Dollars to Euros for New Boat Purchase

[Petrel04]

If you are eligible to sign up to the Revolut App you can exchange between currencies with a couple of clicks . I use it all the time to buy/sell Sterling and US Dollars

[SV-Viento]

OP here - so many helpful responses and some additional entertaining internet banter. There are some great stepwise, practical to us, approaches that have been shared as well as some that have encouraged us to learn a few new things ie BTC. Not stated clearly in our earlier post is that we have time (5 months to first transfer and about 2 years to delivery) So time to sort through our options and how we will approach this part of the project.

Will post more when we settle on a path. MANY THANKS

[SV-Viento]

Originally Posted by captqrunch

Interactive Brokers, based in Connecticut, offers free accounts with no minimum balance and no monthly fees (IBKRLite accounts for individuals). You can convert your dollar balance to something like 20 different currencies including the Euro of course and hold that in your account. Commissions are extremely low, something like $2 per $100,000. They pay interest on your balance, unless it is held in a currency whose country has negative interest rates, like the Swiss franc. Give them a call to confirm this info but I believe you will find them hard to beat.

We like this thought and have explored in depth as it allows for currency conversion at minimal cost(.2bps) and transfers at very minimal cost $8) But it does require one extra step in that the transfer must be into a multi currency account held by the owner of the brokerage account. We can than transfer funds to the builder (wire transfer fee $35) will apply Hmmmmm.

[Symphony]

This is a great thread, with many people having actual experience in what they describe.

as far as "speculating" goes - we are all speculating all the time. Maybe stocks and BTC are not going up so much as the $US is going down. if you hold $US you are speculating that it will hold value or appreciate compared to other currencies, or oil, or any asset.

It's certainly a volatile time: stock market has plenty of items up hundreds of percent, TESLA is worth more than all other US car mfgrs, oil sold at negative $30 a barrel a few months back, and even today there are NYSE and NASDAQ stocks that gyrated 10% and 20%.

Ya picks yer horse and watch it run.
Buying a new boat is fun, and this is just learning how to pay for it - you still have to push the factory to build, harass to complete to contract, punch-list of make-goods before and after delivery, title, export import fees...

Richard
58' Vicem Classic (for sale)
Branford, CT

[DomPerignon]

Bitcoin and cryptos are coming but the on off ramps are not straightforward yet.
I’ve been using Remitly.

[SV-Viento]

Originally Posted by SV-Viento

We like this thought and have explored in depth as it allows for currency conversion at minimal cost(.2bps) and transfers at very minimal cost $8) But it does require one extra step in that the transfer must be into a multi currency account held by the owner of the brokerage account. We can than transfer funds to the builder (wire transfer fee $35) will apply Hmmmmm.

Ok - Quoting myself here but we found the thoughts in this thread very helpful and noted that we would followup - so here it is.

Indeed we have purchased/ordered a boat built in Sweden to be delivered in 2024 In order to Make the USD to SEK exchange we have utilized one of the above suggestions - WISE (formerly Transferwise). We feel the process has provided a fairly simple lowish cost way for making the currency conversion and payments. Below are some of the simple thoughts/lesson we discovered along the way.

1. We have essentially Dollar cost averaged our purchases/conversion of USD to SEK over the last 12mnths. This has allowed us to take advantage of an increasingly strong USD - exactly what we had hoped for. To be certain we had planned/budgeted for the opposite but for now the strong USD has been a nice surprise.

2. Working with WISE: We explored many options to make the conversion but holding currency in US banks other than USD is near impossible for US citizens, as discussed up thread. Utilizing WISE has allowed us to buy and hold foreign currency. Additionally Wise charges a stated fee and provides the mid market exchange rate. This is significantly better than any US bank we explored. And again has allowed us to purchase and hold SEK when rates are favorable.

3. Working with our US Bank: To get the USD to Wise and then make the exchange we still have to wire funds from our bank to Wise. Yes this cost money but it is a flat fee of 30 USD regardless quantity. Our bank also adjusted the mount we can send which has given greater flexibility to make the wire transfers and minimized the number of times we pay the small fee - it all adds up

4. Mistake and learning - initially we planned to purchase another boat and started to exchange USD for EURO. Not good. First banks and Fintech companies like Wise charge you to hold EURO as the EURO continues to have real negative interest rates. We took this into account but when we made the decision to go with a Swedish builder we had to exchange the EURO for SEK and that had a small associated cost.

5. Crypto - We genuinely dug into this idea and and I for one am looking forward to a world where we all trade/exchange one currency. While we didn't go this path and have yet to trade a dime of crypto its an interesting thought to think what would be if we had taken a small sum and exchanged it for BITC when this thread first started.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread it has been a huge help. V2

[David B]

Originally Posted by SV-Viento

Ok - Quoting myself here but we found the thoughts in this thread very helpful and noted that we would followup - so here it is.

Indeed we have purchased/ordered a boat built in Sweden to be delivered in 2024 In order to Make the USD to SEK exchange we have utilized one of the above suggestions - WISE (formerly Transferwise). We feel the process has provided a fairly simple lowish cost way for making the currency conversion and payments. Below are some of the simple thoughts/lesson we discovered along the way.

1. We have essentially Dollar cost averaged our purchases/conversion of USD to SEK over the last 12mnths. This has allowed us to take advantage of an increasingly strong USD - exactly what we had hoped for. To be certain we had planned/budgeted for the opposite but for now the strong USD has been a nice surprise.

