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How do I send a large sum of money out of country?
Rikushix
VancouverRegistered User regular
VancouverRegistered User regular
I realize the thread title might raise some eyebrows (that's the point!) but I actually have a valid question. No Nigerian princes here!
I am in Canada.
There's a person in the US who I will most likely be sending a sum of money in the near future - think four digits.
How does one go about doing this? It's easy to set up someone within your bank as a payee, or even do a bank transfer, but that's within the country; how does it work internationally? I get the impression that just mailing a cheque is out of the question.
This person lives on the East Coast so it's not as if I can just hop over Peace Arch border crossing and pay them a visit.
I am in Canada.
There's a person in the US who I will most likely be sending a sum of money in the near future - think four digits.
How does one go about doing this? It's easy to set up someone within your bank as a payee, or even do a bank transfer, but that's within the country; how does it work internationally? I get the impression that just mailing a cheque is out of the question.
This person lives on the East Coast so it's not as if I can just hop over Peace Arch border crossing and pay them a visit.
Rikushix on
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My parents do it all the time to me since I study up here from the states.
This is the best way to transfer money IMHO. Also 4 digit number of cash isn't going to raise any alarm unless you are breaking a large amount into smaller amounts and transferring via multiple transactions.
You need to get a void cheque from this person... or technically the information that you need to do a wire transfer to his account are in the void cheque. Basically it's his Name, the name, address of his banking institution, the institution number, & his full account number.
Won't most services have one fee or another? I imagine if my bank charged a fee for a wire transfer, it might be less than Paypal, but it would still be a fee just the same.
Western Union for example says it will charge me $139 to send out, let's say, $5000. That's 2.8 percent. Not bad.
In the grand scheme of things a two or three percent transaction fee is moot but I appreciate the advice.
Hypothetically, what if he doesn't have a chequing account/physical cheques?
Generally, for small amounts a wire transfer isn't worth it, but for 1k+ it's most likely the best route.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Even with a cashier's check, doing checks between countries can get ugly. If he has a small bank they might hold the funds for weeks or even months while they wait for it to clear. Some banks have better systems and can clear them as fast as a domestic, but I wouldn't recommend it.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
I have no problem with wire transfers and it sounds like this will be the best route. Just examining other options.
@Aioua: duly noted.
yeah it does depend on where this money is coming from
if he banks at a large corporate bank with an FDIC insured american presence like citibank and such, bank checks from there will not be subject to any holds AFAIK but if its like a smaller canadian only or other bank that does not have an FDIC insured american presence then you might be subject to some wait.
5,000$ USD to canada shouldn't be a problem. The only issue would be cashing it out on the other end. Most places like grocery stores don't keep 5,000$ laying around for people to cash their checks. (atleast.. not in oregon)
On top of this you tend to get awful exchange rates, and sometimes they like to slap their own commission on top of the crap rate. You can get around it with something like ukforexv although it's not as fast, as it ends up requiring two bank transfers.
Paypal doesn't charge a fee to send money if you transfer from a checking or savings account. I know this because this is how I pay my rent.
It charges a fee if you send from a credit card. It charges the seller a fee if it's a payment, but if you choose "send money" rather than payment there is no fees for anyone as long as it's direct from a checking or savings account.
Of course, I haven't done an international transaction like this, so that might be different.
Mailing a money order is a bad idea - especially at that size. If its lost in the mail you're quite literally fucked.
I got one to pay my tuition, and my bank basically put it this way "If you need it refunded, you need to bring it back to us, and even then we can't guarantee that we can refund it. Also, if you lose it, there is no way to refund it."
Again no fee if funded from a bank account.
Careful with Paypal "no fee" transfers.
Because they might only mean "no fee" for you, the sender. You send $5000, then $5000 is deducted!
(And the receiver gets less than $5000...)
This is how it worked when I last sent money from my CDN bank account to a US one.
I should say though, it doesn't have to be exactly $5000. I'm not paying a bill or erasing a debt, it's more of a gift than anything.
And they won't need it in cash :P the intent is to have it in their savings account.
I am not talking exchange, I am talking fees. My example doesn't make sense though you're right, in that of course you're having more than $5000 deducted if you have exchange rates. I was meaning on their fee practice, and not focusing on the exchange rate that I actually would be dealing with.
I send $5000 USD to someone, I get charged $5000 * exchange CDN, no fees, but the recipient does not get $5000 USD either.
Ah. Yes.
This thread raises more questions than it answers them ;-)
Depending on which banks you're transferring you might be OK with an ABA number, but be careful. It's NOT necessarily the routing number on a voided check, some banks have specific wire transfer routing numbers, especially for incoming international wires. Some banks might require a SWIFT code. Have the person you're wiring money to ask for specific incoming wire instructions at their banking location (ABA #'s can also vary by state, depending on how the bank is set up) if you decide to go that way.
EDIT: Checks are are bad ideas unless you know of a specific arrangement between two banks on how long it takes them to clear. For instance, I work for TD Bank so we clear Canada Trust checks overnight as a courtesy. Canadian funds checks/US funds checks drawn on Canadian banks will be taken at my bank up to a certain amount but it may take weeks to process depending on the circumstances. That's just my bank though, and they go out of their way to honor Canadian checks (as we are a Canadian-owned bank), so policies differ from bank to bank.
PAX Prime '10-'13 Triwizard Drinking Tournament || Hufflepuff Head of House!
Twitter: @jujukoo
[E]
Helpful! Thanks. And yeah, I bank at TD.
This or if you live close enough to the border, just hop across and go to a US post office and buy a money order with your debit card. You can even mail it while you're there and save a few more cents. Fill up on gas while you're down there too and you might even come out ahead.
TD's a BIG bank so you should be able to go in / phone the branch and ask how they would do it. At minimum, have the name of the bank you want to send it to. They should give you rates and how hard/easy it is. It's your money, have them do a little work for it.
I wouldn't go initiate a wire at a branch until you have wire instructions - I initiate wires daily since I work in the business district, so where I work, at minimum, you need an account number, account address, bank, wire-specific ABA or SWIFT code, and bank's address (sometimes a location, sometimes a corporate building). The last thing you want is your wire getting kicked back.
With all that said, if you have that info, it's a piece of cake. And your friend should be able to get that from their bank. Don't trust Google :P
PAX Prime '10-'13 Triwizard Drinking Tournament || Hufflepuff Head of House!
Twitter: @jujukoo
[E]
He'll still have to deposit the cheque and because it's an international cheque it can take up to a month for it to clear so he can actually use it.
Once the money is wire-transfered he can access the money right away because the due diligence is done in the process of transferring.
You can also send him a bankdraft instead. It cost less then paypal, but there will still a high chance that the bank on their end will hold the draft until it gets verified. It would take less time for them to verify then if you send them a cheque thou.