Please be open to feedback and constructive criticism from others, and consider their suggestions and advice when making decisions or forming opinions.
- Manlobbi
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
No. of Recommendations: 0
I just opened a Wise account as my visa process gets rolling, and found that they do not support externally initiated ACH transfers into a USD denominated Wise account (at least for new Wise customers).
The options appears to be an ACH initiated from the Wise side for 0.28% fee, or sending USD to a GBP-denominated Wise account, which I expect would at least incur the sending institution's SWIFT fee. Are there cheaper options for funding the Wise account? For a few hundred bucks I don't care, but when looking at funding a bank account in Portugal with a much larger amount, I'd like to minimize the overhead.
No. of Recommendations: 0
or sending USD to a GBP-denominated Wise account
Maybe it's more accurate to say "sending USD to Wise GBP account details"? I don't entirely understand how this works yet, and am guessing it's suggested because US Treasury put some additional barriers in place either specific to Wise or structurally to this industry.
No. of Recommendations: 1
I have a Wise account, but rarely use it. Doing an ACH pull
with the 0.28% fee for small amounts seems to work fine.
For larger amounts (and what I do 2-3 times per year) is
international wire transfers from my Schwab account to my
Portuguese bank. It's nominally a flat $15 fee, therefore
it works out so anything above $5000 is better through Schwab.
I usually get the $15 fee waived when I request the wire
transfer, but it's not a big deal either way.
-Rubic
No. of Recommendations: 0
Thanks! Good to know, I will have to reopen a Schwab account. Was hoping just IBKR would be sufficient but it will be good to have backups.
Do you find that FX rates are comparable on Wise and with Schwab?
No. of Recommendations: 1
<< Do you find that FX rates are comparable on Wise and with Schwab? >>
Yes, both have good rates. With Schwab, they will lock in the FX rate
with you on the phone just before executing the transfer. You can
cancel the transfer within 30 minutes with no additional fees applied.
I also think Schwab does a good just of identity verification (e.g.
voice recognition, questions about recent activity, etc.) as well as
taking care to ensure your transfer is going where you intend it
to go.
IRK.R is probably fine too, but I have no experience with them. It's
probably easy to compare transfers rates between the two brokerages.
-Rubic
No. of Recommendations: 2
Followup just to note that Wise is issuing "account details" e.g. routing / ACH numbers, now, and it's possible to initiate a transfer externally into your Wise account (or at least, to mine) at zero cost. Also Wise is paying a reasonable interest rate on cash balances ATM, which is nice.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Not sure what a WISE account is, but Intteractive Brokers allows currency purchasees at approximately the bank rate (tiny commission). From there you can wire the currency to your foreign account.
Not sure if this helps - but just in case.
Jeff
No. of Recommendations: 4
I do have an IBKR account but I find the site exceedingly difficult to use. The website is complex and confusing (try something simple like finding a "monthly statement", something every other of the dozens of financial institution I've dealt with generated for me). Perhaps it's because they're targeting active traders who need or want the incredible levels of fine-grained control and access they offer, but simple day-to-day things are not simple.
Also, I've found IBKR to be faux-security conscious to the point of unusability for a lot of common scenarios. Want to initiate an external ACH from IBKR after you've configured the connection? That requires you go into their app - not their website - to "approve" the transfer within a narrow time window after they hear about it. Want to initiate an ACH *out* of IBKR? You can't even configure the connection unless it's to an institution that's already done an *inbound* transfer, and you have to send them statements showing the transfer from the other institution - or a physical letter, signed in "ink", from the other institution validating your account, to be physically mailed to IBKR. Want to just login to the website? You must have the app running separately on a mobile device to "approve" it.
Maybe there's a justified level of paranoia behind measures I have never encountered anywhere else. But it makes me think that, should I emigrate, actually *using* IBKR may become difficult to the point of unviability. It's barely usable as a US resident, IME.
FWIW Wise is just about managing currency exchange and is quite easy to use now that my funding issue is resolved - foreign bank account up and running nicely, IBANs are simple to use by comparison to US ACH.
No. of Recommendations: 2
The options appears to be an ACH initiated from the Wise side for 0.28% fee, or sending USD to a GBP-denominated Wise account, which I expect would at least incur the sending institution's SWIFT fee.
Your Wise account should give you ABA/account details for a US dollar sub-account, so you can wire USD from your bank to the US "side" of your Wise account. Should cost next to nothing.
You can then do the FX at the destination using Wise, they have rates that are better than most, AFAIK second only to what you get at an Interactive Brokers account. IB plugs you directly into the global forex market, so the spread is essentially unmeasurable. There are commissions, but my last one was 0.0002% of amount converted.
You can generally pick your format from there, I click on the "download PDF" button.
I love my Wise account - I have a cottage in a country other than my home, but I don't need a bank account there because I use the Wise account details for that local currency for pre-authorized debits for all the utility/insurance bills and local spending (card or cash withdrawals). Even for things that require a local bank account, it LOOKS like a local account to them. The only disadvantage is that you have to hold a positive balance at Wise on which you earn no interest.
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 2
I do have an IBKR account but I find the site exceedingly difficult to use. The website is complex and confusing (try something simple like finding a "monthly statement", something every other of the dozens of financial institution I've dealt with generated for me).
I agree that IB is aimed at the power user (and the TWS program is unbelievably daunting at first), but actually a bit surprised that you found difficulty for that task.
In case it is any help:
* After logging in to the web site, select "Performance and reports" tab at the top, and "Statements" from the pop up menu it gives you.
* Click on "Activity"
* pick "Monthly" from the pull down menu in the form that pops up, the first item.
* If you want a month other than the most recently completed one, specify the month in the second "Date" box.
That gives you a choice of formats. I usually click on "download PDF"
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 0
Your Wise account should give you ABA/account details for a US dollar sub-account, so you can wire USD from your bank to the US "side" of your Wise account. Should cost next to nothing.
At the time I posted what you're replying to, Wise was not supporting US account details so it was not possible to initate an external ACH into the account (maybe a wire would have been possible). They have since fixed that.
The only disadvantage is that you have to hold a positive balance at Wise on which you earn no interest.
They are paying a bit over 1% on my EUR balance ATM which is better than nothing, if not a lot better. Varies by currency I expect. I would love to find some way to keep cash balances in EUR that were more or less keeping up with inflation but until I have my residency card here in PT I don't think I'm going to be able to create a brokerage account, so ATM I'm keeping cash in the Wise US account where it gets around 4%. Not thrilled with that since at any moment the Orange Blight might decide to block foreign currency transactions or do something stupid that devalues the USD another 15%. Maybe I could do something through IB though.
