Moving savings from abroad to Ireland - best practices?

Suaimhneach

I managed to save while living in California, and was wondering how people move money home. International transfers eat too large a %. Write a cheque to yourself? Money order? Cash?

I know a Turkish couple taking out 10k USD to bring home to put a deposit on an apt over the holidays - seemed like madness to get on a plane with that much cash (though ever so slightly 007).

Figure someone has figured this out already...

purcela

Currencyfair - very reliable, small transaction fees and competitive rates. Only takes a couple of days to move from a foreign account to an Irish one, and is completely safe. Have used it several times to transfer from Australia back to Ireland.

Caybar

Interested in this too, have been wondering what is the cheapest/most tax efficient way of sending savings back.

Tom Dunne

I do it through a normal bank transfer.

It appears within a few hours. The way I look at it, with the Euro being so weak, what I lose in transfer costs is more than made up in the good exchange rate.

In other words, I'm too lazy to look into more economical means.

Just as a side note, bank transfer does offer some sense of security. I did a transfer directly into RaboBank in Ireland through my own local bank here. After about 6 or 7 days, it did not reach my RaboBank account, so I made a few frantic phonecalls, I was assured the money was not lost and it was, eventually, returned back to my bank here. To me, the extra premium I pay was worth it for that kind of piece of mind.

Wompa1

purcela wrote: »

Currencyfair - very reliable, small transaction fees and competitive rates. Only takes a couple of days to move from a foreign account to an Irish one, and is completely safe. Have used it several times to transfer from Australia back to Ireland.

I believe you can't use it as a US resident. You could leave your money in the US for a few months and then after about 3 months back in Ireland, you're considered a legal resident. So you could use CurrencyFair..I believe.

If you have a large sum of money e.g. 100k+ you could call Bank of Ireland and ask to speak with their world exchange market and get the price that the big wigs get. e.g. close to what you'll see online as the actual exchange rate vs the BS you see at the bank or exchange places.

iusedtoknow

We have a mortgage in Spain and transfer batches of $10K via our bank every few months to pay down the mortgage/interest ASAP. Whenever we go back, we also bring money to deposit. After about the 3rd transfer every year the bank asks us to fill out a form about the source etc. We also lodge our US and Spanish tax returns with the bank should the Feds be interested. They never are, but I prefer to be above board.

In short..finding a way to save some money on amounts is simply not worth the hassle/worry when it's all insured by the bank.

FURET

The worst method is the bank transfer, because of two reasons:

• Fees
• Terrible exchange rates

One of the best methods is to set up an online brokerage account and use that. For example, let's say you get paid in USD or a currency that is pegged to the USD and you want to send money to Ireland.

Simply deposit money from your expat checking account to your brokerage account. When the money arrives, use the internal forex to change it to euro. The dollars in your brokerage account will rest in a US-located bank a/c associated with your brokerage account, while the euros will sit in a Euro-area-located bank a/c associated with your brokerage account and then send it to your Irish bank account from there.

• This way you incur minimal fees (the conversion fee with my brokerage is a flat 2 USD below a certain level) and the brokerage does free transfers
• You get the absolute best exchange rate there is

Generally I only send largish amounts every few months or so (say, 25k at a time) to reduce costs farther still. This method has saved me thousands of euros over the past few years. Personally I use Interactive Brokers.

imitation

I would be very careful about large sums of cash these days, there is an assumption these days if your travelling with a lot of cash you are up to something in the states, there are reems of people who have had cash confiscated never to be seen again.

iusedtoknow

imitation wrote: »

I would be very careful about large sums of cash these days, there is an assumption these days if your travelling with a lot of cash you are up to something in the states, there are reems of people who have had cash confiscated never to be seen again.

We moved to the US 4 years ago with 15K in cash (in $100 bills). You declare if you are carrying over 10K. We declared it on our customs form, and all they asked for proof that it was ours - we had a letter from the bank indicating that we had made the withdrawal along with the bank statements with both our names that showed the amount, and what was left. The guy put 2+2 together that we were doing entry on a visa - stamped the form and told us to be careful with it...followed by a wink.

The only times you hear of people getting their cash removed from them is if they don't follow the rules...like not declaring it, or not being able to prove it's theirs.