Question About International Wire Transfer

[annamaria]

Hello everybody,

I have a question about international wire transfers which may sound kind of naive/shady (I'm still trying to understand the banking system here) so I'm just going to go ahead and ask. I need to do an international wire transfer in dollars to a bank account in the UK from my US account (or it could be Paypal). My bank in the US tells me I need to go to a branch there to do the wire transfer in person, which I can't do. Is there any other way to do an international wire transfer? Any ideas? Please help this clueless soul.

Thanks!!

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Hello everybody,

I have a question about international wire transfers which may sound kind of naive/shady (I'm still trying to understand the banking system here) so I'm just going to go ahead and ask. I need to do an international wire transfer in dollars to a bank account in the UK from my US account (or it could be Paypal). My bank in the US tells me I need to go to a branch there to do the wire transfer in person, which I can't do. Is there any other way to do an international wire transfer? Any ideas? Please help this clueless soul.

Thanks!!

I've always done wire transfers from the US by phone.

 

[wineguy999]

Hello everybody,

I have a question about international wire transfers which may sound kind of naive/shady (I'm still trying to understand the banking system here) so I'm just going to go ahead and ask. I need to do an international wire transfer in dollars to a bank account in the UK from my US account (or it could be Paypal). My bank in the US tells me I need to go to a branch there to do the wire transfer in person, which I can't do. Is there any other way to do an international wire transfer? Any ideas? Please help this clueless soul.

Thanks!!

Sounds like a pretty cheesy bank. I have accounts at four different banks, and I can do transfers online with any of them. If they won't set that up with you, it's time to change your bank.

 

[sleslie23]

Sounds like a pretty cheesy bank. I have accounts at four different banks, and I can do transfers online with any of them. If they won't set that up with you, it's time to change your bank.

I have Wellsfargo (agreed it's cheezy) and they will not allow direct wire transfers online. They force you to go through a 3rd part service called SurePay which requires the recipient to register and provide account information and address, which they verify. However, I can go into a branch and do the deed with no problem (I didn't try the phone).

In the end I just used Paypal, which BTW asked me to provide proof of identity, address, ans SSN before I could add money to my account. It seems like the old deys of freely and easily moving money around are coming to an end.

 

[ben]

It depends on the bank. Chase will definitely let you do a wire online. Smaller banks, say TD, won't.

PayPal works OK as long as you're not in a rush.

 

[Ceviche]

Chase is a very good option to do wire online sitting in BA.

 

[Girino]

Also xe.com offers this kind of service, and I have heard only good things about them. However, I have never tried them myself.

 

[ElQueso]

I just saw this today, thought I'd answer as well.

The reason they may not let you wire is because you haven't signed a wire agreement (don't know fi you have, just putting it out as a possibility). AFAIK, there are few personal accounts that "come with" the ability to do wire transfers and you have to tell them you want to send wires. Even small business accounts don't usually automatically come with wiring enabled. Nowadays with all the controls the US is putting on everything, for everyone's protection of course, banks have to "know the person" they're doing business with, which usually means people have to be face-to-face nowadays for critical operations like signing a piece of paper saying it's OK for the bank to send your money off into the ether at your command.

As to whether or not your bank has online wire transfers, that is a different story. I know a lot that don't and I don't have accounts there. but most should at least have phone or fax access even if not through the internet. But you still have to sign the papers to get set up for wiring.

You might ask your bank if you can pay to have the papers couriered down, sign them and send them back, but I doubt they will allow it these days.

 

[wongjoh]

@annamaria, what US bank do you have specifically? BofA and others do allow international transfers without in-person intervention.

 

[Ceviche]

Consider using services of 3rd party service providers such as

usforex.com

They will always give better rate than a bank when making international transfer in a non USD currency. They usually charge very less for transfer fees.