Absolutely - that's how some FX brokers offer free transfers - some, if they are in North America can debit your account directly and provide credits (inwards to North America) by ACH. But that is a matter for the FX broker, to use the right channel, not the banks that offer multiple methods of sending and receiving money, and charge different amounts for different methods.

I've set up a savings account with a credit union as an account on my WF login and can move funds over for free.

No where near as good as UK which could do it instantly via Faster Payments as it takes 2 days, but oh well.

I'm guessing that it's using ACH.

Checked (again) with my lovely WF manager...

ACH transfer limits are much lower, even going into a branch to do it, he wrote similar limits to online banking. No surprises there then.

I'm sure I've mentioned it before but the WF "stagecoach" logo does make me think of highway robbery!

Okay!

YES Wells Fargo DOES ride away with your money on that stagecoach. Or hoards all the fees.

Anyhow, online or phone wire transfers through banks (at least those in Texas) is limited to $5k. Anything larger requires to be present at the bank branch.


That was actually easy enough.


What we are finding is exactly what Pulaski said. Depends which broker, which fees. So we used UKFOREX for the large chunk. Husband did not want to drib and drab it. We paid $30 for the wire transfer to Wells Fargo. HSBC UK did not charge anything to receive.


We will consider Transferwise for the next big chunk. Yes, they can't guarantee a spot rate but... they let you transfer without the whole bank visit.


Transferwise is a peer to peer exchange, not an FX broker.


Anyone see or can tell the difference?

I used XE Trade when I moved some money from the UK to the USA a few years ago, and was told by XE Trade that my money doesn't actually move anywhere. XE Trade simply gets a credit in one of it's UK accounts, and then debits a requisite amount from one of it's US accounts. I assume that Transferwise (and others) do the same.

I have used the ACH payment system to send money to my girlfriend's bank account at a different bank, and whilst it took 2 days for the money to arrive, it was free to send and free to receive.

I am not sure if this is standard with other banks, but I bank with Chase, and it has a slow, but well established method of setting up ACH payees. When setting up a new ACH payee online, I give Chase a name for the account and the account and routing numbers. Chase will then send two <$1 test payments to account within a few days. Once they've been received at the receiving bank account, I have to log into my online Chase account and tell Chase how much each payment was (e.g. $0.53 and $0.27). If the numbers that I provide match Chase's records, the recipient will then be available for future use. A few days later, Chase will withdraw those <$1 ACH test payments from the recipient account. Whilst I love the flexibility of the UK Faster Payments system (simply someone's sort code and account number), I do like the added security/confirmation that this ACH payment setup affords.