Hey folks
I need some advice from those of you who have done this type of thing before. A maker in Ireland has just completed a flute that I ordered a while back, and he wants me to pay via wire transfer. He has an international back account # that I’m supposed to use. So I go to my bank to do this, and they tell me that there’s no guarantee it will go through. Then of course I won’t get my money back if it doesn’t. Could take up to 10 days to get there. There’s a $45 charge. They have no way of knowing when it does get there. This is too much money to risk “not going through.” And though the bank people didn’t say it outright, it seemed to me like they were practically warning me not to do it. Hmmmm…
Have any of you done something like this before? Would you advise against it? Of course I’ll have to get back to the maker and ask what options I have, but I really wanted to get this out today. And I most likely will not hear from him until tomorrow or the next day.
I have used international wire transfers (SWIFT) to send money from the US and to receive money. It took about 2 days, and my bank (US Bank) gave me a written confirmation. The fee for sending was $40.
I did a wire transfer when I bought a flute from Michael Grinter in Australia a few years ago. That was his request for how he wanted payment, and it went smoothly - although I do recall a bit of a charge from my bank to do it, on the order of the $45 your bank is quoting.
I’m a little skeptical, though, about your bank’s claim of “no guarantee it will go through” and that you would lose your money if it doesn’t. You should press them on this. I suppose one way it might not go through is if you give them the wrong account number and they transfer it into someone else’s account other than the flute maker’s. I could see how they could legitimately claim that it’s not their fault that you told them the wrong place to send your money, and leave it up to you to try to get it back. But otherwise, if they send your money out and for some reason it doesn’t reach the correct destination, it should be their responsibility to get it back for you. After all, you’re paying them $45 to do the transfer! Ask them this question: If the transfer doesn’t go through and I lose my money, who then gets my money, and why do they get to keep it? Even via wire, where actual currency notes are not changing hands, money doesn’t just “disappear”. Someone has to get it, and if it’s the wrong someone the bank should be able to get it back for you - or you should legitimately be able to get a court involved!
And if the wire transfer is going to take 10 days anyway, another means of payment might be for the bank to cut a check or international money order made out to the maker in Euro (of course they will charge a fee to do this), which you then could mail to the maker via insured mail (another fee of course). Once your check clears, the maker will send you the flute, on which you will pay a fee for postage and insurance.
So, with all these fees involved, why not just buy a plane ticket and fly over to Ireland and pick it up in person? True, it would cost more, but oh so much more fun!
My thought is that who ever you talked to at your bank had no idea how to do the transfer. They do have computers dont they. It has been a couple of years since I bought my baroque flute but this was the form of payment the maker wanted. When I went to my bank the first thing I did was ask if anyone had any experience in making this kind of transfer. Only one did and within 15 minutes it was done and confermed. I think it cost me 35 bucks. There is another number they require besides the bankaccount number which I cant remember but when they contacted the bank on the internet all required info was presented. There was not a hitch. So, I would say try again but find someone who has experience.
I would talk to another bank or service that does this.
If they confirm the risk, let the maker know and suggest
alternatives. If they don’t, I would do the wire
transfer through this other bank/service.
I started to look into wire transfers and got the same rigamaroll from my bank. In my case, it was for a CD, and I wasn’t about to pay $45 to buy a CD that only cost half that much. This is what I found out:
Your bank only knows some banks internationally. Make sure you get the full name and address of the receiving bank. You need two pieces of information about the receiving account: the BIC code identifies the receiving bank internationally, and the IBAN code represents the receiving account. If everything is legit you should have no problems.
Another option is to send an International Money Order. This only cost me $5, and is like a cheque. It was received and cashed with no problems whatsoever for the CD situation I mentioned above. Wire transfer sounds nice, but there’s no reason an IMO wouldn’t do just as well. Just priority post it to the flute maker and he can cash it at his bank like a guaranteed cheque.
Absolutely the best way to send money overseas. They’ll do wire transfers or will send a check drawn in local currency from a local bank. They also have great exchange rates.
I’ve used them for years and for a lot of transactions with absolutely no problems. And, they can tell you when the money gets there.
(For transactions between the US and Canada, they can use ACH transactions, which are free, but bascially equivalent to wires.)
It’ll take a couple of days to set up the account, but it costs nothing and it’s worth it.
There is a deal currently with U.S. Bank and Money Gram International till the end of December you can wire money in U.S. $ Dollars to most any contry for a fee of only $5. But you can only send money as U.S. Dollars, they can not send money as Euros, British Pounds etc. So the recipient must be willing to accept the payment and able to convert to local currency at their bank.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I went to another bank then went back to my bank, talked to some people, asked better questions, and got better answers this time around I think. I went ahead and wired the money, and I’m reasonably confident that it will work out ok
Maybe next time I’ll try xe.com or something like that (hoping that I won’t feel the compulsion to wire money overseas anytime soon).
Yeah, you have to be really careful when wiring money from a US bank. They (including Western Union) may quote you a $5-$50 fee, but that’s in addition to the premium they tack onto the exchange rate. And banks tack on quite a bit.
The reason I went to xe.com was that not only are their fees low for transactions with fees, but they offer the best exchange rates. It matters when you’re moving your salary across a border (as I have done) or buying something in the flute-to-bagpipe price range.
