Transferring money from the US to Brazil

[Angela & Paul 12]

Anyone can help me figure out the best way to transfer money to Brazil, considering:

- I (the US citizen) do not have a bank account there

- I do have a CPF number

Additionally, I do not have a permanent resident visa for Brazil, thus no Foreign Identification Number (RNE) and I do not have a permanent address there (of course, since we live in the US)

- My Brazilian wife has a bank account in Brazil, but still under her maiden name

Can we transfer money through wire transfer to her or any of her family account, without incurring taxes or fees.

Sums would be anywhere between $1,000 and $25,000.

I know about using our ATM card there, but we are not in Brazil.

I am also very suspicious of services like Western Union and MoneyGram.

If you have transferred money to another country, some of the information may apply... though Brazil is notorious for taxing anything coming in!

Thank you.

[Anh map 2,098]

Suspicious of Western Union and Moneygram? Why?

I have sent money overseas using Western Union for approximately 10 years without incident. I can't speak to it being taxed in Brazil.

[jm&mcs 2]

I have also used Western Union to send money. Later, I used Moneygram. I would recommend the Moneygram way because the fees are soooo much less than Western Union. And you can go to any Walmart to send the money.

[Majid_Anna 0]

Anyone can help me figure out the best way to transfer money to Brazil, considering:

- I (the US citizen) do not have a bank account there

- I do have a CPF number

Additionally, I do not have a permanent resident visa for Brazil, thus no Foreign Identification Number (RNE) and I do not have a permanent address there (of course, since we live in the US)

- My Brazilian wife has a bank account in Brazil, but still under her maiden name

Can we transfer money through wire transfer to her or any of her family account, without incurring taxes or fees.

Sums would be anywhere between $1,000 and $25,000.

I know about using our ATM card there, but we are not in Brazil.

I am also very suspicious of services like Western Union and MoneyGram.

If you have transferred money to another country, some of the information may apply... though Brazil is notorious for taxing anything coming in!

Thank you.

Hey there! I'm in the banking industry and can tell you it's not an issue wiring money internationally as long as you have all the required information for it to reach the beneficiary bank. It makes no difference who the owner of the account in Brazil is...the american bank could care less. It's alot cheaper to wire money too, especially with the larger amounts! Much cheaper if you keep your accounts with a community bank rather than a "nationalized" bank.

My suggestion is to have your wife call the bank in Brazil and make sure they accept international wire transfers and what their fee might be, because most banks charge and outgoing wire fee (for you) and then the bank in Brazil might charge an incoming wire fee.

The other questions are definately tax questions, on both ends....if that concerns you here, talk to your tax consultant. If the account had your name on it, it would not be considered anything but a foreign account, but I think you still have to claim it. If it concerns you there, again it's an issue with their laws. I can't imagine why there would be a problem with anything under the $9,999.00 mark, but I don't know Brazil's laws either. We don't tax money coming in here, but there'a always the chance of the number being large and it causing red flags all over the place, so be careful with that.

Don't forget it's much safer (imho) to send through the banking system, we're one big paper trail!

Just my personal opinion...In the end, I hope I helped you in some way

Anna

[gixbr 0]

Hi Paul,

I always used Ria Money Transfer for sending money to my dad in Brazil when I was in the U.S. I usually would go to this Brazilian store, a brazilian store always have way for you to send money, and I'd only pay 10 dollars fee, I think it's 10 dollars till $3,500, I don't know what is the fee for your transfer if you send more. One time my husband used Western Union to send me $2,000 to Brazil we ended up paying more fees, cause they take a % of it plus a bank fee. The Western Union in Brazil works inside Banco do Brasil in most of the cities.

But I tell you, it is safe. I used it for months, and the money always was there the day after.

If you want to know more about this specific company here is the link, and you can locate where it is in your city:

http://www.riafinancial.com/moneyTransfer.aspx

But I know there are more like these, depending on your location.

Good luck.