2. Working with WISE: We explored many options to make the conversion but holding currency in US banks other than USD is near impossible for US citizens, as discussed up thread. Utilizing WISE has allowed us to buy and hold foreign currency. Additionally Wise charges a stated fee and provides the mid market exchange rate. This is significantly better than any US bank we explored. And again has allowed us to purchase and hold SEK when rates are favorable.

3. Working with our US Bank: To get the USD to Wise and then make the exchange we still have to wire funds from our bank to Wise. Yes this cost money but it is a flat fee of 30 USD regardless quantity. Our bank also adjusted the mount we can send which has given greater flexibility to make the wire transfers and minimized the number of times we pay the small fee - it all adds up

4. Mistake and learning - initially we planned to purchase another boat and started to exchange USD for EURO. Not good. First banks and Fintech companies like Wise charge you to hold EURO as the EURO continues to have real negative interest rates. We took this into account but when we made the decision to go with a Swedish builder we had to exchange the EURO for SEK and that had a small associated cost.

5. Crypto - We genuinely dug into this idea and and I for one am looking forward to a world where we all trade/exchange one currency. While we didn't go this path and have yet to trade a dime of crypto its an interesting thought to think what would be if we had taken a small sum and exchanged it for BITC when this thread first started.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread it has been a huge help. V2

Glad this is working out for you, and the new boat in 2024 is a great thing to look forward to. What are you buying?

For what it's worth we will stay with CITI for holding our funds (we buy elsewhere at 12-14 points off interbank). No fees, and they actually pay us interest on our EURO (or anything else for that matter) holdings. We are building up a fund big enough for when we are able to return to our boat in 2023 - there will be things to do for sure since 2019 .....

[SV-Viento]

Originally Posted by David B

Glad this is working out for you, and the new boat in 2024 is a great thing to look forward to. What are you buying?

For what it's worth we will stay with CITI for holding our funds (we buy elsewhere at 12-14 points off interbank). No fees, and they actually pay us interest on our EURO (or anything else for that matter) holdings. We are building up a fund big enough for when we are able to return to our boat in 2023 - there will be things to do for sure since 2019 .....

After years of looking we are purchasing an HR 400. Certainly lots to note, about why, but suffice it to say we are excited about the decision. FYI I don’t think HR is this far out on deliver times this is simply the deliver schedule that works for us. I think they are more or less booking orders into early 2023.

Your solution appears equally as good but it looks like you are in Australia. We did not look at CITI here in the states but rest assured we developed a better understanding re retail banking. Certainly there are many options to tackle the problem but with some thought and effort there is plenty of money to be saved.

Best of luck in 2023 - lots to look forward to.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by David B

Glad this is working out for you, and the new boat in 2024 is a great thing to look forward to. What are you buying?

For what it's worth we will stay with CITI for holding our funds (we buy elsewhere at 12-14 points off interbank). No fees, and they actually pay us interest on our EURO (or anything else for that matter) holdings. We are building up a fund big enough for when we are able to return to our boat in 2023 - there will be things to do for sure since 2019 .....

I have to believe you're mistaken about being paid interest on Euro. Maybe several years ago, but not today unless it's a nominal sum. What type of account, exactly, is this?

[David B]

Originally Posted by SV-Viento

After years of looking we are purchasing an HR 400. Certainly lots to note, about why, but suffice it to say we are excited about the decision. FYI I don’t think HR is this far out on deliver times this is simply the deliver schedule that works for us. I think they are more or less booking orders into early 2023.

Your solution appears equally as good but it looks like you are in Australia. We did not look at CITI here in the states but rest assured we developed a better understanding re retail banking. Certainly there are many options to tackle the problem but with some thought and effort there is plenty of money to be saved.

Best of luck in 2023 - lots to look forward to.

An HR - wonderful! Very good choice - even more exciting taking delivery of that!

Hope the process goes very well for you - very special time working up to, and taking delivery of a new boat .

[David B]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

I have to believe you're mistaken about being paid interest on Euro. Maybe several years ago, but not today unless it's a nominal sum. What type of account, exactly, is this?

July this year - no mistake. I had to buy more Euro to bring the account back up to an even number of thousands (don't like untidyness ).

The current interest rate for Euro is of course very low at the moment, but it all helps.

Account is a multicurrency account. I run it with AUD, EUR, GBP, NZD, USD. Automatically, (assuming you have the funds in the particular currency), the card debits the correct currency for the country we are in, whether getting cash at an ATM, or paying across the counter.

You can of course also do an EFT transfer online, but that costs EUR15, so I try to do it other ways (the institution I buy FX through, charges nothing).

Works very well for us.

[JamesPNW]

Use XE.com. It is fast, safe and easy

1. You need a recipient bank in EU to set up
2. Open an account with XE
3. Get on XE and do a quote on the amount you want transfer. No fee associated with high amount
4. XE agent will give you a quote of US dollars and exchange rate. You decide on the date
5. Amount about $10K Require a bank wire. US government require
6. Set date, wire money and done
7. You can break up the amount to multiple transfer if not comfortable with large amount

I transferred $300K to pay for my boat purchase in Spain. No problem, fast and secure. Don’t do Bitcoin or whatever other crypto scam. Seriously

[Steve_C]

I have just gone thru this and am helping a friend go thru this literally tonight. I spent forever looking at every alternative and by a large margin Wise was the least expensive. Their service is first rate and all very easy to use. In the last month I have sent hundreds of thousands to my Boat dealer in France (Euros) from the US. No regrets and will continue to use them on an ongoing basis. I even now have a debit card from them that I can use at any ATM to withdraw funds from my Wise account. Very well designed mobile app as well.

https://wise.com/invite/u/stevenc1695