@Dominique 149154 wrote:
I make foreign payments by wire all the time and can tell you that fees apply at both ends. They are somewhat lower for the recipient if I choose “all fees paid by sender”. This only means that the sending bank deducts currency exchange (ouch!) and their own fees from my account. The receiving bank still charges the recipient their own fees, which vary in amount by bank and are beyond my control.
The time the receiving bank takes to credit the account also varies enormously, usually the smaller banks will be faster and cheaper once they know you. Bigger banks take up to 12 days sometimes to credit wires from abroad. Yes, they say they take 4 days, but I have had an opportunity to watch this for some time now and it’s a blatant lie.
I strongly recommend you use small local banks and make a point of letting them know you. They can both save you money and time.
i use wire transfer both internationally and nationally almost on a daily basis. if you send the amount and pay for the recipient’s fees, then most likely the person in question will receive the exact amount of money sent. international payments usually take 3 working days no matter how big the bank is. i’m not sure how it works in the US.
i have not encountered 12 day timings ever (even before SWIFT codes and IBAN were introduced) unless the information was wrongly filled out. all my payments take 3 days internationally (working days that is) and a couple of days nationally.
as far as small banks, all small banks i know in EU hold operations in switzerland and they are actually a lot more expensive than normal banks (ie. charge $50/month for holding the account). plus they require a minimum deposit that must be held at the bank, 20k+ … imho, small EU banks are only better for larger funds.
cheers.