[khhill]

To anyone who has converted over their USDs..Which company/service did you use to get the best exchange rate. All of the major banks are charging high fees and spreads above the wholesale rate. We have looked at 2 online companies NZforex.com and XE.com. We couldn't use NZforex.com because our US bank would not let us wire funds without being present in the US branch, which is rather expensive to fly back since we are already in NZ. XE.com can debit your account directly (with our signed authorization of course). Anyone have any experiences with them or another way to recommend?

Thanks

[clg]

We used XE at first, they were a little slow, about a week, but fine. We ended up doing most directly with the bank though. I asked them for a better rate and they gave it to us, beating XE. We are with National Bank.

Chris

[Park City Partner]

I have been using XE.com and they have been fine. The wire fees are very cheap compared to what our bank would charge. I am looking at other options but for now they are very easy to use. A bit of a pain to get set-up initially but now easy.

[khhill]

Thank you for insights CLG and Park City Partner. We finalized our application with XE last night and put in our first order. :) We've already been warned that our particular US bank is one of the more difficult to verify for EFT transfers, but XE gets to haggle with the bank instead of us!

Thanks again!

[Oregonkiwi]

I'm glad to hear that xe.com are good, I was looking at the site last night and it does look like a useful service. They were very vague about their wire transfer fees though, I guess the fees vary depending on the banks involved and such, but I was wondering if someone could give me an idea of what their wire fees are? My US bank charges $42 (flat rate) to send an international wire transfer and I'm wondering how xe.com compares to that.
Thanks!

[clg]

I think they charge 12.50 for a wire. Their actual trade rates are not as good as those listed at xe.com. EG right now the rate is something like .63 they will change at .64

[Park City Partner]

Trade rates definitely depend on your volume. Our wire fees have been about $13...much cheaper than the banks. We also have accounts with UBS and have wired from them as well. When we wire from UBS we get the actual Bloomberg rate which is the best you can get but pay a higher wire fee. It took a while to get set up, for some unknown reason, but it worked out rather well as we transfered a BIG chunk o' cash at less than 61 cents!

I also know that Westpac offers 3 different rates depending on how the money comes in. The wire rate is the best and doesn't seem to far off the mark.

[clg]

Sort of related to this. Has anyone done options? I am going to look into taking out an option of US$ to NZ$ now since I am a bit worried about what the US$ may do... I am trying to time it right for one last transfer. I tried setting one up from XE but ran into some issues. I am going to talk to my bank next week but was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. If people are intersted I will post what I find.

[walter]

We've used XE for a couple trades from the US. The wire fees have been similar to those listed above. The rates are definitely tied to volume, we've transferred two quite different amounts and the difference in the rates from the rates shown on xe.com were very different, with the larger amount having a much smaller difference. Even at the smaller amount, though, the rate was better than our bank would do, and fees are way better. Once you are signed up, you can preview the rates by entering a transaction and see how you'd do with different amounts.

Walter

[Oregonkiwi]

I've been researching the different ways to get money from US to NZ and the fees involved, thought I'd share it here. (I've looked at the fees for Wells Fargo and ASB, other banks may be different; and I haven't looked into whose exchange rates are best.)

1. carry US$ cash from US to NZ. Easy, no fees, but impractical for large amounts.
2. travelers checks. Cost 1.5% to purchase, safer than cash, impractical for large amounts.
3. deposit personal US check in NZ account. Free except for 5 cents stamp duty, super easy, but takes 21 days to process so no guarantee what exchange rate you'll get in 21 days time.
4. international wire transfer. Safe, fast (3-5 days?), but have to be at US bank in person. Wells Fargo charges $40 to send, ASB charges $10 to receive.
5. use US credit card in NZ then pay bill out of US account. Visa charges 3% currency fee.
6. use US ATM card in NZ ATM. WellsFargo charges $5 for cash from ATM, 3% on electronic purchases, $3 for cash advance at bank. Limited by ATM daily limits.
7. companies like xe.com - discussed above. Free except for wire transfer fees (xe.com's fee to send and NZ bank's fee to receive.)
8. Paypal - in theory you could use 2 Paypal accounts, one linked to US account and one linked to NZ account, to transfer money to yourself. 2.5% currency conversion fee.
9.Open account with bank with branches in NZ and US. Haven't explored this one yet.

Please add corrections, comments, suggestions...

[Smiler]

Hi Oregonkiwi

Not sure about the Paypoo account, they would also charge you for the payment even though it is to yourself. In which case the fee would be anything up to 3.4% plus the currency conversion fee. :wah:wah

[sweetpea]

Citibank allows you to do international wire transfers from your account -- all online.

Wire fees were about average, as was exchange rate, IIRC.