Legit companies to transfer money to USA

[novedsac 355]

Sorry I probably should have mentioned this in the original post:

My financee (from Holland) has money in her Netherlands bank account. For discussion's sake, say it's over the reportable amount of $10,000 dollars. Since she'll be moving to America, she needs to transfer all her euros to a dollar account.

Unfortunately, the banks don't give the best exchange rate. For example, today's market rate is 1.12 dollars per euro. But a bank, will only give us, say, 1.0377 dollars per euros. The bank's rate is "based" on the market rate, but they take their own portion of it. So if someone were to buy dollars with their life savings of, say, €100,000, they should get $112,000, but they'll only get $103,770 through the bank. That's a loss of $8,230

I think there is confusion in the terminology. Exchange is the process of converting your cash from EUR to USD. Transfer is the process of moving your cash from one point to the other. Services like Western Union provide both services in a single transaction ... the transfer fee is for the transfer; they also make money on the exchange, quite a bit in Western Union's case as their exchange rates among the worst.

There is the option of transferring the money in Holland to a bank that has branches in the US as well. ING is one that comes to mind. Citibank, Chase, etc. are all banks that are represented internationally.

As far as getting the best exchange rate possible, if the amount is large, then go into a bank and see what they can do for you; speak with the branch manager. Banks make money on the spread in what they are paying for the currency and what they sell the currency to you. They may be willing to take a smaller cut, i.e., a smaller spread, if they are interested in the prospect of obtaining your business. The bigger your potential business, the better bargaining position you are in.

Otherwise, there are lots of exchange shops in/around Amsterdam. I've always found the EUR-USD rate to be better there than in the US; exchange as you can and then put into an account accessible when she arrives in the US.

[BritAbroad2015 61]

transferwise.com I literally love this company. Much better rates than banks and takes maximum 4 days. On the one occasion that it took longer than 10 days... they did the transfer for free and gave me another free transfer!!

The website is also so easy to use!!

[novedsac 355]

transferwise.com I literally love this company. Much better rates than banks and takes maximum 4 days. On the one occasion that it took longer than 10 days... they did the transfer for free and gave me another free transfer!!

The website is also so easy to use!!

Really?

Checking various EUR - USD rates right now:

transferwise.com --> 10.00 EUR would give me 10.14 USD

daily interchange bank rate --> 10.00 EUR would give me 11.28 USD

ING DIRECT international transfer rate --> 10.00 EUR would give me 11.25 USD

They don't need to charge you a transfer fee; they're getting rich off the exchange rate they're sticking you with.

And 4 days for a transfer? Should be a matter of minutes, certainly no longer than 24 hrs.

[El_killer47 22]

WESTERN UNION is free if you send money directly into the recepiant's bank account... but they do make a tiny amount in exchange rate.. like < $1 per hundred

[mattmatt 1]

Thank you everyone for your wide variety of replies. It gives me a lot of informstion to consider. This is an example of why I am very thankful of such a great community of helpful people on VJ.

Novedsac makes a good point that I asked for the "wrong thing" in my original post and the subject of this thread. Sorry about wasting your time to the people who shared their advice on the best way to "transfer" money; if I knew better, I should have asked for legit companies that offer the best rates at "exchanging" EUR to USD. The main thing is the exchange-- the money can be wired where it needs to go later.

Anyways, several people have given me great plaves to start looking, so I appreciate that greatly.