I send money from Taiwan to my overseas account by:
Wire transferring NT dollars to my home country account
Wire transferring from my foreign currency account to my home country account
Buying traveller’s checks in the desired currency and mailing them home as deposits
Sending my ATM card to relatives overseas
Getting a bank draft to myself and mailing it home
American Express Card
Paypal
0voters
Hello all,
I want to somehow get my money from Taiwan back to the USA. After wading through all the threads here, I found a plethora of options mentioned by fellow posters. I was wondering which method of money transferring do most people opt for when he/she will not be going home any time soon and when the money is not needed for anything urgent.
Option…
I think the general consensus is that taking NT dollars home with you is bad, so I guess the same rule would apply to transferring it home, right? Also, when I want to transfer the money, the bank might charge me a flat fee or a 0.0x%/NTD service charge and the bank on the recieving end will charge a fee as well. On top of that, if the people at the bank did not understand you, there might be “chinglish miscommunication charges.”
I was leaning towards opening a foreign currency account (USD) so I can stuff my NT dollars into it when the exchange rate is good. Then, wire transfer the money from Taiwan to the USA. However, after reading through the threads, I saw that the bank might charge a commision fee for changing my NT dollars into US dollars. And again, the issue with the sending/recieving fee and maybe some additional fees that you did not find out about until later.
Probably just pay a fee for the travelers checks and the normal exchange rate into desired currency, sounds okay I think.
Need to only deal with ATM fee and the exchange rate into desired currency, I think. Since the money is changed from NT --> desired currency outside of Taiwan, maybe the exchange rate at home is not so good compared to Taiwan?
You just wire the money by TT from any bank. You don’t have to have an account there. Don’t wire it from HSBC as they charge NT$1,200. Do it from a local bank. I pay NT$300 to wire Sterling to the UK. The World’s Local Bank then charges me a further fee for the service of receiving the money in the UK. Your bank in the US may or may not. Don’t wire NT dollars or you’ll lose a great deal if your foreign bank has to convert it. It arrives immediately. Never come across such an easy and straightforward banking procedure. At this end anyway.
brain, you can wire up to 10K USD at a time without having to declare it to the Taiwanese government. LL is right, the fee is low. I do this every two months, although sadly not near the limit. No problems.
Why on Earth would you want to have NT dollars in the US? Impress the locals? lol
It depends on the amount, but for large amounts (say US$2000 or more), a wire transfer is best. The bank here can convert the money to US Dollars (or other major foreign currency) before transferring so that there will not be an issue of converting on the US side (where banks tend to have sucky exchange rates). If your bank here charges an exchange commission, find another bank that doesn’t. Your bank here will probably charge about TW$300-500 for an international wire transfer. Also check if your US bank charges a wire transfer fee to receive wire transfers. A typical amount is US$15-20. If it’s more than this you might want to try a different bank.
If it’s a small amount, the ATM card route is a good way to do it.
thanks for the tips. so it isn’t necessary to have a foreign currency account to wire out from, I can just tell the bank to take my NT dollars, convert it to USD, then wire it over.
[quote=“ratbrain”]thanks for the tips. so it isn’t necessary to have a foreign currency account to wire out from, I can just tell the bank to take my NT dollars, convert it to USD, then wire it over.
What is TT?[/quote]
Telegraphic Transfer = wire transfer
Beware of intermediate fees. If I transfer USD from Citibank here to my USD account in Germany the Citibank in the US deducts a fee, too. HSBC does the same they said when I enquired.
For those doing it to the UK or Europe you need the sort code. I usually write “HSBC 40-xx-xx” as the name of the bank, so as long as HSBC get a hold of it (or any European bank) they will know where to send it. Never lost a payment. Value date (credited to your overseas a/c) is always the day it is sent.
Some banks here have London branches and that is the intermediary bank. But even those that don’t have been no problem with charges. In the other direction some “Wan Tong” or other bank in Taipei ended up with my loot and I had to go and get it. It was probably sent to “Thailand” first. Taiwanese banks are well used to people sending loot overseas (!) and I take my hat off to them in that regard.
I was always under the impression that the “exchange rate” is how the bank makes a commission as a percentage of the money you transfer, which is on top of any flat fees. Checking a few banks to compare the exchange rates might be a good idea if it’s a sizable amount.
That’s right. They can convert it to US$ at the same time as the wire transfer.[/quote]
jlick is correct, as usual; that’s what I always do (fortunately my bank also waives all fees due to personal guanxi ). BTW, the Chinese for ‘wire transfer’ is 匯款 hui4kuan3.
As an aside, Taipei Fubon charged me NT$30 for an NTD wire to a local bank yesterday (wiring was required because the amount was more than twice the daily ATM transfer limit).
I pay $320 NT to the landbank in Taiwan and $10 to my Canadian bank for a wire transfer. Chung Hwa bank is not good for transfers. I used them once and realized I was missing $30(Can) when the money arrived in Canada. They didn’t tell me and there was no paper trail, very sneaky. The middle man got a bigger chunk than both of the other banks put together, absurd.
I wire when the amount is large or I’m in a hurry. Otherwise, I send AMEX travelers checks with a deposit slip. For wiring, which has become my norm, the fee ends up being near $30 USD total. There is a fee on this end by the source bank (even if my own), there is a bank in the middle of the transaction with its own small fee, and there is my U.S. bank, which charges a fee. After some research, the apparent reason for the bank in the middle (and its fee) seems to be that it acts as a clearinghouse for source & recipient banks that do not have a direct “transfer” relationship. Wiring is very reliable and fast. Just send enough to make the fee worthwhile. If you want to route it through my account in the Caymans, I can help with the fees.
Edit: Oops, screwed up the poll. Voted Choice # 2 because I misread it. Should have voted # 1.
If it’s a sizable amount you can actually negotiate the exchange rate.[/quote]
What is a sizable amount?
What is this about declaring >10K USD transfers? I have done some >10K and the bank hasn’t even blinked, let alone required a declaration…
Brain,
Just to emphasize what the others have mentioned, I have tried various different way to transfer money home and the best way (significantly in fact) is to convert it to the destination currency first, and TT it from a local bank.
I pay 300nt at this end, and around a $7 USD fee at the other end…without any intermediate fees.
It is actually an interesting exercise to use the online rates to check sending USD vs sending NTD. For me, it gave me a decent wake up call that the banks at home are bigger wankers than I thought WRT forex.
thanks for the tips, everyone, i really appreciate it. I wasn’t sure if I had to have a foreign currency account first so that is good that I don’t need one. Also, I will find out if my bank charges a flat rate.
Above 10k USD I would say, though the minimum would depend on the bank. Just ask at the counter if you can get a better rate for the amount you are about to transfer and see what they say.
). BTW, the Chinese for ‘wire transfer’ is 匯款 hui4kuan3.