[Corinthians 7]

Anyone can help me figure out the best way to transfer money to Brazil, considering:

- I (the US citizen) do not have a bank account there

- I do have a CPF number

Additionally, I do not have a permanent resident visa for Brazil, thus no Foreign Identification Number (RNE) and I do not have a permanent address there (of course, since we live in the US)

- My Brazilian wife has a bank account in Brazil, but still under her maiden name

Can we transfer money through wire transfer to her or any of her family account, without incurring taxes or fees.

Sums would be anywhere between $1,000 and $25,000.

I know about using our ATM card there, but we are not in Brazil.

I am also very suspicious of services like Western Union and MoneyGram.

If you have transferred money to another country, some of the information may apply... though Brazil is notorious for taxing anything coming in!

Thank you.

You could send them a debit card...then taxes and fees won't matter.

[bora bora 1]

Anyone can help me figure out the best way to transfer money to Brazil, considering:

- I (the US citizen) do not have a bank account there

- I do have a CPF number

Additionally, I do not have a permanent resident visa for Brazil, thus no Foreign Identification Number (RNE) and I do not have a permanent address there (of course, since we live in the US)

- My Brazilian wife has a bank account in Brazil, but still under her maiden name

Can we transfer money through wire transfer to her or any of her family account, without incurring taxes or fees.

Sums would be anywhere between $1,000 and $25,000.

I know about using our ATM card there, but we are not in Brazil.

I am also very suspicious of services like Western Union and MoneyGram.

If you have transferred money to another country, some of the information may apply... though Brazil is notorious for taxing anything coming in!

Thank you.

You could send them a debit card...then taxes and fees won't matter.

Not as many taxes/fees, but my banks always charged me some weird fees when I used my ATM in Brazil.

[motu 6]

Not as many taxes/fees, but my banks always charged me some weird fees when I used my ATM in Brazil.

Generally most banks charge you a 1% fee - I have to pay that when I use my debit or credit card - they charge a 1% fee on both purchases and withdrawals. This has happened consistently in Europe, India, Panama, Colombia, Mexico etc.

The best thing to do (I am trying to figure it out for Colombia, from where my wife is) is to open an account with a bank that has branches there - like HSBC and then one can easily access their moneys in that country - perhaps by opening another account with the foreign branch or by directly accessing your US account. Try and research this. Good Luck

[Angela & Paul 12]

Suspicious of Western Union and Moneygram? Why?

I have sent money overseas using Western Union for approximately 10 years without incident. I can't speak to it being taxed in Brazil.

I am suspicious in the sense that it might be safe, but I don't think it's the cheapest way to do it.

When looking at the cost of transferring money, I also consider the exchange rate spread. It's the 'hidden' fee. Most financial institutions will make their profits in the "buy/sell" value of the currency you're converting to.

So I decided to check for myself...

I called a few places and run some comparison prices, maybe this will be helpful to others.

I asked the institutions their current exchange rate for a transfer to Brazil and took the current Interbank rate as the base to calculate their profits.

I am also assuming that ATM cash transactions are free in Brazil (i.e. the Brazilian banks do not charge a fee).

Total cost of transferring $500 and $5,000 resp. to Brazil using:

- Credit Cards ($500 and $5,000 item purchase - 3% fee) - FOR INFORMATION ONLY

$15 and $150 resp. (DO NOT use Credit Cards to transfer cash, interest accrue immediately and rates are very high)

- Chase Debit Card ATM (1% exchange rate fee + $3 transaction fee, limited to $400 per transaction per day):

$11 and $89 resp. (The $5,000 transfer will have to be spread out over 2 weeks)

- Credit Union Debit Card ATM (1% exchange rate fee + no transaction fee up to 6 transaction per month,

max of $400 per transaction per day):

$5 and $50 resp. (The $5,000 transfer will have to be spread out over 2 1/2 months to avoid ATM charges)

- Western Union (exchange rate premium + $12 and $35 fee resp.):

$22 and $132 resp.

- MoneyGram (exchange rate premium + $10 and $100 fee resp.):

$19 and $190 resp.

- RIA Financial (exchange rate premium + $5 fee):

$18 and $136 resp.

- Bank wire money transfer:

Unfortunately banks will not provide exchange rate information, at least the two I called.

