Interested in transfering money back to the US? Any advice on the best / cheapest way to do this?

Thanks

It's a pretty standard process and you won't find a huge difference bank to bank here. Where you will get your surprise is in the U.S. end. They love to charge insane fees just to receive a payment by wire transfer. Surprisingly (or not) the most reasonable in my experience are the little hayseed local banks or credit unions.

I have a similar question: I need to transfer some money to the US, too (to my Bank of America account) - I know I can do it through my online banking with credit suisse, but I'm not sure in what format to put all the information into the form since there's no IBAN in the US. BIC + routing number + account number? Or a different order?

To the OP, I hear xe.com and oanda.com are the cheapest ways to transfer money, but you need to sign up for their services and verify your identification, etc.

We just talked about this not too long ago:

money transfer to the USA

I'm using a wire transfer from my Kantonalbank to my US bank and I have it set up for automatic transfer each month.

Cheapest I've found is doing a US Post Office money order via PostFinance.

Tom

Credit Unions are great in the US because many don't even charge for the service.

It's a bit more complicated because some don't have a SWIFT or Iban but somehow it all still works. You just need the account info and give it to your swiss bank to transfer. Super easy.

If you have online banking with BofA, look to the left-side column as it has all the wire numbers you need (it's not an IBAN so put the wire number they provide into the BIC field). I bumped some money over back when it was $1.40 to the franc and there were no fees involved, save for the outgoing wire charge which was minimal.

Is that option available online? If so, where is it in the menu hierarchy? If not, do they simply handle it at any Post counter?

BofA has always charged me a fee.

Money transfer services like xe and oanda(sp?) are by far the cheapest, and in most cases the fastest. Yes you do need to get verified...but it took only minutes with xe

The rate you get is equal to or better than the banks here...plus they have no fees!

I was charged about 20 chf by the zkb to send money and 15$ to receive it in the us.....so it was only worth it for large transactions....and even then its dubious value.

This way, i have no qualms sending just $200 or $50 whenever i feel it.

Can you expound a bit on this? What is the exchange rate spread, and are there fees and limits?

Quoted for truth. My US bank hits me for every xfer.

Yes.

Go to payments/international and select "Cash international (cash payment for beneficiary)"

Tom

I found that the best way is to open two paypal accounts. One attached to your Swiss account and one attached to the US one. You top off your Swiss account with CHFs, pay yourself on your paypal attached to your US account, then withdraw it from you paypal into your US account. The process takes about a week. Small fee to accept the payment, but it's super easy.

Sorry, I can't add much more except there were not any fees and the rate was better than BofA. You'll have to contact a couple of them and see what they say about your specific questions.

The fee is probably not so important. I suggest you instead focus and inquire on what kind of exchange rate your US bank will apply towards the received funds. It can vary from bank to bank. It could be an option to consider, that you exchange your CHF to USD here locally , before you proceed to wire it over.

Hi Tom (or anyone who's done this),

Do you know approximately how long it takes for the check to arrive in the US?

Thank you!

A couple days as I recall.

Tomorrow I can try and search through my old emails to find out exactly.

OK, payment sent 29 September, received 7 October, so about a week.

Tom

Thanks for the additional info, Tom.

Now I'm just hoping that my power of attorney form is enough to get them to let my dad deposit the money into my account . They've given him grief about depositing money into my account for MUCH smaller amounts.

If you have standard online banking that is provided by most major banks here, you can do it yourself for a fee of about 5 CHF. You just need the bank name and IBAN number. Takes about 5 minutes.