Singapore Expats

I'm moving back to the US soon and would like to know the cheapest way to move my money from SGD to USD. After some research, I've narrowed it down to these three options:

• TransferWise - they are quoting SGD$1000 -> USD$701.22 as of now
• XE Money Transfer - they are quoting SGD$1000 -> USD$693.14 as of now
• Interactive Brokers - they are quoting SGD$1000 -> USD$707.46 as of now (based on USD.SGD closing price)

IB obviously has the best rates, but there's a USD$10 monthly fee (which I believe is waived if your account has at least USD$100K) and it's more complicated compared to the other two options, but the perk is you also get to trade stocks, etc.

Besides from these three options, has anyone transferred money from SGD to USD with better rates?

You can also add HiFX and OFX (the Aussie Macquarie-backed company) but Transferwise is better IMO. There is also Paypal's Xoom but I'd rather not deal with them.

I transferred in the opposite direction only, but I imagine there is not much difference compliance-wise and such.

All in all, since all of these use interbank exchange rates, your savings would be minimal at best or have some strings attached. As you can see, the differences are below 1% (and considering that you probably did not try them all in one second, it may be attributable to the fluctuations in exchange rates). There is also the convenience and the transparency factor; you don't want your funds to get stuck somewhere in the pipeline.

I would pick TransferWise, they rock when it comes to the UI, the speed, the customer service, the transparency (they predict the ETA up to an hour), the reliability, and on top of everything, they keep adding neat options, like the Borderless Account (you can set up a virtual bank account in Germany or UK in a matter of minutes).

OFX is great (except for the UI) if you dealt with Australia but it's not your case.