Relocating to US - Paid in Euro

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GoldDigga

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I will be relocating to the US next month for one year with the company I currently work for. I will continue to be paid as normal to my BOI current account.

The plan was that i would keep my AIB credit card in credit and use this to withdraw cash from ATM's without any charges. However, From March AIB are introducing cash advance fees on their visa cards.

Euro region 1.75% of transaction fee
Rest of World 2.75% of transaction fee


So I will be opening a US account when i get over. What is the most cost efficient way of transferring money across to my US account?
 
You will probably be charged a wire fee per transaction. The most cost effective way is to do the transfers in large amounts.

You will also be charged a large EURUSD FX margin. The most cost effective way is to do the transfers is via a currency broker such as currency.ie

It is also of note that PTSB offer retail USD bank accounts with no minimum balances. It might be handy for you to have a ROI USD bank account.

How will you complete the transfers? Can you do them over the phone with AIB?
 
The other option would be to use a laser card to draw money from your current account.
 
Thanks for the replies

It is also of note that PTSB offer retail USD bank accounts with no minimum balances. It might be handy for you to have a ROI USD bank account.
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Would I need to have an Irish PTSB current account to open a RIO USD bank account?

The other option would be to use a laser card to draw money from your current account
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I have a CIRRUS / Maestro laser card so this would be possible. I need to find out from AIB what the charges involved are. They could have gone up in price along with everything else!
 
If you open a US account, your best option is to either use IB, or do a peer to peer currency exchange using currencyfair.

But you don't need a US account. Just get a euro account that gives you the market forex rate on ATM withdrawals. There is a dutch bank that offers this, listed here.

I highly doubt XE is giving you free transfers. They need to make money, and most likely hide their profit in the exchange rate. Only banks can offer totally free forex transactions, because they can profit by holding your money for long periods of time (in your current or savings account).
 
XE Trade is free for Draft or EFT transfers. These are slower than a Wire transfer which they do charge for. This information below is from their FAQ section.

Do you charge any commissions or transaction fees?
No. We do not charge any commissions or transaction fees. The only possible "extra charge" you could incur from us is if you choose to have your funds delivered by Wire Transfer, instead of by EFT or Draft (which are both free). However, unlike with the banks, XE Trade Wire Transfers from us are done as close to "cost" as possible, and any fees for an outgoing Wire Transfer from us are always stated up front before you confirm your transaction.

To see a list of XE Trade wire costs, see question #2 below.

We make our money on what is known as the "spread". This is the small difference between the price we quote you for a transaction and our actual cost of completing the transaction for you. Since foreign exchange is our specialty, we can do this extremely efficiently. In addition, our volumes allow us to make the spread as low as possible. The result is a much lower transaction cost than other providers, and without any extra per-transaction "commissions" or "fees" that are common elsewhere.

Important: The mid-market rates shown in our free information tools and services are the midpoint between the buy rates and the sell rates prevailing in the market. No trades ever occur at these rates. For more information on mid-market rates, see the next section below
 
GoldDigga said:
We make our money on what is known as the "spread".
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Indeed, xe conceals their commission in the spread, and they also conceal the spread itself by not showing the bid and ask, so traders have no way of knowing in advance what the cost of the trade will actually be.
 
Indeed, xe conceals their commission in the spread, and they also conceal the spread itself by not showing the bid and ask, so traders have no way of knowing in advance what the cost of the trade will actually be.
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Im not sure what you mean here. When i log on to XE Trade, i book the trade at the price listed, so the cost of trade is listed in advance. There are no costs for the user for EFT or Drafts
 
GoldDigga said:
Im not sure what you mean here. When i log on to XE Trade, i book the trade at the price listed, so the cost of trade is listed in advance. There are no costs for the user for EFT or Drafts
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XE makes their money on the spread. But they don't show us the bid and ask prices, only the midmarket price.

I don't have an account, so perhaps they show more information after someone signs up. Certainly there is no way to know how much they're taking based on the data on the public part of their webpage. Personally, I wouldn't go to the trouble of signing up unless I know what they're charging first; in this case, that means knowing how big the spread is.
 
XE makes their money on the spread. But they don't show us the bid and ask prices, only the midmarket price.
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Sorry, Im not familiar with these terms. Could you please explain.

When i make a trade, i book the quote at the exchange rate listed. The rate i book the trade on is locked in and thats the price i pay. I then transfer this via EFT to my US bank account for free, so where am i being charged for this service? It's not the exchange rate, because the rates they list are better than i would get in any bank.

I'm sure XE make some money other wise they wouldn't be providing the service, but i can not see how this is costing me?
 
GoldDigga said:
Sorry, Im not familiar with these terms. Could you please explain.

When i make a trade, i book the quote at the exchange rate listed. The rate i book the trade on is locked in and thats the price i pay. I then transfer this via EFT to my US bank account for free, so where am i being charged for this service? It's not the exchange rate, because the rates they list are better than i would get in any bank.

I'm sure XE make some money other wise they wouldn't be providing the service, but i can not see how this is costing me?
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For a rough, simplified example, suppose the midmarket exchange rate this second is 1.50 EURUSD, and it's published on XE's website. That figure is not a real trading figure. The "bid" might be 1.55 (meaning traders holding euros are asking $1.55 for them), and the "ask" might be 1.45 (meaning traders holding USD only want to pay $1.45 for each euro). In that case, the "spread" is 10 cents. If you're selling euros, XE is going to give you the worst price ($1.45). XE is then going to take $1.55 for every euro they give to the reciprocal traders and give them the worst price also. XE pockets the 10 cent difference on every dollar.

That's just an illustration of how it works. XEs spread is probably not a whopping 10 cents. A 10 cent spread is typical of a cash exchange booth. But whatever it is, it's probably higher than spreads you would get with "spread betting" currency brokers. Spreads offered by currency brokers are measured in hundredths of a penny ("pips"). 2-3 pips is typical.

In my crude example, based on what you've said, XE would quote you 1.45 so there are no surprises. But they're obviously not telling you what the spread is, so your fuzzy on how much they're making. You may be able to figure it out, if you look at the midmarket price that they publish, and compare it to the less favorable rate that they show you can book - but that's some effort. Why aren't they outright showing you the bid and ask as it changes every second, so you can easily work out the real cost? Presumably the spread is not tight enough and it would turn off customers.
 
Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate it.

In my situation, it doesn't really matter to me that they don't display what exactly they are making. I know what exchange rate i am getting. It's better than my bank will give me and they won't be charging me a transfer fee. That's good enough for me :)
 
as previous posts there are a few good options availalble to you.

use a currency broker would be my advice, but as said it worth doing it in chunks as you will not recieve the most compeitive rate of exchange if you do under €2/3k.

There are many good foreign currency exchange advice sites[FONT=&quot][/FONT] out there that break down the process in more detail.
 
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