TransferWise for moving money abroad

Posted by John Reed on Jun 13, 2016

When I wrote the second edition of How To Protect Your Life Savings from Hyperinflation & Depression, I learned that the key aspect of that for liquidity and the ability to buy food and other necessities is that you must have foreign currency and that foreign currency must be abroad. I recommend and have mine in savings accounts in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand and the currencies of Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland in a Canadian safe deposit bank.

http://www.johntreed.com/…/how-to-protect-your-life-savings…

That, in turn, means you have to know how to move money internationally. I have used SWIFT wires (too expensive at about $50 a pop), snail mail (too slow) and physical transport if I happen to be going there.

I just read about a new way that sounds much better: TransferWise. Forbes magazine says it costs $100.14 to send 1000 euros to Estonia (the home of TransferWise) by Bank of America and only $11.18 by TransferWise. Four other competitors range from $18.81 to $55.61.

If you are moving money into and out of foreign countries, for any reasons, try TransferWise. If any of you use them already, please tell us if there are any other pertinent facts about TransferWise.

Frank Evans I've used TransferWise many times and it works very well. The fee is less and the exchange rate is better than a transfer direct from bank. I have friends who also use and recommend OzForex, which is now OFX. OFX is based in Australia. Both TransferWise and OzForex seem to be good choices.

John T. Reed Does this get the money into your bank account in the country in question or just to a friend or relative in that country?

Frank Evans Directly into your bank account. You just set up your account profiles in Transferwise. I've done it between banks in the US and Australia

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