TransnationalElite

I am certain I have threads on this before but need a quick response with options.

Need to transfer money from account in Czech Republic (in CZK) to US. Would have to transfer in USD.

What are the cheapest options? Bank in the US (MA) will waive any transfer fees charged by them.

This forum has been great in the run up to this house hunting trip and I TIA for your helpful responses on this one too.

petitefrancaise

World first for us.
Set up an account beforehand (that takes the time..)
Set up the currency trade, trades happen almost instantaneously. We pay $10 fee per trade but rates are good. WAY BETTER than any bank will give you. Our banks at either end never charge.

TransnationalElite

Thanks petitefrancaise! I'll have a look

TransnationalElite

Did you mean setting up a World First account takes time? How long and why?

BunnyGirl

Money laundering regulations, they have to confirm your identity etc. I set one up with xe trade, very impressed so far. No $10 fee, you just pay what they quote for the trade and the account was set up in a couple of days.

petitefrancaise

Security stuff - you have to prove your identity is legitimate and so are the accounts you are using. Time? a week or so I think.

Once it's done, you just tell them the account details of where the money is going and send them the dosh. For us, the slowest part was getting our french bank to send the money to Worldfirst in London (arghhhh!). Once they got the money, the transfer to TX takes less than an hour to clear into our account.

TransnationalElite

Great! Thanks petitefrancaise and BunnyGirl

lansbury

World First are good if they are licensed in the State you want to send money to. They are not licensed in all States.

transferwise.com seem to be able to transfer money without the hassle of setting up most of the others have. That may well depend on the amount you want to send.

Another thing to consider. A lot of the companies based in the UK will only accept funds from a UK bank, when the recipient is in the USA. Part of the terms of their licenses.

andrewlohnes

With World First you can send money TO any US State, you just can't send money FROM every US state. I used them and they were very good.

Edit - unless you actually live in the US permanently, then what Iansbury said is correct.

mrlion

Transferwise is awesome. You *may* find it easier and cheaper to do it in two hops - CZ to UK and then UK to US (assuming you have a british bank account). I've found intra EU transfers to be significantly cheaper than those to the US and i don't know if transferwise can go from CZK to USD.

Good luck! I spent some very fun-filled years in the Czech Republic at the turn of the millennium...

TransnationalElite

Thanks mrlion! Our Czech banking is a little difficult because staff do not communicate very well in English so its not always clear that they understand us, or we them. We get by.

I've tried asking our bank manager to give us numbers for transferring X amount today (with the acceptance that the exchange rate may vary on the day of transfer) but it just doesn't seem to click with her what I'm asking her for.

mrlion

Which bank do you use? In my experience if I needed to ask anything a bit tricky I either did it in writing (I could/can write tolerable Czech) or ask a colleague to have the conversation.

Interesting fact - when people phoned up they would introduce themselves with their name and their highest academic qualification - evidently having a "Magister" ask for help with a currency transfer would get you better service...certainly there is/was a strong sense of status and as a foreigner you can either really benefit or suffer from it.

I remember one time in the Opera house when everyone was queueing for coats someone shouted loudly (in Czech) "Czech people come over here to get your coats" - I of course stormed to the front and looked at the coat check lady in my angriest, most passive-aggressive English eyes....I think she got the hint...

I just checked - Transferwise does support CZK so you may be able to do it directly without even speaking to the bank - I think you can initiate direct payments to other CZ bank accounts online pretty easily (if I remember correctly...).

Good luck!