Mrs Trellis Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 Posting on behalf of a British friend resident in France and receiving a monthly annuity cheque in dollars from the USA. She is charged 46 euros for depositing each cheque and the payment she receives is not large. She has phoned the company who say they will not do an inter-bank transfer. Mentioning 9/11 and money laundering!Has anyone any suggestion for reducing these charges? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 [quote user="Mrs Trellis"]Posting on behalf of a British friend resident in France and receiving a monthly annuity cheque in dollars from the USA. [/quote]Money from the US to Europe and vice versa is not easy or cheap; thinking laterally could she not arrange for the payment to be made every 3 months, which would reduce the charge by 2/3rds ?Hopefully someone more well versed will be along soon.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 [quote user="Mrs Trellis"]Posting on behalf of a British friend resident in France and receiving a monthly annuity cheque in dollars from the USA. She is charged 46 euros for depositing each cheque and the payment she receives is not large. She has phoned the company who say they will not do an inter-bank transfer. Mentioning 9/11 and money laundering!Has anyone any suggestion for reducing these charges?[/quote]With the known US sense of humour mentioning that 9/11 wasn't actually anything to do with money laundering would be a waste of time and annuity cheques coming form the same source which I take it would be large ish insurance company, then background checks could be done to validate the source of the funds.Using an Fx trading Co such as Currencyfair would give a much cheaper transfer and no doubt a much better rate. Just need the US end to deposit the funds into the bank (electronically) So easier and cheaper all round then set up the monthly transfer via the Fx service on line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Trellis Posted April 10, 2014 Author Share Posted April 10, 2014 Yes, it is a big company but, as I said, she telephoned them to discuss it and they insist on sending a cheque. Seems so old fashioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Yes I understand, so many of these type of companies accept electronic or DD payments but won't reciprocate.Would it be possible for a friendly US bank to be the postal receipient? thus getting the cheque into the system so Fx transfer could be arranged. Any friends or relatives who could do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 She could open a currency account in US$ with an offshore bank - we have one with Lloyds in Gib. It's a bit of a fuss to open, but quite possible.Call the bank first to check their charges for clearing - they might be as high as France!The cheques might have to be countersigned before depositing, but it only takes a couple of days for them to get to (e.g) Gibraltar, and saves any problems changing her address with the US company. Edit: Once the money is going into her US$ account she can use a foreign exchange company to transfer it here as and when needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 There are companies that will cash the cheque for you: have a look at auctionchex.com. Haven't used them myself, but if it is a low-value cheque it looks like the best thing to do is to save up save 3 months' worth and post them to auctionchex, as they charge a fee per batch. You'd need to open an account with them but it looks like they would be able to send their payment to you electronically. They get you on the exchange rate, but for small amounts, it may be preferable.To be honest, I'm not surprised at the reaction of the US institution. We tend to expect the US banks to be ahead of the curve in terms of technology, but in fact it appears that they are FAR less integrated than UK and European banks: friends of ours in the US (who had their own US bank account) had to use the bank account of a local company who knew them in order to make an electronic transfer of dollars into a another US bank account: these facilities that we take for granted are not necessarily easily available to ordinary bank customers in the US. Hence the rise of Paypal ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 [quote user="Pickles"]... these facilities that we take for granted are not necessarily easily available to ordinary bank customers in the US. Hence the rise of Paypal ... [/quote]That explains a lot. Like many I believed that in the US banking would be state of the art ... seems it might not be.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 [quote user="suein56"][quote user="Pickles"]... these facilities that we take for granted are not necessarily easily available to ordinary bank customers in the US. Hence the rise of Paypal ... [/quote]That explains a lot. Like many I believed that in the US banking would be state of the art ... seems it might not be.Sue[/quote]US banking losses are state of the art [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 [quote user="suein56"]That explains a lot. Like many I believed that in the US banking would be state of the art ... seems it might not be.[/quote]You are actually only 1 letter outIn fact the US banking system is state of the ark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now