timetogo

i'm currently trying to transfer money by SWIFT from Nationwide in the UK to a Bank of America acount. I have made 2 trips already to my bank who don't seemed to be clued up about anything. (i'm posting as I am avoiding a 28 minute wait on the BOA customer service, a 40 mintue walk to the bank, or a 12p a minute Nationwide customer service where only speak to a computer).

I was told I need
- an IBAN number (although I now know it's a SWIFT number as the US does not participate with the whole IBAN thing)
- bank address (to match up with the IBAN number
- account number
-passport

My other half rang BOA to ask about the swift number and we were given one which I now see is a Bank of America, rather than a number specific to the individual branch. Is this correct? If so why would we need an address or have the Nationwide employees once again got it wrong?

So I guess my basic question is do we need a swift number for Bank of America, or do we have to have one for the branch the account is held at?

Thank you.

Dan B

Its been a while since I wired money between the UK and US, or vice versa, but I am sure the IBAN/SWIFT is branch specific.

timetogo

You see! I knew it was worth while posting on here. No need for the walk or the rise in blood pressure when calling the bank; 4 minutes and I got my answer.


Thank you

zargof

Nope, it is bank specific. But a bank will often have several SWIFT numbers ( I guess some are commercial, some non-commercial), and it can be hard to figure out which one you need. To make a wire transfer from the UK to the US you will need the SWIFT number, routing number, Bank name and account number of the US branch. For BOA this website might help. http://www.bankofamerica.com/deposit...ate=lc_faq_aba

Z

chicagojlo

You might want to ask your BOA branch for it's Fedwire/Aba routing number, and ask Nationwide to include it in the first line of the comments field. That's the way we always used to send UK incoming payments as the sort-codes weren't recognised before IBAN. And IBAN is for inter-EU payments not UK to US.

SWIFT by the way is also less used for US transfers, that's where the Fedwire/ABA routing no comes in. The way payments are done these days the branch specific SWIFT isn't so much of an issue if they have the routing no because that is the sort code of your branch. You can try looking at www.swift.com but it's not that easy to navigate. The free directory is not as good as it used to be.

chicagojlo

That BOA link by the way is really informative.

And you should give the address of your branch because it's one of the fields that has to be filled out on the international transfer. No idea why. I suppose it's for if they have to call with a question. The passport I assume is to id you.

NC Penguin

I think you'll need the BoA branch ABA routing number. It's a 9 digit number. You'll have to get it from BoA.

Elvira

True.

But why bother with all this hassle when there's XE Trade...

zargof

Agreed, but XE Trade can be a hassle to setup if it is a one time transfer.

DavidM

You will need the SWIFT number, the ABA/Routing number and the account number for transfers from the UK to the US. The SWIFT number is usually not branch-specific but the Routing number is, as seen on your checques.

XE trade is a pain - 2 weeks to get set up, then they impose a 100,000 CAD limit and if you want exchange more that that they force you to go down to your bank and do a wire transfer - what's the friggin point!

MsElui

also need all those numbers to put into xe trade if you want them to wire your cash. (but its still better done in xe as once done it can be used over and over again)

lapin_windstar

I don't have any shares in XE trade or anything, but they got me set up in about 48 hours, and I never had the problem of CAD100,000 being too little for me!

tonrob

Yup - I was set up as quickly too, and then the beauty was I could watch the rate rise and fall on my desktop (my, what a diverting way to spend three weeks!) knowing that I could transfer instantly on just one fast phone call.

Very knowledgeable too and happy to chat through everything (unlike the molluscs at my local HSBC branch who couldn't wait to get rid of me so they could go back to flogging credit cards), and I saved money! What's not to like?

it's just not cricket

The swift code for bank of america will be something like BOFAUS3N (although I could be slightly wrong on this as it has been a while since I worked processing international payments). B of A payments all go to a head office who will send the payment to your bank identified by the aba/routing number. Nationwide should know the swift code for bank of america and all you need is the aba/routing number, your bank account number in america, the address of the bank and the name the account is in. Make sure all details are correct otherwise the payment may well be returned at a loss to you.

old curly

Hi,
Just wondering what to story is with the currency exchange rate when you wire money from UK to USA. Im moving to USA next year so havent looked into this very much. My bank said I need to see them in person and I dont have time at the moment.

If you transfer, say £15,000 do you get a good deal? Mastercard currently give $1.93 to the pound when using their card in USA. Im assuming Id get a better deal than that when transfering a decent amount of money??