Poland Expat Forum

Transferring Money from the U.S. to Poland

12/11/2012 11:03 EST

Hi,

I'm trying to find out the best way to transfer money from U.S. to Poland. I'm currently in the U.S. (U.S. citizen), but moving to Poland with my new wife shortly and I will be transferring money in amounts ranging from a couple of thousand USD on a monthly basis and a large transfer from the proceeds of selling a home.
We have a 'dollar' account set up in Poland, so no currency conversion will be needed. I did a trial transfer of $50 USD directly from my U.S. bank to the Polish 'dollar' account and was charged a flat fee of $35 from my U.S.bank plus a 7% fee from my Polish bank.
So, as you can see my online bank to bank transfer doesn't seem do be the best way. What are my choices?
Thanks in advance,
Terry

snup

12/11/2012 11:55 EST

Hi,

That 7% was harsh, what bank was it? I use raiffeisen and they have no such charge. I only pay the $45 chase fee for internstional wire. I would make sure that I pick a bank on the U.S. side with a low wire fee and that you can submit wire transfers online. Then once in Poland find a bank that has no incoming wire fees. Ohh, that account in Poland will have to be a dollar account, not zloty. Look into Capital One checking account. I was told they dont have intl ATM fees, meaning you can withdrawl money with a good exchange rate without the the fees.

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Swissharley

12/11/2012 15:42 EST

Hi Terry
I use ING Bank here in Poland, no acct. handling fees, no charges for ATM withdrawals etc. Homepage in English and transfers free within Europe. Never tried transfers from the US to PL. Check them out, I found them the best Bank so far. Maybe through their US Branch they make free of charge transfers. Good luck for you and if you are in the Bielsko-Biala Area let me know. rgds Uwe

amcitpol

1/27/2013 19:11 EST

No transfers
just use ATM and card for purchases
the best way- have someone in us send it via us money express

Fable

1/28/2013 16:29 EST

I use jp morgan, verry friendly, and I use a wire transfer it costs $8 per xfer, Id set an account with either JP Morgan chase or Citi Bank, (with citi you can use your atm as a pubilc transport pass) Id also set these accounts up before you move, as the banks can/will give more or better info. the banks can also give you an account with zl and a dollar account. They should and do offer exchanges, but the counters around usually have a better deal but you may not want to walk around with a few thousand dollars/zloty. good luck. btw im in warsaw 2.5 yrs now if youd like to talk more pm me and we can xchange emails

ZZzzZZhanna

8/5/2015 22:21 EST

Hi!

I think this link may help:

http://blog.timedoctor.com/2015/05/12/how-to-send-money-to-poland-with-minimum-fees

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lkiljanek

8/14/2015 18:25 EST

The cheapest way I have found was to use ATM on card with no foreign transaction fee. Also make sure to select at the ATM option to not exchange currency in ATM (let your bank do the currency exchange)..
Best
Luke

Fable

8/15/2015 03:15 EST

yes its true using an atm is cheap, but you get a crap exchange rate, so I think in the end you loose money, if you transfer more than 500 dollars its best to pay the 45 dollars at the bank to do an international wire, Riefheisen doesnt charge a fee or tax on wires but their excange is also about 10 grolcz cheaper than a kantor, atms are WAY worse, imo, pay the stateside bank the fee to send the wire, and set up a foreign currency account here in Poland, send your dollars there, change them at your bank, safer and youll not run the risk of overdraft fees, crap exchanges from atms or having to carry tons of cash around.

lkiljanek

8/15/2015 03:44 EST

Absolutely not. I tried myself before using skrill, wires, to my polish dollar account, then moving it to online currency exchange etc and was still at the end same as I used atm. Just make sure you don't use atm exchange rates but ask it to use checking Visa card issuing bank exchange rates. It totals around 2% off the value.

If you transferred maybe couple thousands than yeah. The wire or skrill and online currency exchange can be worth it.

But for less then 3000-4000 $ at once it comes down to same or more expensive to use wires etc.

Make a good solid calculation. Do a about a hundred withdrawal and see how much is really pulled out from the account - you will know immediately how much does it cost.

snup

8/15/2015 07:34 EST

Hello,

Just thought I could put in my 5 cents into this coversation. Every situation is different. What I do and if I need to I send a few thousand dollars from US account into my USD account in Poland. That way I dont have the bank convert the money but I can do it when I choose to. I dont go to any shop or any bank for the exchange. I use Alior Bank Kantor and they have very small margins and good rates. Plus it does not cost me a penny for the transaction. What I also do is use a US credit card yhat does not charge flat fees for use abroad. Capital One is one example. However you must choose to pay in PLN if asked at the register if you want to pay in USD or PLN. If you choose USD then the store merchant service will do the conversion and you will not get a good exchange rate. If you choose PLN then the CC company will conver the money and the rate will be mich better. I have been in PL for 3 years and believe me, i went through many options trying to beat the system. One thing I have not tried yet is transferwise.

snup

8/15/2015 07:46 EST

Terry,

Sorry I failed to addeess your main question. The bank that charged you 7% is shady. I guarantee that you will find a bank that does not charge you an incoming wire fee assuming that all fees are paid by sender. In example Chase charges 45usd. I would shop around for a good bank in PL when you arrive? ING is good, Alior which I use is also good.