My Credit Union charges $50 for the wire, it's free with Chase (WAMU) free checking.

Assuming a 2% spread on the exchange rate, a wire transfer with Chase is probably the lowest-cost option and

most practical when not in the receiving country.

With this option the funds can be held in transit for several days/weeks.

Overall, the Credit Union ATM card comes ahead, though it is not clear if they would block the transfers at some point... and I have a feeling they would.

For small amounts of money, it doesn't really matter which transfer service you're using, the cost is about $20. Remember though that $20 over $500 is a 4% fee.

For large amounts to Brazil, avoid MoneyGram! And contrary to my initial opinion, Western Union is actually not bad (equivalent to a 2.6% fee)

The company with the lowest fee (RIA Financial, recommended by another VJer) ) has the worst exchange rate... no surprise there, they have to make their profits some place. And for me, I have to add $10 for gas to get to the nearest office.

And after reading more on the subject for Brazil, any transfer higher than 10,000 Real ($4,500) to a direct bank account will probably be held by the receiving bank who will want to know where the money is coming from and how it was earned (no money laundering). They will drag the transaction sometimes for several months.

Note that the information above may not be fully correct, since I got the data from the companies directly but I did not do an actual transfer... yet.

[Ed+Cindy 1]

Anyone can help me figure out the best way to transfer money to Brazil, considering:

- I (the US citizen) do not have a bank account there

- I do have a CPF number

Additionally, I do not have a permanent resident visa for Brazil, thus no Foreign Identification Number (RNE) and I do not have a permanent address there (of course, since we live in the US)

- My Brazilian wife has a bank account in Brazil, but still under her maiden name

Can we transfer money through wire transfer to her or any of her family account, without incurring taxes or fees.

Sums would be anywhere between $1,000 and $25,000.

I know about using our ATM card there, but we are not in Brazil.

I am also very suspicious of services like Western Union and MoneyGram.

If you have transferred money to another country, some of the information may apply... though Brazil is notorious for taxing anything coming in!

Thank you.

Try www.xe.com/fx, but you will need accounts in both countries.

I have been using them for years.

[BrazilianXuxu 0]

Hello.

My best advice, is Xoom.com you can transfer money online straight to a bank account in Brazil or somebody can go pick up the money at one of their locations..

I personaly use to send money to my family, the money goes directly to a bank account in Brazil where my family have an account.It works fine, never had a problem

the website is www.xoom.com

[JillA 2]

I use www.customhouse.com it's FREE and works great!!

[blue123 0]

Anyone can help me figure out the best way to transfer money to Brazil, considering:

- I (the US citizen) do not have a bank account there

- I do have a CPF number

Additionally, I do not have a permanent resident visa for Brazil, thus no Foreign Identification Number (RNE) and I do not have a permanent address there (of course, since we live in the US)

- My Brazilian wife has a bank account in Brazil, but still under her maiden name

Can we transfer money through wire transfer to her or any of her family account, without incurring taxes or fees.

Sums would be anywhere between $1,000 and $25,000.

I know about using our ATM card there, but we are not in Brazil.

I am also very suspicious of services like Western Union and MoneyGram.

If you have transferred money to another country, some of the information may apply... though Brazil is notorious for taxing anything coming in!

Thank you.

I use xe trade www.xe.com you can move money worldwide never had a problem.

[SingleCharles 0]

I would like to (-1) Western Union.

Up until March I had been able to do "Direct to Bank" transfers to Gabriella. Western Union then "updated" their system and I had to go back and reenter all my information. Since the update, I receive an error that Gabriella's account information is incorrect. I reentered the account information, and verified that it is correct. I called WU and found the support people lazy and unwilling to help, only getting the scripted response back (Gabriella's account information is incorrect). In April. an agent told me that WU temporarily suspended "Direct to Bank" tranfers to Brazil. I called today, and the agent happily said that "Direct to Bank" to Brazil is now supported. I still get the same error. WU fails.

On the same token, I tried xoom.com out. It has a much nicer website, less fees, and much easier to use.

Good luck!