International Banking Info Please

[wrwakefield]

If a US phone# will solve your current dilemna, and you have an Iridium GO, this unlimited data plan from Sea-Tech Systems includes a +1 US phone number for use with the Iridium Go. [And you keep your phone # even if you suspend this plan. No new SIM card needed to resume service.]

In case this is of interest.

Cheers! Bill

[Mithril Bham]

I have found Barclay of London easy to deal with. Skype number

[dougweibel]

Originally Posted by JEMS

Transferwise is one of those mentioned here. Although a decent service, there are many more that are faster, cheaper and far more INDIVIDUAL customer service oriented which is what one of you pain points are.

Can you name a few please?

[lady sophie]

I am retired now but lived and worked in 6 different countries over the years. I found that HSBC is by far the best international bank. In Asia it is a "local" bank everywhere with ATM's at every mall, etc. If you have accounts in different countries you can move monies between accounts with a click of the mouse and no fee. I have used them in Europe as well. Worth checking out.

[spotfire]

My credit union doesnt do transfers either. Other us banks have signed on to zelle, and we were able to use it on my wifes chase account to send cash to our daughter. seamless. Never heard of zelle until our daughter showed it to us.



Our phone is Vonage, so our cell works any where we have wifi, and we can call pretty much everywhere worldwide. Like most people outside the us, we use whatsup every day.


Good luck

[wingssail]

I use foreign telephones with local sim cards. Texts from the USA do not reach me and my bank constantly wants to verify who I am by sending me a text (generally they think I am using a new computer since my Internet service changes my IP address constantly, that is another problem)

But my bank will send me the verification code by email. I can get the email. Works fine.

Other sites (such as google) send me notifications to my foreign phone number, and that works fine.

PayPal is a problem but I have hacked around that.

So, I have NO US telephone and I get by fine, for now, that is.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by dougweibel

Can you name a few please?

I'll second that request. Why talk about your expertise and say that there are better options but then not list at least a couple of the best of those options?

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

What's a Revolut account...?

https://blog.revolut.com/revolut-launch-united-states/

Fees are extremely low to non existent and FX is at close to spot values

I have both a personal and business Revolut

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

https://blog.revolut.com/revolut-launch-united-states/

Fees are extremely low to non existent and FX is at close to spot values

I have both a personal and business Revolut

THANK you, GoBoating!

[David B]

Originally Posted by svjoyeux

We are 20 year + liveaboards and have been out of the USA for 17+ yrs. In all that time we have belonged to a small credit union which gave us personal service. Now they have merged with a larger CU and the service went away. One problem is our not having a US phone # for any transaction verification. As I see it we have two options; get a US phone # that will receive SMS messages internationally, or move banks. I'm looking for info/advice or personal success in one or both of these areas. We will not be going back to the US.



Rob
SY Joyeux
Marmaris, Turkey

Get a Multicurrency card from someone like Citibank.

The two-step authorisation process works just fine to our Australian mobile number wherever we are in the Med ,and doesn't cost us.

[JEMS]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

I'll second that request. Why talk about your expertise and say that there are better options but then not list at least a couple of the best of those options?

Please excuse my absence, haven’t lurked in awhile and I don’t have any notifications enabled for responses here.

Since you asked, here are my $0.02 non-fiduciary referrals, in order of whom I would utilize and who they are owned by if, they are utilizing a secondary license. Please realize that any discounts or ‘deals’ are volume based and the low rates that some advertise, really aren’t all that low when the fees and spreads are combined:

Venstar Exchange, Vermont based and utilizes the framework of Equals which is based in the UK. Great customer service, fair rates based on amount. Great for corporates as well. Partnered with Barclays, CITI and RBC. They are the ONLY organization that will offer individual local accounts and low cost forward contracts to persons as well as corporations.

AscendantFX, Toronto based and will do individuals on a case by case basis, YMMV if they will take on specific cases. They partner with BOA, JP Morgan and RBC.

AFEX, US based, primarily corporate but has a smaller individual solution. Partnering with BOA and JP Morgan. They recently were purchased by a larger entity but I am not 100% sure on who that was...I’ll come back and edit if I recall.

Revolut, good internet based cash transfer to card model. No negotiating rates and there are limits on transaction amounts.

