# Son a student in USA



## davep (23 Jan 2011)

My son is a student on erasmus for one year in Boston. 

My problem has been how to send him cash.

 I am with AIB here and he has opened an account with Bank of America. 

I initially transferred cash to his Irish AIB account and he drew from that via ATM in USA.

However there was a limit of $300 per day and he had a charge of €6.50 for each transaction. 

His rent is $650 so he needed multiple visits to get cash to transfer to his USA account. 

I sent via my online a/c to Bank of America the full amount....BUT AIB charged me €15 per transaction plus the exchange rate and then Bank of America took a further $25 fee!

I have now been told that I can send a bank draft in dollars from his student a/c here and post it to him! (digital age..my a...)

Can anyone give me the easy, cheapest way to get cash, dollars to my son?

Many thanks
Dave


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## niceoneted (23 Jan 2011)

Western Union - would it be of use. Not sure of their fees though but may be cheaper option.


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## onq (23 Jan 2011)

Can he not get a current account with a cheque book in the States?
Can he not transfer the monent direct to the landlord's account?
As in one large "wadge" that may attract lower transaction fees.
It is per transcation or is it based on the total transferred?

ONQ.


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## davep (23 Jan 2011)

Thanks for reply.

Getting the USA account with a cheque book is no good as the problem is getting to cash/money to the USA. 

Direct transfer to landlord still costs me online from AIB and there is a facilitation charge in the USA bank.

A large "wadge" is still charged as a percentage of the total.

It seems that the bank draft is the cheapest...unless someone knows better

Thanks
Dave


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## horusd (23 Jan 2011)

Have a look at currency.ie. Was discussed on AAM previously (2008). See http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=74320.  From a quick look at their website they seem to have changed name (been taken over?) by transfermate.com


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## sustanon (23 Jan 2011)

use Paypal


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## onq (23 Jan 2011)

davep said:


> Thanks for reply. Getting the USA account with a cheque book is no good as the problem is getting to cash/money to the USA. Direct transfer to landlord still costs me online from AIB and there is a facilitation charge in the USA bank. A large "wadge" is still charged as a percentage of the total. It seems that the bank draft is the cheapest...unless someone knows better
> Thanks
> Dave



I think you've just exposed another set of shapr practices and shyster charges by banks in relation to realtime electronic transactions that cost them virtually nothing.
This is the kind of rabid overcharging perpetrated by banks that allows them to pay their cheif executives ridiculously high salaries they do not deserve.

ONQ.


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## jkresge (23 Jan 2011)

there are many solutions man you can use western union you can transfer hi through his account and you can transfer credit to his credit card thats not a big deal


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## Greta (23 Jan 2011)

niceoneted said:


> Western Union - would it be of use. Not sure of their fees though but may be cheaper option.



Try Western Union or Moneygram, whichever works out cheaper. Or just send that draft (ridiculous, I know, but...)


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## landmarkjohn (24 Feb 2011)

I have same situation. How I do it is:

Both setup PayPal accounts, www.paypal.com You need to verify your PayPal account using credit card for example (your son can use his Bank of America card, he will initially be able to tranfer money from his PayPal acc to his BOA acc but he will hit a limit and then needs to verify)

From your paypal account select send money and select the "living expense" option as this does not incur extra fees for the recipient like a "payment". Today I sent $160 and the charge was $5.75. I think on a $500 transfer I get charged around $20. I am pretty sure your son will not get charged for transferring into his BOA account.

Also if you end up with $ in your paypal account you can transfer to his paypal for no charge, I did this today also.

 Kids are great ;->


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## GoldDigga (4 Mar 2011)

open an XE Trade account. http://www.xe.com/fx/
There is a little bit of hassle in setting one up. Emailing ID, Bank ststements and then having a verification phone call. I haver just set one up and intend on using it for a similar purpose to your son's. I will be working in the US, but will still be paid in Euro to my Irish bank account.

If you transfer funds using a draft or EFT transfer, it's free and they claim the rates are better than any banks.


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## beffers (4 Mar 2011)

I have accounts at the Bank of Ireland and a major bank in the States. I transfer money all the time to my US account via the Bank of Ireland's website. There is no way around those fees if you do it online. I know, it sucks. When my mother used to mail me old fashioned bank drafts, there was never a fee on  her end to get it from the bank. It was a perk of having whatever kind of account that she had, so you could look into that, but there was always the worry of it getting lost in the mail. I like doing it myself via online banking as there are no third parties involved getting their eyes on my private information.


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## Greta (5 Mar 2011)

I live in the UK and for years I used to write to the Bank of Ireland asking to send me a sterling draft for X amount, and they did. They usually tried to phone up and check but if they couldn't get through, they send the draft anyway. So I was able to do it all myself, without involving any relatives in Ireland, even without online banking.

The draft could get lost in the post but never did. And it was account payee only, so could only be lodged into my account in the UK. If it had got lost, it could have been cancelled.

Now BOI introduced the option of international money transfer into its online banking, so I do the transfers online and BOI doesn't charge any fees for transfers to the UK, though it's different with transfers to the US.


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## bullworth (5 Mar 2011)

another option is visit him and take the physical cash with you and lodge it upon arrival. the saved commission deducted from flight costs could mean a bargain price.


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## candyflipper (7 Mar 2011)

Since you're the generous donor here, you should transfer euros to a local euro-denominated account in your sons name, and be done with it.  Make it his problem to move the money, since he's benefiting from it.

For the sons end of it, he should have an account in both Ireland and the US.  He should then consider opening an Interactivebrokers account.  It will cost him $10/month to maintain, but he will get the absolute rock bottom cost of moving the money (assuming Irish banks don't charge to transfer money to Germany where IBs bank is).  IB will enable him to trade currencies with realtime spot rates, and ACH the money to a US account for free.

Also, there is one bank in Europe that charges no ATM fees and no FX fees - Argenta, which seems to only exist in NL and BE.  If he can get an account at Argenta, then he can draw cash out with no fees (but he'll still have the ATM limits to deal with).


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## Ravima (7 Mar 2011)

currencyfair.com.

You register your account as feeder account and his account as other account. transfer from one to the other at €3 per withdrawal to his account.


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## candyflipper (8 Mar 2011)

Ravima said:


> currencyfair.com.
> 
> You register your account as feeder account and his account as other account. transfer from one to the other at €3 per withdrawal to his account.



I don't believe €3 is the only cost.  I believe currencyfair has a spread built into it as well, so the real cost is €3 + a percentage.


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## Ravima (8 Mar 2011)

well, you pick the rate you want, not them.

If you are not happy, you can put in a different rate and hope that the trade will match.


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## candyflipper (8 Mar 2011)

Ravima said:


> well, you pick the rate you want, not them.
> 
> If you are not happy, you can put in a different rate and hope that the trade will match.



It's quite useful that you can use a limit order to keep the trade under control.  

However, if the spread is wide, then the order won't execute.. or if it does execute, you might wish it hadn't because it would mean that the fluctuation was substantially more in your favor, perhaps enough to have revised your limit.  How long does a limit order last on currencyfair, before it expires?

I have no doubt that currencyfair beats the banks rate.  It's easy to beat the banks rate.  All online exchange services generally beat the banks rate.  How they compare to each other is the more interesting question.  Online exchangers never beat spread betting rates.


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