I’m trying to transfer $100k into home country currency. After lots of explorations (bank forex, money transfer companies, brokerage forex), the cheapest legit option I have is Wise and it charges a ridiculous $500 on that amount. I mean, how is a simple transfer costing $500? I am genuinly curious and would love some input from folks in fintech. Is this free money for the transfer company / bank? Is the market an oligopoly? Are there legit fintech reasons for this to cost that much?
Because even a wire transfer takes several hops if you’re going to a third world country. Bottom line is Wise is almost always the cheapest option. $500 is 0.5% anyways don’t lose sleep over it.
Talking about a "developed country" target currency here. Also, the same kind of fee applies whether or not it involves a transfer outside of the US.
Wait then why not just do a wire if it’s to a major country? It’s free + just the currency conversion if you have something like chase private client.
they're charging you half a percent to transfer $100,000. The risk they're undertaking isn't nothing since even with theoretically one-way transfers fraud can be an issue (and their exposure since they're offering you a fixed exchange rate)
Ever heard of hundi? Illegal but cost effective. Btw Argentina has had 50% inflation year over year. I was watching a docu the other day. 1USD is now 100 pesos. It used to be 1USD = 1peso in the 90s 😂 USD is very strong so don’t fret about losing 0.5% in friction loss.
They don’t convert forex on the same day itself. There is a risk associated with fluctuations so that’s why they keep buffer so that they can profit off the transactions. Usually forex has 2 accounts let’s say country A & B If you ask them to send money from A to B. They will notify B to send equivalent amount to destined bank account meanwhile holding dollar amount in A. They will convert A to B only if the price goes even lower so that they can make a bigger delta
Just checked Remitly. That doesn't have any fee. Higher exchange rate will cost about $200 for a $100k transfer. Also, country would matter too. I checked for USD to Indian rupee
Just checked them. Final amount deposited is $700 less than the true value.
Which currencies are you trying to exchange to?
It isn't. Use IBRK. Transfer the money there (takes hours only via wire). After the money is in IBRK, use Forex to exchange to home country. You must wait 3 days until you can deposit the money back into your bank on home country. The wire back is free once a month. For conversion, just google “How to convert USD to CAD/EUR on IBRK.” There’s a little page that explains it, it’s pretty straightforward. Above is way cheaper than wise. If you transfer to some weird currency, no clue.
Can confirm IBKR is cheap af. I use the conversion all the time to buy stocks
Use a stablecoin like USDC on Ethereum?
Sounds like a business idea? Create the robinhood version of currency exchange.
It's called wise.