I know there are lots of threads about this, but this stuff is always changing and I want to discuss the different methods of transferring money abroad, and the associated fees. I would like to transfer roughly $15,000 every month to my UK account for investments and would like to keep the associated fees below 1% if possible.
I can think of four ways:
Regular international bank transfer
Western Union or similar service
PayPal (if you have eSun bank acc)
Cryptocurrencies
Personally I have only ever done a regular international bank transfer and Western Union in the past from Taiwan, but used PayPal when I was in China. From memory, international bank transfer was the cheapest, and PayPal and Western Union charged crazy amounts.
I don’t remember how much the banks charged in fees, but remember there was a fee on the Taiwan and UK side. If anyone has any records they can check to see how much they were charged total as a percent that would be really useful.
What I’m most interested in is using crypto as it would be almost instant, and the fees would be low. Does anyone know how low as a percent? In the past the crazy volatility of Bitcoin scared me away from this method but with the popularity of stable coins I see it as an option. Please share your experience if you have done this. The more info the better.
And lastly if there are any options that I have overlooked please post below!
Two weeks ago I went to eSun to send money back to the US. I sent 20,000 NTD back and they took roughly 1,000 NTD from that for fees. I think it’s always roughly 1,000 NTD in fees no matter the amount. I’ve sent 90,000 NTD and the fees were still around 1,000. If I remember later when I get home I will look at my receipts from eSun and Bank of Taiwan to see what their fees are.
I recently switched banks in America because my old one would take about 20 USD out of every incoming transfer. My new one doesn’t take any out. Perhaps there are banks in the UK that also don’t.
I haven’t used any of the other ways to send money, but I am also interested in knowing if there are lower fee options.
sounds terrible to get charged 1000 NT for using just a regular bank. The standard rate you pay a bank here should be 420 NT! But then you usually get charged at least once when the money is on its way over to the US. At least once by your own bank, but it’s possible that an intermediary bank may have been needed and they will take a little cut. All in all, it can add up to around $50-60 USD per transaction, but it is a flat fee, not based on a percentage, so you pay the same whether you send home 20,000 or 200,000.
As for cryptocurrency, I’m not sure how to go about that in Taiwan. The exchanges here have very terrible rates, there is a pretty huge spread on the buy and sell prices. It probably only makes sense if you are getting paid in crypto to begin with. But I don’t know… maybe there are some companies out there that are willing to handle transactions like this, or you can try this company. https://www.veem.com/
Yeah. I’d say most US banks have an app for mobile deposits. I kept my US Citibank account and downloaded their app. Snap a pic and deposit in seconds.
I think your best option for saving money would be to reduce the transfer frequency as much as possible, like NT$45k every three months or NT$90k every six months. Whichever way you decide to do it, you’re going to end up paying a lot in fees doing relatively small transfers every month.
There is one option that I have used before but you might not like it. Have a friend in Taiwan who has a bank account in the UK, send them NTD here, they send you GBP in the UK. No fees, but it has to be a good friend
You would need an account in Taiwan with a local exchange as well as an account with the option for cheap/free payouts to the UK. Maybe Binance? You could then buy USDT here, transfer them to the other account and cash out in GBP. I’m not sure if that’s really cheaper than a SWIFT transfer though.
If you are from the UK I think you can open an account with Maicoin
OFX money transfers
Can be a bit nail biting watching lively exchange rates, ready to hit the button as all done in real time.
When you’ve done that’s the rate you get.
