OK, I did a search but can’t seem to find and up to date info: I’m looking for the most cost effective way to get my salary (NT deposited in Megabank, no other options) to a US account in USD. I don’t mind physically carrying it from MB to, say, Citi or HSBC if that’s a good option… been looking into Western Union, seems to have high fees; have heard people talking about transferring from their own local Paypal accounts to their own US Paypal accounts, I consistently have problems using Paypal from here (unless I use a VPN, then… less problems)…
Deeper and deeper the rabbit hole goes! Can anyone help out/share their experiences and ideas? Thanks!
The most cost-effective way is to use bank transfer from your bank here to your account in the US. The exchange rate for cash is significantly worse than that for bank transfers. Some fees apply regardless of amount, so try to bundle your transfers to the extent possible.
If you are more adventurous, you can also try Bitcoin transfer transactions, which might or might not save you money.
Thanks. The problem is, Mega bank, which my employer insists on using, insists on converting my NT to USD before making a transfer. So where I’m losing money is on the money conversion. If transferring money bank to bank is the cheapest way to do that, then the main question remaining seems to be what’s the cheapest way of converting NT to USD?
I get paid to my Chinatrust account, and then transfer it to my Bank of Taiwan account. I then use BOT’s horribly designed website to covert the TWD to USD. And once I’ve amassed enough USD in my BOT foreign currency account, I wire it to my Chase premier platinum account in the U.S. There’s a minimum charge for outgoing wires.
BOT seems to have better conversion rates than the other banks, with discount if you do it online instead of in person. To do this, you will need to open both TWD and foreign currency savings accounts there.
Whatever you do, make sure the money is converted to USD before sending it out of Taiwan. It costs less than 1% more than the interbank rate if you do it here.
Thanks for the link! The top is exchange rate, bottom is something called “spot exchange rate.” I’m not too up on the difference, and a quick google search only left me more confused.
Here’s the range of how you’d do on transferring NT$100,000. The spot rate is the “actual” single exchange rate at any given point in time. You can’t actually buy or sell currency for exactly this rate because the broker has to make some money.
Based on below you’re “paying” Taiwan Bank about $20, Cathay Bank around $30, and First Bank about $40 to do a NT$100,000 exchange.