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Getting the Best Exchange Rates

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bhharrison
  4/9/2019 11:59 EST

Hello all!! Here to ask the collective's opinion again, but this time on getting the best exchange rates. We've moving from the US to Montpellier and have considered using a service to purchase Euros so that we can get a good exchange rate. In researching this, however, it looks to me that this is more useful for those expats that have a bit more of a nest egg than my husband and I.

To give a bit of context, we are in our 40's and own a small business that we'll be continuing to run from home after the move. We typically transfer enough each week from the business to our personal account to cover our bills and give us a bit of spending money for the week, but we're certainly not extravagant.

One of the services we investigated doesn't charge a fee per se, but provides us an "adjusted" exchange rate, so I know they're getting their money. Our bank charges us a flat $40 fee, but the exchange rate they gave us on our initial transfer was less than the exchange rate I pulled for the Central European Bank for that day (yes, I know it fluctuates during the day). And then lastly is Western Union. From what we can tell, they wouldn't charge a fee for the size wire we'd be doing, but it's another instance of the "adjusted" exchange rate AND a waiting period of 6 days.

Has anyone else gone through this process? If so, what did you end up settling with?

antifreeze
  4/9/2019 16:01 EST

Try a foreign exchange service. There are several. I use CurrenciesDirect, as it came recommended by two relocation services. TransferWise is also another. Tell them your concerns, see how they reply.
Antifreeze

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bhharrison
  4/9/2019 17:10 EST

Yes, we looked at CurrenciesDirect and even went so far as to setup an account. Unfortunately, it's not as intuitive as I would have hoped and seems that we have to do multiple transactions to get our money from point a to point b. We just found TransferWire and I've sent them a couple of questions, but haven't received a response yet. These are going to be weekly transfers that we use to pay bills, rather than the occasional transfer for investments, etc. And, since I'm not looking to get into ForEx trading, I'm definitely leaning toward the ease of TransferWire.

timesjobyrne
  4/9/2019 17:58 EST

We have an American account and a French account, and we've come up with an unorthodox but highly effective way to move weekly/monthly spending money cheaply and instantly. Our American account has no foreign transaction fees and a $1,000 daily ATM limit. It is also true that ATMs offer by far the best exchange rate of any dollar to euro transaction, usually close to interbank rates. So several times a month, we just go to our French bank ATM, use or American ATM card to take out around 860 euros, stick it in a deposit envelope, and use our French ATM card at the same machine to deposit the cash into our French bank account. Voila. $1,000 instant transfer, no fees, great exchange rate. Yes, you'll have to do it five or six or 7 times a month. But once it becomes habit, you can incorporate it into other errands, it takes four minutes and saves hundred of dollars. You'll still need an account with an FX firm like OFX for bigger transfers, and those are always going to be costly. But for daily living expenses, this is the best way I know. Private message me if you want more details, bank names, etc.

xantippe
  4/9/2019 18:43 EST

We have lived here a long time now and as our American State retirement pension seems incapable of paying us directly we write ourselves a cheque every so often to go into our French account it does cost 35 euros a cheque and cannot be for more than 4999 dollars at a time it works for us. As ours is from a Californian source we haven’t been able to use a money transfer group. It takes a couple of weeks. We could write it for more but then it would take much longer to clear. Our Social Security cheque is paid directly into our bank so no problem there.

Sergios
  4/10/2019 10:02 EST

Sorry, I don't know your situation so my advice may be useless but: Have your pension checks deposited into an american bank that does not charge foreign transaction fees and foreign ATM charges, like Schwab, and just use a french atm (which is free) to take money as you need it, No cost and good exchange rate. If you need more money at one time, use transferwise.

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