Transferring funds internationally

kachofool

Hey,

I'm a canadian and have an account with a Canadian bank. I'm out of the country and will be for a significant duration of time and so I need money. I opened up a local bank account but I don't know how to transfer funds from my Canadian bank to the local one. The Canadian bank told me they can't initiate transfers without me being present at a branch. I'm overseas and there's no branch for that bank locally. What would you peeps suggest I do?

Serpent

Go to an atm and pay the ~$5 transaction fee.

If you're with scotiabank they are part of the international banking alliance and you could probably find an ATM that will cost you $0.

Cauld

write a check to your local account?

bsjezz

Serpent wrote: »

Go to an atm and pay the ~$5 transaction fee.

If you're with scotiabank they are part of the international banking alliance and you could probably find an ATM that will cost you $0.

pretty much this is the best way. take as much as you can out as you can then deposit it to your local account. it sounds silly but after many years of having accounts across three countries this is both the least hassle and least costly.

Lewisham

If it's a large amount of money that you can't extract from an ATM, you can sign over powers to someone else to administer the account jointly, who can then send you the money. I used to use my Dad for this purpose.

Also, this being at the branch thing sounds like crap. I'd request to speak with the manager. Do you have any way they can verify your identity? Signature on file? Telephone banking questions set up?

kachofool

I think that my best course of action is withdrawing using another ATM, as there are some other Canadian bank ATMs here (I think Scotia, TDBank, etc). I'm with BMO btw. They're ultra conservative and verify my identity every time I call them for anything (through phone questions), but I'm still not allowed to do a wire transfer unless I'm physically at the branch location... I called their general support number and that's what I was told. Is this the norm for Canadian banks? If it isn't, I think I'll switch to another bank when I get back to Canada.

Also I don't know if I can sign over powers to family or someone else remotely... (I'd venture that I can't, but I'll check this option out).

As for writing a cheque to myself, I didn't bring my chequebook here (thinking I wouldn't run into this problem), so I'd have to a) tell my canadian bank to mail me a chequebook and wait for it to arrive, b) ask my local bank (in S'pore) if they'd accept canadian cheques / currency conversion charges etc.

Thanks for the replies

SwashbucklerXX

In my experience, BMO is more conservative about these things than other Canadian banks. We switched away from them a few years ago for more banking flexibility (and to go fee-free). I'd certainly give some other banks a call when you get back home and ask them about your situation.