I'm a PhD student from the US, studying here in Zurich, but getting paid in USD through my home university in the US. It looks like I will be paid this way for the length of my stay (3-4 years). I currently get my paycheck via direct deposit into a bank account in the US.

Does anyone know the best way to get this money into my UBS account here in Switzerland?

My current solution is having a second UBS account in USD, and having a family member in the US send me a large wire transfer (to minimize per-wire fees) a couple times per year. This means I have to pay for the second UBS account, as well as the wire transfer fees ($45 for Bank of America), not to mention the personal pride I sacrifice in not being truly financially independent of my family...

I've heard foreign exchange sites mentioned (i.e. Oanda, wechselstube.ch) in the EF, but I'm not too savvy on the e-trading scene. Perhaps someone in the forum has encountered a similar situation or has some insight into how I minimize the fees involved in accessing my salary?

Thanks in advance!

Wire transfer is the best and quickest way IMO (don't even think about depositing a check -- it will take forever to clear if they will even take it). You shouldn't need a second account if you just need CHF here. UBS will translate the USD into CHF and deposit them in your normal account. Of course, you might be able to get a better exchange rate elsewhere, but that gets more complicated.

$45/transfer seems pretty high -- any chance of shopping around to other banks? Probably too much of a hassle I suspect...

My bank (Bank of America) charges $30 per transfer, which still seems high. I was thinking of seeing what Western Union offers, but never got around to it.

Western Union Switzerland information page is here.

The prices listed on that page are for cash transfers. Call them on the contact number and discuss your requirements.

This info is for transfers from Switzerland, both the OP and I are interested in transfers to Switzerland. The Western Union site either does not show the transfer fees, or hides them very effectively. On almost every page there is something along the lines of: "In addition to the money you’re sending, you must also pay transfer fees." with no mention (or link) of what those fees are. In my experience that is a bad sign.

The fees for sending cash from Switzerland are at the bottom of the page I linked to, and look expensive to me.

That's why I suggested calling the information number on that page to discuss individual requirements.

Western Union is very expensive, IMO, that is why they make it difficult to find the fees.

I'm in a relatively similar situation. US citizen, US fellowship, requirement of US bank account. I have Washington mutual and it's a 100% free account. How I did it was I set up an account where my fellowship money gets deposited with both mine and my mothers name on it. This gives her the right to transfer money out of the account to my UBS account. She does have to go to the bank in person to do the transfer. There are no fees for international wire transfers with Washington Mutual and over all they are a phenomenal bank.

If by chance you can't set up an account with them from here I would suggest having your mom (or someone similar you trust) set up the account in her name and change it to where your paycheck goes to that account.

Western Union has a fee calculator on their US website. To transfer $2999 (the maximum amount allowed per transaction!) to Switzerland the transfer fee is a whopping $145. To add insult to injury, the estimated exchange rate is 1.1408. (The interbank rate on oanda is currently 1.1902.)

Conclusion: stay away from Western Union unless you have no choice!

I would love a link to their fee calculator, as it may save me some money on the smallish transactions that I do.

Thanks for the advice. Sounds like I'm doing the best I can with my current method (my mom transfers money to me at my bank at home). I pay $45 to my home bank (Bank of America) for sending the money in $, then have UBS convert the money to CHF between my two accounts. When I checked the exchange rates, I ended up with 600 more Swiss francs letting UBS do the exchange rather than Bank of America for a $10k transfer -- makes that extra account pay for itself.

I will look into WaMu, though. Saving the international wire tranfer fee would be great!

Yeah, I had Wells Fargo and they also wanted to charge me $45 to transfer money and I said "Hell No. I'm not paying to get access to my own money" Also, WaMu doesn't have any fees (not evena monthly service fee) and that includes fees for taking out money in any ATM, so often times I just us my US card to buy things here. There is a 1% foreign currency conversion fee but that is standard across all US banks. I would definitely suggest looking into changing from B of A to Wamu, it'll save ya some cash. Also, even if you don't change, just threaten to change, they might wave some fees for you.

which is as expected - their target market is immigrants sending money back home, who hopefully do not have 'real' bank accounts, and are too ignorant to know better...

Oanda etc are forex traders. while you can do what you want with them, it will end up being more trouble than it is worth, I think.

That's phenomenal. I don't think UBS charges to receive wire transfers either. It's almost too good to be true. Is there a foreign-exchange fee?

I opened an account with my mom at a local Californian bank and they were giving promotional vouchers for free international wire transfers to new accounts. Still, I'll keep WaMu in mind.

Honestly I have no idea. I should call and ask them. I generally just check the amount transferred vs. the currency conversion rate and really don't see much discrepency.

I thought it was too good to be true too. Especially after dealing with Wells Fargo for so long and being disgusted by their banking practices and complete lack of customer service. It's been a dream comparatively being with WaMu. They're so nice and helpful and best of all FREE.

Thanks for the info, chemgoddess. I may have to replace my Wells Fargo account with WaMu ...

Wish that worked in CH, here banks are so uncompetitive, threatening to move due to a better MORTGAGE deal gets no response other then "Enjoy your new home".

I also use Washington mutual. I have been with them for years switched from Bank of America. I am happy to know about the transfer options though was wondering and never got around to calling them. Thanks Chem

Just one more reason I love Wamu. You gotta respect a bank that actually tries to make things better for people.

Free wire transfer for immigrants

"Among Latinos -- nearly half of LA's population -- wire transfers are one of the most heavily used financial services. It can cost $15 to $45 to wire as little as $100 dollars to Mexico, Central and South America or Puerto Rico. And it's a fee that can add up quickly -- more than 40 percent of adult Latino immigrants in the United States regularly send money to relatives in their native countries, a flow of funds totaling nearly $40 billion(1). The free outgoing wire transfers will also help all of LA's immigrants, because the free foreign wire transfers are not limited to Latin countries."


One other thing, if anybody does open an account with Wamu, make sure and tell them you live in Europe and want your ATM card to have free and open access to all of Europe for an unlimited period of time (or you can just tell them Switzerland and call if you go out of the country). Even with this though every once in awhile my card gets frozen due to activity in "high risk" locations (it's happened twice to me in the last year). However, all you have to do is give them a call (collect, you can call them collect from overseas!) and they will unfreeze your card immediately.

But it does cost for withdrawing money out of the atm here with my wamu account $2.00 on this side and $2.00 from Wamu. I just withdrew last week and these were the charges. The only free atm charge is from there atm's. If I am wrong and I need to get this adjusted in my account let me know.