Relocating from US back to Ireland

RT2010

Hi All
I'm moving back to Ireland from the US in a couple of months, and have some USD savings to transfer back to Euros too. Wondering what the most efficient way to do this is. As of now I am thinking of transferring it back through TransferWise or someone similar over a few weeks, while keeping an eye on the FX rate. The current weak dollar has me holding tight for the moment.
One more q if anyone can help. Have a small number of shares with a  US broker that they will no longer support once I am not resident here. If I wanted to keep these, is it an easy process to transfer these to an Irish based broker? Expensive?
Thanks

BrokenArrows

RT2010 wrote: »

Hi All
I'm moving back to Ireland from the US in a couple of months, and have some USD savings to transfer back to Euros too. Wondering what the most efficient way to do this is. As of now I am thinking of transferring it back through TransferWise or someone similar over a few weeks, while keeping an eye on the FX rate. The current weak dollar has me holding tight for the moment.
One more q if anyone can help. Have a small number of shares with a  US broker that they will no longer support once I am not resident here. If I wanted to keep these, is it an easy process to transfer these to an Irish based broker? Expensive?
Thanks

Ya TransferWise would be your best option.

For transferring your shares you could open a degiro account and transfer the shares to your new account. Degiro will charge you €10 per position. Your current provider will also charge you a fee.

Workout the cost of the transfer Vs the cost of just selling and buying again.

ballyharpat

Use 'firstrade'-they will transfer your shares free of charge, they are peobably the best brokers anyway, low charges. Ive been using them for 10 years, 3 in america and 7 in Ireland, just a change of adress and a form required. If you transfer now, then you can change the adress after you move.

I opened a dollar account with Ulster bank-there is no charge to keep the account, I then use currency fair to convert dollars to euros and vice versa, their fees are extremely low compared to others and backed by the regulators up to 100k.

if you wanted, you could transfer your dollars straigh to currency fair and leave them sit there until you want to convert to euro-I don't think youll earn interest, but they are safe and accessible at a moments notice.

ronivek

ballyharpat wrote: »

Use 'firstrade'-they will transfer your shares free of charge, they are peobably the best brokers anyway, low charges. Ive been using them for 10 years, 3 in america and 7 in Ireland, just a change of adress and a form required. If you transfer now, then you can change the adress after you move.

I opened a dollar account with Ulster bank-there is no charge to keep the account, I then use currency fair to convert dollars to euros and vice versa, their fees are extremely low compared to others and backed by the regulators up to 100k.

if you wanted, you could transfer your dollars straigh to currency fair and leave them sit there until you want to convert to euro-I don't think youll earn interest, but they are safe and accessible at a moments notice.

Not trying to derail the thread but it might be relevant to the OP too:

Would you be able to give an example of the process for withdrawing from Firstrade to your Ulster Bank account and the kind of fees involved?

I know Firstrade charge a flat €50 but after that I'm not sure exactly which banks/intermediaries are involved in a real wire transfer and how good/bad UB are with conversions.

ballyharpat

ronivek wrote: »

Not trying to derail the thread but it might be relevant to the OP too:

Would you be able to give an example of the process for withdrawing from Firstrade to your Ulster Bank account and the kind of fees involved?

I know Firstrade charge a flat €50 but after that I'm not sure exactly which banks/intermediaries are involved in a real wire transfer and how good/bad UB are with conversions.

All that information is available on firstrade website, also, UB do not do the conversion, currency fair do the conversion, their info is available on their website.

ronivek

ballyharpat wrote: »

All that information is available on firstrade website, also, UB do not do the conversion, currency fair do the conversion, their info is available on their website.

So you didn't actually open a USD account with Ulster Bank; you just used CurrencyFair to convert to EUR and then transferred it to your EUR Ulster Bank account?

So essentially you make an International Wire Transfer to CurrencyFair from FirstTrade to gain access to your funds?

ballyharpat

ronivek wrote: »

So you didn't actually open a USD account with Ulster Bank; you just used CurrencyFair to convert to EUR and then transferred it to your EUR Ulster Bank account?



So essentially you make an International Wire Transfer to CurrencyFair from FirstTrade to gain access to your funds?

****As I said, I opened a USD account with ulster bank......*****

Then transfer from firstrade to that USD account.

ronivek

ballyharpat wrote: »

****As I said, I opened a USD account with ulster bank......*****

Then transfer from firstrade to that USD account.

Since Ulster Bank only allow Businesses to open foreign currency accounts it wasn't exactly that obvious what you meant.

So you Wire from Firstrade to your USD Ulster Bank account, then transfer from your USD Ulster Bank account to CurrencyFair, then convert to EUR and withdraw to wherever in EUR?

ballyharpat

ronivek wrote: »

Since Ulster Bank only allow Businesses to open foreign currency accounts it wasn't exactly that obvious what you meant.

So you Wire from Firstrade to your USD Ulster Bank account, then transfer from your USD Ulster Bank account to CurrencyFair, then convert to EUR and withdraw to wherever in EUR?

I’m terribly sorry- I had no problem opening a usd holding account- but yes- what you wrote is exactly what I do- sorry again for not being clearer. If you have a good relationship with your bank- or Ulster bank, they can do the same-no fees apply.

Heebie

If you don't need the money transferred all at once, use PayPal. You can pay anything that takes PayPal directly, and transfer back whatever the limit is. You do need to PayPal accounts, one in the US and one in Ireland.. Easy enough to do.
No fees to convert currency, and a small percentage to transfer money "to family and friends"

RT2010

Thanks for the replies all.

Would also greatly appreciate if someone can tell me what the EUR USD rate will be in 2 months 😀

ballyharpat

Heebie wrote: »

If you don't need the money transferred all at once, use PayPal. You can pay anything that takes PayPal directly, and transfer back whatever the limit is. You do need to PayPal accounts, one in the US and one in Ireland.. Easy enough to do.
No fees to convert currency, and a small percentage to transfer money "to family and friends"

PayPal have terrible conversion rates.

Currencyfair have great rates.

dubrov

Heebie wrote: »

If you don't need the money transferred all at once, use PayPal. You can pay anything that takes PayPal directly, and transfer back whatever the limit is. You do need to PayPal accounts, one in the US and one in Ireland.. Easy enough to do.
No fees to convert currency, and a small percentage to transfer money "to family and friends"

I think you need to check the rate that Paypal used.
Their rates are terrible vs Currency Fair/Transferwise.

If it is less than 10k ish, check out Revolut as well. You can exchange for free but they do have limits.