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Non-Bank providers for international wire transfers to new USD Futures broker account
I am hoping that it is correct to post this new thread in the 'Reviews' section of FIO in asking for any reviews of vendors that supply international wire transfers.
I have recently set up a new Futures broker account and as a result, I need to transfer AUD from my Australian bank account to the USD bank account of the broker in Chicago. After discovering the very uncompetitive exchange rate being offered by my retail bank for the currency conversion on the wire transfer, I am looking at alternative vendors.
When looking at the exchange rates and fees being offered by providers such as Transferwise, XE.com, OFX.com ... their total costs of transfer vary between 1/8th and 1/11th of the transfer costs of the retail bank! This, of course, is a huge difference in cost, particularly for transferring the value of the trading account. However, I have had no experience in using vendors such as these.
Do any FIO members have any experience in using these or other international wire transfer vendors and care to share their reviews? I have looked at the online reviews of these vendors ... they are very mixed. I would feel a lot more comfortable in hearing the feedback from FIO members.
As always, I say thank you to the FIO members for reading my thread and for your contributions.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
First thing I would do is confirm with your USA broker that they will accept a wire transfer from an intermediary as opposed to directly from a bank.
Due to anti money laundering rules they can be quite pedantic eg money must come from a bank account that is exactly in the same name as your trading account etc.
Not sure if doing it via TransferWise etc will provide this level of transparency for the US broker.
I have never bothered as my bank in NZ gives me very good FX rates.
Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future - Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist
Both you and the international wire transfer company (XE) shared the same concerns about the US-based broker not accepting 3rd party bank transfer deposits so I contacted the broker. You were on point ... the broker will only accept the incoming funds from the named trading account holder.
The next approach for me will be to open a USD currency account with my regular bank (which I had been intending to do anyway in the near future), and use XE to convert AUD to USD for a fraction of the cost of the retail bank charges. I will then transfer USD to the broker. The calculations to include all bank fees are indicating a cost of saving of approx. $2,800!
For normal transfers between my UK > NZ bank accounts I now use transferwise (previously I used HIFX) I but haven't used them for sending/receiving broker funds. I've also gone down the route of having a US$ account with my regular bank.
I have the transferwise borderless account in which you get an account number, US swift code, routing number(ACH) , a/c in your name which apparantly "works like a bank account". I haven't really looked it into & have never used it so dont know if a broker would pay into that account.
