# Euro to Dollar via AIB to Bank of America - 100 Euro Example



## dmce (8 Dec 2011)

Hi Folks,
I'd like to share some figures to get your feedback on AIB/BOA's charges on converting EURO to USD and to see if anyone has any advice on how best to transfer funds from AIB to BOA.

Scenario:
As a test I decided to transfer 100euro from my AIB current account to my BOA current account via the International payment tool in AIB online banking. It appears that there is a standard 15 euro charge for transferring euro sums which are deemed non-urgent. I chose to transfer in euro and then have BOA convert to USD at the other end.

From checking my AIB current account I see that 115euro was deducted. This obviously includes the AIB transfer charge so 100euro was sent to BOA (assuming AIB make no further charges - see below).

From checking my BOA account the amount deposited was 121.69 USD. The Euro/Dollar exchange rate at the time was approx 1.34 (the transfer was complete in 2 days). With no charges I would have received 134 USD. This means that 12.31 USD was deducted prior to deposit in BOA.

- Does anyone know if AIB charge for anything else other than the standard 15Euro? I presume not since I transferred EURO currency so that the EURO to USD conversion would be completed on the BOA side.

- If the 12.31 USD was deducted by BOA does anyone know the breakdown of this charge in terms of say handling fee, commission, exchange rate spread? I have struggled to find any information regarding charges on the BOA website (I have emailed them and will report back when/if I receive a response).

- Has anyone managed to transfer EURO from AIB to BAO via what they believe is a cheaper method and if so how?

- is there any consensus on whether it is cheaper to transfer USD from AIB to BOA as opposed to EURO? Perhaps BOA would not then have the chance to charge for currency exchange etc. (assuming that is what makes up the bulk of the 12.31 USD charge).

Ideally, if I can understand all the charges I'd like to be able to predict (within the variation of the exchange rate) exactly how much USD would be received when a sum of say 5,000 euro is transferred.

Thanks.


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## thunder99 (8 Dec 2011)

The only way to effectively predict the rate, is to transfer it on AIB's side. Main street banks will always have higher charges/currency commissions than brokers, so it might be worth looking at a company like transfermate.com if you intend doing a lot of transfers.


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## Lightning (8 Dec 2011)

+1. Use a 3rd party provider like Transfermate. Dont use BOA or AIB for FX conversion.


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