Good luck.

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Bluesview

9/24/2015 08:54 EST

Thanks for the replies. After being here in Poland for over 2 years I now know what to expect when transferring money. I was limited to $25000.00 USD per day. And now that I transfer lower amounts monthly I get charged $40 per transfer from Chase Bank in the US and I believe there is no incoming charge from my Polish back (PKO), I am transferring USD to a USD account here so there is no currency conversion involved.
I want to also add that in the very beginning I had a hard time getting PKO to allow me to have a joint account. They said I would have to be a citizen first. Well that simple was NOT true. You only have to be a resident and I finally got the joint account with ny Polish citizen wife. It took some months for it to happen. The local bank (Pulawy) didn't really know how to handle it or the rules. WE contacted the PKO office in Warsaw and within a month or so the bank (who now knew us) called us over while we were there on other business and said they could set up the joint account and all has been settled. This was after repeated refusals even with the manager of the local bank. It just didn't make sense that they wouldn't 'allow' me to keep my money in their bank with my Polish citizen wife and me being a resident.

Bluesview

9/24/2015 08:55 EST

I forgot to add... I'm sending the money via wire transfers - bank to bank.

geopiet

3/12/2018 06:39 EST

I wonder how this would work?

1) Open checking/savings with Citibank in US -

- https://online.citi.com/US/banking/citi.action?ID=banking-overview&JFP_TOKEN=JKYQHIY4

2) Open "konto osobiste" at Citi Handlowy plus "konto walutowe USD" - https://www.citibankonline.pl/konta/konto-walutowe.html

3) Citibank® Global Transfers.

Your money…on the move.
Need to get funds from New York to Korea? This service lets you transfer money from your Citibank account to other Citibank accounts in the US. or abroad.

What it Costs
Incoming transfers free.
Outgoing domestic transfers free.
Outgoing international transfers, no transfer fee, - https://online.citi.com/US/JRS/pands/detail.do?ID=InterCiti

------

Someone in Taiwan wrote that they charge 2% conversion fee - https://tw.forumosa.com/t/the-best-bank-for-foreigner/71507/22 - which makes me wonder why?, since it's going into "dollar account" anyway ...?

-------

I still need to find out if I can draw US dollars at the bank counter in Poland ...?

maroonga

3/1/2019 10:44 EST

Has anyone tried Transferwise.com/us?

geopiet

3/1/2019 19:12 EST

I don't see USD in a "pickup currency"

Better use Walmart2World ..

They use MoneyGram network, and sending $1000.00 will cost you $8.00, with pickup in choice of EUR, PLN, or USD

Use Walmart app to prefill all info, then pay at Walmart customer service, or do it online @ https://walmart.moneygram.com/walmart/us/en/

Make sure it goes through Walmart, as in the link above.

If you go straight through moneygram.com , they will charge you $25.00 via bank draft, or $81.00 via credit card, or $23.99 if you pay cash at Moneygram counter (CVS or Saveway, etc)

Bones50

7/8/2019 19:16 EST

I use TransferWise I did a trial with $200 no conversion fee was $3. I did another $200 transfer with conversion to PLN and the fee was $1.

PattyO88

9/3/2019 00:45 EST

I used to use OFX and recently moved to transferwise because of their borderless account. Found a comparison here

http://icomparefx.com/transferwise-vs-ofx

Hope that helps

geopiet

10/16/2019 12:16 EST

>>MoneyGram update<<

there has been change in MoneyGram pricing

they dropped prices (no need to go into the Walmart anymore;)), do it online from home

Online Bank Account transfer fee - $1.99
Processing: 3-4 business days

Debit/Credit Card transfer fee VISA/Master Card - $9.99 USD
Processing: minutes

For most countries, you can send up to $10,000.00 per online transfer, and up to $10,000.00 every 30 calendar days. If necessary, you may send additional funds from a MoneyGram agent location.

janek777

5/19/2020 14:19 EST

So you can actually, with TransferWise, transfer US dollars to a dollar account in Poland? Because from what I am seeing, I do not have that choice - pickup curency can be in PLN only, not US$.

MarkDFW

8/3/2020 12:05 EST

You can use CitiGlobal transfer (almost like internal transfer between Citibanks),
TransferWise or Revolut.
Personally I prefer Revolut option (they seem to have more options that I like)

Mauimav

10/4/2020 15:26 EST

You probably have many answers by now but my wife and I send money to relatives there through
Transferwise. Cheaper than bank wires but it'll take 3 or 4 days. Can be sent to USD or PLN account.

Mauimav

10/23/2020 09:59 EST

Use Transferwise. You can go straight from your US dollar account to a PLN account fairly cheaply. Then no extra exchange fee.

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