Singapore Expats

Like many, I want to be able to transfer funds out of my Singapore into a foreign bank account, in my case, a US bank account with USD denomiations.

As you know, bank wire transfers are notoriously expensive, both in the bank charges for essentially pushing a button, and the poor exchange rates offered compared to other independent sources.

I ran into a website ( http://www.xe.com ) that offers inexpensive and convenient transfers of money from one account to another. Eseentially one authorizes electronic fund transfers (EFT) out of your bank account to xe.com and they in turn use EFT to put the money into the bank account of your choice.

There is only one catch: Since xe.com is a US based company, the bank account used to transfer funds to xe.com via EFT must be a US or Canadian bank account. Thus, I cannot use xe.com to move funds from my Singapore bank account.

This problem could be solved if the following question can be answered with a "YES". Is there a company in Singapore that operates like xe.com so that I could use EFT to transfer funds to that company, who would in turn transfer the money to my US bank account?

My local Singapore bank will allow me to set up EFT to any local Singapore firm, so that would not be a problem. What I need to find is the Singapore company that does transfers like xe.com.

Anyone aware of such a company?

TIA

i think citibank sg allows you to transfer money to citibank usa for free. only a few times a year though. the rest costs $20 per transfer.

citi will probably give you the garbage 5% retail FX rate tho.

BUMP - So, is there really no foreign currency equivalent of xe.com in Singapore? Sounds like a business opportunity to me.

This probably wont help you until this particular company expands its service base, but Paymate (australia), lets you transfer up to $12000 Sing dollars to Australia for $9.90 (Australian), using their Telegraphic transfer service.

With that service, you can also send money from USA, NZ, & HK.. to Australia.

I'm waiting for the day they make it any direction between those countries...

https://www.paymate.com.au/help/help.do ... m=ttlimits

Anyway, I'm not sure what their currency exchange rates are like & whether they're expensive. still sifting through the info...

a couple things...

most central banks non G7 impose a variety of highly inflexible capital controls such that we cannot easily wire funds back and forth (i.e. taiwan, korea, etc).

the technology is there...but it's the government manipulating the financial system to ensure a weak currency to keep their exports competative so US consumers will buy their junk.

Splatted wrote:This probably wont help you until this particular company expands its service base, but Paymate (australia), lets you transfer up to $12000 Sing dollars to Australia for $9.90 (Australian), using their Telegraphic transfer service.

With that service, you can also send money from USA, NZ, & HK.. to Australia.

I'm waiting for the day they make it any direction between those countries...

https://www.paymate.com.au/help/help.do ... m=ttlimits

Anyway, I'm not sure what their currency exchange rates are like & whether they're expensive. still sifting through the info...

I suppose banks in Singapore will charge for the tt on receiver part...

huggybear wrote:a couple things...

most central banks non G7 impose a variety of highly inflexible capital controls such that we cannot easily wire funds back and forth (i.e. taiwan, korea, etc).

the technology is there...but it's the government manipulating the financial system to ensure a weak currency to keep their exports competative so US consumers will buy their junk.

Ya... fact.

But i believe the trend changing soon.

AdamC wrote:

Splatted wrote:This probably wont help you until this particular company expands its service base, but Paymate (australia), lets you transfer up to $12000 Sing dollars to Australia for $9.90 (Australian), using their Telegraphic transfer service.

With that service, you can also send money from USA, NZ, & HK.. to Australia.

I'm waiting for the day they make it any direction between those countries...

https://www.paymate.com.au/help/help.do ... m=ttlimits

Anyway, I'm not sure what their currency exchange rates are like & whether they're expensive. still sifting through the info...

I suppose banks in Singapore will charge for the tt on receiver part...

To be honest, though they call it TT, I don't think TT actually takes place.

What I *believe* happens is the amount is direct debited out of your Singapore account into Paymates singapore account, and the equivalent is paid out from another Paymate account opened in Australia. So in effect, it's pure profit for paymate, plus whatever spread they earn on currency conversion.

There's this new money transfer service called Maybank Visa Money Transfer. You can open a Maybank savings account or apply for a Maybank Visa Credit Card and transfer funds from that account to your Visa account in the other country. The fee is just $5 - $8 I think. Check it out here www.maybank2u.com.sg/vmt