The biggest measurable with any service is volume. No one is going to get interbank rates (what you see when you Google or go to any currency converter). Interbank rates are what the BOAs, JP Morgans, CITI, etc are paying, not what they are selling the currencies to you and I at. Everyone of the ones I just listed, are all licensed and monitored by FINRA and FINCEN in every state within the US but not all have the ability to sell or deal in every currency that isn’t sanctioned.

Each one of them is going to conduct the same checks outlined by the BSA (bank secrecy act) to mitigate money laundering, etc.

If anyone wants more information or has questions, I’m more than happy to help where I can.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by JEMS

Please excuse my absence, haven’t lurked in awhile and I don’t have any notifications enabled for responses here.

Since you asked, here are my $0.02 non-fiduciary referrals, in order of whom I would utilize and who they are owned by if, they are utilizing a secondary license. Please realize that any discounts or ‘deals’ are volume based and the low rates that some advertise, really aren’t all that low when the fees and spreads are combined:

Venstar Exchange, Vermont based and utilizes the framework of Equals which is based in the UK. Great customer service, fair rates based on amount. Great for corporates as well. Partnered with Barclays, CITI and RBC. They are the ONLY organization that will offer individual local accounts and low cost forward contracts to persons as well as corporations.

AscendantFX, Toronto based and will do individuals on a case by case basis, YMMV if they will take on specific cases. They partner with BOA, JP Morgan and RBC.

AFEX, US based, primarily corporate but has a smaller individual solution. Partnering with BOA and JP Morgan. They recently were purchased by a larger entity but I am not 100% sure on who that was...I’ll come back and edit if I recall.

Revolut, good internet based cash transfer to card model. No negotiating rates and there are limits on transaction amounts.

The biggest measurable with any service is volume. No one is going to get interbank rates (what you see when you Google or go to any currency converter). Interbank rates are what the BOAs, JP Morgans, CITI, etc are paying, not what they are selling the currencies to you and I at. Everyone of the ones I just listed, are all licensed and monitored by FINRA and FINCEN in every state within the US but not all have the ability to sell or deal in every currency that isn’t sanctioned.

Each one of them is going to conduct the same checks outlined by the BSA (bank secrecy act) to mitigate money laundering, etc.

If anyone wants more information or has questions, I’m more than happy to help where I can.

Actually if you set up a regular old retail account at Interactive Brokers you can buy currency at interbank rates with a couple bucks in commission and the bid/ask spread which for major currencies is a couple of pips or less. You can then wire out in the converted currency. I do it sometimes several times a month between CAD and USD to move money back and forth from my Canadian subsidiary. Note that Interactive Brokers is the only broker I know of that offers this and it's not the same thing as "forex trading" which doesn't involve actual conversion to foreign currency in your account. Its not actually Interactive Brokers' main businesses, they're a discount broker like Schwab, and having used their brokerage service for stocks I actually don't recommend them for that at all. But you simply can't beat the forex costs so I have an account I use only for that. Its probably not with the hassle for day to day stuff, I use Transferwise for that. But anything more than a few thousand dollars and you'll save a significant amount of money, essentially the entire .3-4% fee that even the least expensive currency conversion specialist either charge explicitly or bake into the exchange rate.

[JEMS]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

Actually if you set up a regular old retail account at Interactive Brokers you can buy currency at interbank rates with a couple bucks in commission and the bid/ask spread which for major currencies is a couple of pips or less. You can then wire out in the converted currency. I do it sometimes several times a month between CAD and USD to move money back and forth from my Canadian subsidiary. Note that Interactive Brokers is the only broker I know of that offers this and it's not the same thing as "forex trading" which doesn't involve actual conversion to foreign currency in your account. Its not actually Interactive Brokers' main businesses, they're a discount broker like Schwab, and having used their brokerage service for stocks I actually don't recommend them for that at all. But you simply can't beat the forex costs so I have an account I use only for that. Its probably not with the hassle for day to day stuff, I use Transferwise for that. But anything more than a few thousand dollars and you'll save a significant amount of money, essentially the entire .3-4% fee that even the least expensive currency conversion specialist either charge explicitly or bake into the exchange rate.

Who eats the outgoing/incoming wire fees or are those on top of the exchange/commissions?