Bank Fees for international SWIFT transfers

Thank you. Time to go back to work -_-.

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You don’t have to apply. You need to have 3M for at least 1 -3 month, can’t remember which. Then they will automatically send you a vip welcome package.

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Wanted to send $4800 USD worth of TWD to the US.

HUA NAN transfer fee was $700 TWD. This fee depends on the amount you send, it’s a percentage.

I had to convert the TWD to USD too:

$30.08 - HUA NAN sell USD rate

$30.04 - Google rate

Difference = 0.04 TWD

0.04 TWD x 4800 USD = 192 TWD. So I lost 192 on the TWD/USD conversion. Not bad.

In total the cost to convert $144,384 TWD to USD and then send it on to the US was 892 TWD, or 0.61%.

On the US side there may also be fees. We will see. Last time I sent to the UK there was not. Hua Nan also told me that $4800 is what the recipient will receive and all fees are paid on my end.

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Just got off the phone w/ Cathay bank and she told me if you are VIP and you want even better conversion rate, then you’ll need to speak to your local dedicated VIP representative to see if you are qualified to get even better exchange rate. She did not give me a minimum requirement and told me to ask dedicated representative if you are a VIP account holder. Currently they do have discounted conversion rate for USD & Japan currency but VIP rep can give you even better exchange rate.

Hope this helps someone.

Here is the link for Cathay vip. It’s 3M, 10M, 3000M for their 3 tiers.
Prestige Banking - Wealth Management - Cathay Pacific Bank (cathaybk.com.tw)

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I like how in Canada, $100k cad gets you the vip account whereas in Taiwan they don’t even really want to talk to you unless you have min $10M TWD lol. And then the ‘benefits’ aren’t all that amazing for that amount of cash held.

There is a lot of business owner cash floating around that the bank doesn’t really want to deal with the plebs $10k twd account.

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I agree. I just read all the perks. It’s just like an increased amount of the base vip. On top of that Taiwan law only protects upto 3mil per bank. Doesn’t seem that vip.

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Wow this is mad. About 5 hours after I made the transfer at Hua Nan, InteractiveBrokers who I sent the money to have received the money.

They only received $4780 though, so another $20 was taken off somewhere on the way to to America. So in the end I ended up losing 1.03% for the whole transaction. Not great, not terrible.

Oops we forgot to tell you. Fees are taken by both sides

Was sorta expecting it. Although didn’t get taken on both sides when I transferred to the UK a few months ago

Did you wire from a checking’s account or saving’s account? Checking’s account shouldn’t cost anything to transfer if it’s a decent bank.

I’ve done the opposite transaction: send USD to a Huanan bank. It seems they take a flat $7 out of the transaction on their side no matter how much/how little I send.

Sending from a Hua Nan checking account to InteractiveBrokers. There was a fee on the Hua Nan side which I knew about up front, then somewhere on the journey another $20 US was taken. Receiving bank for InteractiveBrokers in the US is Citi.

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Rates are going to depend on if you’re exchanging cash, if you have an account with them and are exchanging money from you account, and then there was one other rate but I don’t remember.

The thing is that even if they give you a good rate, they’ll screw you a transfer fee.

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Just found out their basic VIP (3M NTD) allows 3 SWIFT transactions free per month. You’ll still have to pay for receiving and middle banking SWIFT fees, however.

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Chunghwa Post Bank has a promotion for international remittance:

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https://www.post.gov.tw/post/FileCenter/post_ww2/ad/ad_linkpage/11207remit.html