Sending money overseas online

I’m not sure if anyone else has done this before; I had heard faint rumors that it was possible, but had just assumed that it was another malicious lie spread by Taiwanese banking authorities in an attempt to give me an aneurysm.

But no, I checked my bank account at home today and I have successfully sent money home online via a Taiwanese bank.

Fubon is place. You’ll need an account name, number, bank name and branch address and the bank’s Swift code.

ID was another issue. They initially said that this function would only work as long my ARC was valid (but a few more months) but I whined and complained and they decided that my passport was also fine and that I could do send money as long as that was valid.

It took a few days to set up, and their website is only in Chinese at the moment, but they made noises about putting an English version up sometime in the future.

I had also tried ChinaTrust (shot down straight away) and First Bank (days of forms, stamps, signings, suggestions, more forms, more stamps before getting shot down), apparently HSBC can do something for you too, but you’ll need a cool couple of million wallowing aimlessly in your account before they’ll get the papers.

How much did the Taiwan bank charge for the service charge and how much did the foreign bank deduct?

A few years ago, I wired US$1000 to my father. The bank here in Taiwan charged me only NT$400, so I thought I got a good deal, but then the next morning, I got an e-mail from my father that said that he only got $960! Then my father called his bank to ask what happened to the other $40, and he found out that when the money got transferred from Taiwan to the U.S., it went through Citibank in New York, and Citibank deducted $40 for the service charge! I was shocked because the bank in Taiwan never told me that the bank in the U.S. would deduct a service charge! Also, before I sent the money, my father asked his bank if they would charge a fee to receive a wire transfer, and they told him they wouldn’t charge any fee at all! But they didn’t tell him that Citibank in New York would deduct $40!

So I lost a total of NT$400 + US$40 = US$52, which is more than 5% of the $1000 that I sent! I could have just bought an international postal money order, which would have been a lot cheaper. Or I could have just mailed traveler’s checks to my father, which would have been the cheapest way to go.

But ever since then, I’ve been curious about how much the service charges would be if I wired more money. I mean, for example, if I wired US$10,000 and only had to pay US$52 for service charges, then it would be a great deal! So someone please tell me if they know how much the service charges are for transferring large amounts of money from Taiwan to the U.S. via telegraphic transfer. (Well, not more than $20,000 maximum.)

I tried to wire money to my friend last year.
The bank teller just told me how much they charged for the service charge.
But they didn’t know how much the foreign bank will deduct.
They said it depends on which bank I wired to.
So I decided to buy international postal money order.
Could it be cheaper than wiring money?
I had no ideas . :idunno: [/quote]

North American banks take around $40 service on wire transfers. Actually, the last time I wrote a cheque on my North American account, there was a $4 charge for processing the cheque. North American banking sucks.

Yep, went through that experience before, too. (See here)

They actually told me they will indicate this to their customers from then on. The next time I went they did, but after a few months they “forgot” already.

The “correspondent bank” charge is usually a percentage and differs according to bank. Couple of years ago, after my experience with Citibank, I asked at HSBC and it was a bit cheaper. Not sure how much it costs now. The local cost at Citibank is still NTD600.

Sending money out of Taiwan is actually one of the easier things to attempt here and doesn’t need an ARC connected to the account. I wired money out of my Taishin account back when I had no ARC and now I regularly wire money with my Citibank and Chinatrust accounts. Citibank’s service is much better and involves a form plus NT$600 service fee. Pretty reasonable given the funds normally arrive within 24hrs to UK accounts.

US$40-50 in service fees for wires to/from US banks is pretty typical. But it is a flat rate, so a larger wire transfer would have the same fee as a smaller one. In general you need to wire at least US$5000 or so for the fees not to take a be a huge chunk of the total.

jlick, you need to be careful there, as any and all USD transfer must due to US regulations go via a US bank. If the sending and receiving banks are co-operating partners then the charge should be approx USD 30 -35, but if not then that can rise to USD 55 - 60. If transferring money from countries like India or China to Taiwan in USD then total fees from start to end are closer to USD 75 - 80, with the US banks in the middle taking the major share of that particularly if the Indian bank and Taiwan bank co-operating partners in the US are not the same bank.

One day if the USD looses its current global standing then we may see the formation of a true global clearing bank which every bank in every country would have to process transactions through, then at least we would stop this insane level of charging that takes place to often when currently having to deal in USD

If you can open or have access to a US brokerage account, you might try wiring into there as an alternative. Interactive Brokers is one that does not charge wire fees. And there are no correspondent bank charges either. Speaking from experience. I’m certain there are others.

Wire fees are a crock, but relatively reasonable here in Taiwan. Fubon is only charging me NT$200 to receive overseas transfer, and they tell me charge is NT$300 for outgoing wire. Thus, outgoing wire from Fubon to a well selected US brokerage should only cost US$9, regardless of amount.

Ever since I lost $52 in service charges when I wired $1000 to my father a few years ago, I’ve been using a completely different method of sending money from Taiwan to the U.S., a method in which I don’t have to pay one cent on either end for service charges or any other fees!

What I do is I buy traveler’s checks at any bank in Taiwan and sign my name at the top, middle, and bottom of every check. Then I write “For Deposit Only” and my bank account number on the back of each check and I mail them by registered mail to my bank in the U.S.

My bank here in Taiwan doesn’t charge any fee at all for buying traveler’s checks, and my bank in the U.S. doesn’t charge any fee for depositing traveler’s checks, either. So there’s no fee at all on either end!

The only disadvantage is that it takes about 10 days for the mail to get from Taiwan to the east coast of the U.S., so it’s not as fast as wiring money, of course. But my U.S. bank account is money that I’m saving for my retirement, so I don’t mind waiting 10 days to get the money deposited.

Also, if the traveler’s checks are lost or stolen, then I can easily get them replaced with no penalty at all, as long as I still have the receipt. (I know this first-hand because two years ago, my maid stole one of my traveler’s checks, so I called American Express and got it replaced. Needless to say, I fired my maid right away and got a new maid to replace her.)

Buying traveller’s check is a good way.

You can use EMS(express mail service).It just needs 3-5 days.

That is not true, but it’s very cheap anyway.

I found out that I was wrong about not having to pay any fees for buying traveler’s checks. Sorry for the mistake.

When I was at the bank today (Zhang Hua Bank), I found out that there is a fee to buy traveler’s checks. The fee is NT$100, but it’s a flat fee, so even if you buy US$30,000 or US$40,000 in traveler’s checks, the fee is still only NT$100, which is only US$3.

But it’s free to deposit the traveler’s checks in a U.S. bank account.

Anyway, I’m sure there isn’t any method of sending money to the U.S. that’s cheaper than mailing traveler’s checks.