# sending 40K to Singapore, what the cheapest & simplest?



## Horatio (2 May 2007)

Hi everyone, I need to move some money abroad & I need to tap yis're knowledge...

1)does anyone there have experience of the cheapest way to send E40K to Singapore?  

2)If so what are the costs likely to be?

3)Are there any further charges on the Singapore side ?

4)Am I likely to get the 3rd degree from the bank, is it any of their business?

Many thanks,
H.


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## inspector (18 May 2007)

give us the price of the air fares an me and the missus and a couple of the kids will take in 10 grand each for you...always fancied a stay in singapore. ha ha


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## extopia (18 May 2007)

Why don't you just send a cheque. 

Third degree - why would the bank care about how you spend your money? (unless you have a mortgage and just sold the house without telling them)


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## ClubMan (18 May 2007)

Surely an _Irish _cheque will be of no use abroad?

Have you checked the cost of a wire transfer from your bank? 

Would _PayPal _be an option - but check the charges as I'm not sure what they would be here.

I believe that the charges for the likes of _Western Union _are high.

As far as I know money laundering regulations will require them to at least ask about transactions over €12,700 (?) or any amount if they are suspicious.


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## extopia (19 May 2007)

An Irish cheque can be converted to local currency at the far end. The costs of this at the far end would be borne by the recipient (which is probably fair enough). From the sender's point of view, it's the cheapest and least troublesome option.


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## Thedoc (19 May 2007)

Horatio,
I've sent money to China and Thailand in the past few years so I can;t speak about Singapore. I used the AIB's Paylink. No problems encountered. It cost 20 euro per transfer. I'm sure other Irish banks offer the same facility

You'll need details of the receiving account in Singapore, as well as the Banks SWIFT/BIC code (a 9 or 11 digit code), bank address etc, etc 

I don;t know what banks there will charge for receiving the money, the moeny may or may not be converted into the local currecy at transfer. Usually it's held in the currency it was sent in, in your case, it will be Euro

Money transfers like Western Union is a possibility, I never used them but did investigate them when I had transfers to make, seemed more expensive than going through my local bank.

Hope this helps.


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## Thedoc (19 May 2007)

Sorry, just to correct my previous post,

Receiving Bank SWIFT address/BIC:  It's an 8 or 11 characters


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## marksa (19 May 2007)

Horatio said:


> Hi everyone, I need to move some money abroad & I need to tap yis're knowledge...
> 
> 1)does anyone there have experience of the cheapest way to send E40K to Singapore?
> 
> H.


 
You have not mentioned whether you have to give the recipient SGD or just EUR40k. Do they have a Euro account if it is the latter? If you have to give them EUR40k equivalent in SGD. i.e. approx SGD82500. Depending on which bank you go to, they will charge you approx 1% on this in fxmargin, and then a "commission" fee of probably anywhere from EUR20-50. I would suggest that the most efficient and speedy way to get SGD to them is to send it via an electronic payment.  I bank with NIB and the commission fee would be...Sender pays costsAs the sender, you must pay 0.15% min. €15.00 and max. €35.00 as well as the foreign costs of €15.00.

The fx margin is the buy/sell spread from the interbank rate. For most banks in Ireland, they would take a wide margin on SGD, but EUR40k is a decent size deal for SGD, so you should be able to get around 1%. Get indication rates from a few banks - AIB, NIB, UBL and possibly FEXCO - I think BoI are not the best on rates. Do shop around on the rate as 1% = EUR400.

Most likely as has already been mentioned, the amount will attract a question from Bank as to purpose, and I presume that this should not be a show stopper unless you are up to something hooky, in which case you would probably not be talking to AAM!


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## KerryG (19 May 2007)

Irish cheque would be fairly useless unless the person on the other end can wait a long time for it to clear, I imagine the bank over there would send it for 'special collection' as would be done here and it costs and takes ages.   I was recently trying to send 1,000 to Canada and for starters it appears no bank will do it unless you have an account with them, it is difficult to even buy a foreign draft from a bank you dont deal with (money laundering rules again).   Bank here could tell me their charges but couldnt confirm what bank in Canada would be likely to charge or how long it would take to reach persons account.   As it wasnt such a big sum the easiest solution in the end for me was to lodge it their credit card account & let them draw it out of ATM over there.


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## marksa (19 May 2007)

KerryG said:


> Irish cheque would be fairly useless


 
Cheque! Along with UK, Ireland is the last bastion of this stone age method of payment. 

Get into the real world - electronic payments are the norm everywhere else on the planet (apart from CASH!). As KerryG advises, your payee in Singapore will lose a fortune on clearing an Irish Cheque, or indeed a Euro denominated draft drawn on an Irish Bank as this is effectively the same as your personal cheque. Used to work in International Trade end of banking, and this is the one area that Banks can really cream the charges.


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## Optimistic (19 May 2007)

We have used WSG based in the UK and have checked Moneycorp, who are also UK based.  Check them against rates that you can get from the Irish banks. So far we ahve found that there is a considerable difference in rates offered.  We always send funds by wire transfer and have not had any problems so far.  You will need to register with the above mentionded companies to authorize a transfer, but this is only sending a utility bill and passport copy. If you want details, I can forward. I have no vested interest with the above companies for the record.

 Optimistic


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## extopia (21 May 2007)

OK - we'll forget about the cheque.


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