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Large money wire / transfer
Dec
6
2011
I`m trying to transfer $40,000 from the U.S. to my wife^s Banco Pichincha account to buy a property (from an uncle). Last month I transferred $7,000 from my BofA to the B de Pich account.. BofA charged $45 for the wire as expected, however, only $6964 arrived in the account – apparently SWIFT charged $36 for being an `intermediary` (I`m still looking into what happened with this SWIFT thing – neither bank has given any details on it). My question is, does anybody know how to best wire/transfer/get one large sum like $40,000 from U.S. to Ecuador without paying huge fees on either side? Just a simple bank to bank wire? I don`t want to wire $40,000 only to find out that this SWIFT thing or perhaps Banco de Pich has taken $300 or more off the top.
ps Banco Pichincha has told us they have a branch in Miami, and it might be possible to open a Miami account and avoid the SWIFT fee.
thanks
Answer #2
I usually use a bank to bank transfer, my bank in Canada charges me about 30 odd dollars for an unlimited amount. Banco Pichincha or Produbanco never has charged me a fee when receiving money. If I am tranfering smaller amounts I use Western Union online for 9 bucks plus 1%……until it makes better sense to use the bank to bank transfer. I wish Scotiabank would open up in Ecuador as they are everywhere else in Latin America except Ecuador, that would make things much easier.
Answer #3
Thanks for the replies..
I really hope there is only a fixed $36 incoming fee. It´s really hard to know b/c apparently neither side has to disclose what the fee will be. SWIFT seems pretty secretive.
A longtime expat tells me that the B de Pich Miami account is for business accounts, which I do not have.
I´ve been using xoom, their rates seemed lower than western union last time I checked.
Answer #4
Hi Jay…I use xoom too, but once you get above $2500 it gets VERY expensive…like I said, I have done larger transfers and the fee from Pichincha has been fixed at $36 for incoming wires. Hope it works out for you.
larryp
Answer #5
I just had a pow-wow with my personal banker at Wells Fargo.
He told me they had a no fee arrangement with one of the major banks in Ecuador, I don’t recall the name at the moment. I would talk to Wells Fargo. They had a “seemless” arrangement with this other Ecuadorian bank. You could transfer online from your account to the Ecuador bank and funds were available.. check them out.
Answer #6
The transfer was deposited within a few days and it seems there was only a $36 fee (I haven´t thoroughly reviewed the bank statement yet), I am guessing from the secret SWIFT, not BofA or B de Pichincha.
In the future I am also going to simply bring cash (under $10,000) and also personal checks. Apparently with the checks you just write a check for about $1,000, deposit in Ecua bank and wait about 3 weeks for processing. Those two ways should avoid any charges.
Thanks
Answer #7
Just deposit a U.S. check into an Ecuadorian account It takes about 10 days to clear and there are no fees.
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Answer #1
Mister Jay;
To my knowledge the fees that you are paying are correct. There is an outgoing fee and an incoming fee…welcome to the world of banking. I have transferred large amounts and the $36 fee that Pichincha charges is not based on amount but rather an incoming fee only. In this case you will be paying your bank their typical international wire fee and the $36 for incoming to Pichincha.
Pichincha does have a branch in Miami, however you must live outside the US to open an account there from what I was told 8 months ago when I checked into that…you may want to verify that since things could have changed and if you already have an account and can prove you live here, then you can probably just effect an interbank transfer to save the $36, although not sure of the hoops that you might have to jump through and $36 might be a bargain..;-)
I hope that helped some.
Larryp