an option too, although hard to come by if you are outside of the major US cities.

[catbalogan]

Thank you! I feel the pain. I'm in Jacksonville. I don't beleive that HSBC would have a branch here. and Citi's branches in Florida are towards Miami and Tampa....arghh.