why am I not even surprised... 🙄
His bank didn't process international transfers after 1pm... He offered to "transfer the money cheaper and easier online via [his] US bank app with their service with Western Union" (yes, that's the BIG alarm bell here, but then again read it twice, he doesn't say transfer with WU (which is a big no-no in my book) but that his bank is subcontracting to WU. Then "WU ha[d him] locked down to send the funds to Switzerland in CHF only" (I requested EUR initially...)
It means an extra fee but I always ask for / send a deposit first. I would say never send the full amount in one hit so both parties confirm the pipeline is working.... very hard to pull money back and it makes a stronger case if you have an email train confirming an initial payment arrived ok... I do that with UK bank to bank transfers as well.... I am not paranoid ...I know they are out to get me :0)
This is true, some bank do have close time for International wire transfer. And for the WU thing actually, the downside will bare to the buyer at his own risk, not to the seller. And WU or Moneygram transfer will do only to current destination country money exchange where the recipient country is, in this case is CHF.
PayPal business is generally trouble free and supposedly with more safety for both parties.
I have used TransferWise several times. It requires a full address of the person in Europe which has always been provided by the seller. As for the bank information, it has depended by country.
I cannot imagine why anyone would not open a TransferWise account (if living in one of the many countries where it exists).
This does not tackle the original question, what would transferwise request as needed info from the destination to transfer funds from US...
Edit : and it works both ways. So if you want to pay someone abroad, in their currency, with the cheapest rates, you set up a transferwise transfer in their currency to their bank in their country ... after setting it up, they will furnish you with a local account and the exact amount (in your currency) and reference for your transaction, that you then transfer locally, and two days later the amount appears where it should be abroad. No money crossing no borders.
Nothing.
Its clear you still don't get the concept, and that is understandable, as I only understood it when I started to use it (and now I will not use anything else).
When you open a transferwise account, you can choose to create an 'account' for any currency of any supported countries, in your Transferwise dashboard.
So, for example, if you want to keep USD, you open a USD balance, and you then get a US account (in your transferwise dashboard) with US bank info that you furnish to people in the US. They simply pay into that account. To them, its a local transaction with all of the numbers/forward accounts/etc etc specific to their country. When they pay into that account, you then get a US balance in the USD part of your account in your Transferwise dashboard. You can then choose to keep it like that, or convert it to CHF. When you 'send' it to your CHF balance, you get the closest FX rates to what you see on the internet, and your USD balance becomes a CHF balance. It might cost a few dollars, but is much cheaper than wiring/paypal etc. You can then chose to withdraw it to your local CH account, via IBAN.
Throughout this whole process, no money crosses any borders. Its simply marvelous.
👍
Edit : and it works both ways. So if you want to pay someone abroad, in their currency, with the cheapest rates, you set up a Transferwise transfer in their currency to their bank in their country ... after setting the transfer up with Transferwise, they will furnish you with a local account and the exact amount (in your currency) and reference for your transaction, that you then transfer locally to a local bank, and two days later the amount appears where it should be abroad in the desired recipients account. No money crossing no borders.
So why don't you save yourself a lot of time typing and simply open up a Transferwise account?.
...as I was pitching Transferwise to a buddy earlier today thanks to your proselytism (sp?), he just did a quick experiment as he's a hardcore Revolut user... and a 1000EUR transfer to GBP yielded 5less GBP via transferwise than Revolut.
I do acknowledge the ease of use based on the "local-friendly" setup you are highlighting above, for sure, though.
my local bank (USA), which is a large chain, but local branch is in a rural area, is completely clueless about wire transfers. When I went to send 8K USD they ask me why, I tell them for a watch, they look at me like I'm a crazy person, and a criminal. They are such a PITA to deal with, I hate going in there, they hassle me every time and are clueless. If I need to do it again in the future I will definitely try online options. Paypal sucks for intl/cross currency/larger amounts, it's kind of a rip off with all their fees.....
Mine too, that's why I signed up with TW. It was very easy and totally eliminates my need to work with my banks directly (Chase and TD). I have TW linked to my Chase and TD accounts and the TW app / system automatically withdraws from my accounts and deposits into them with minimal fees and no need to have any communication with the banks.
