Bank Fees for Transfer from OZ

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Bank Fees for Transfer from OZ

gcorgnet

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#223413 28-Sep-2017 13:46

So, I got paid for a job from a company in OZ.

The invoice was for NZD400 (~377.79 AUD).

I can see on the receipt that they paid an extra 18 AUD as a transfer fee.

As a result of this transfer, I received $385. I presume ANZ as taken a 15 NZD cut for their trouble.

We are now looking at about NZ$35 of fee to transfer a measly $400 across the ditch... That's 10%!

I personally find this ridiculous and have no trouble thinking that blockchain currency are a way forward to bypass the banks and their stupid fees.

Benjip

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#1874111 28-Sep-2017 13:57

I use Stripe or PayPal to receive money from my international clients. Stripe only takes about 3%. Probably a better way than a bank-to-bank transfer?

sbiddle

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#1874112 28-Sep-2017 13:57

International transfers between banks can be very much manual processes hence the fees. There are also lots of regulatory compliance issues and you need to factor in forex rates.

ANZ only charge NZ$9 to send money to Australia - obviously the receiver will then pay for receiving this.

timmmay

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#1874120 28-Sep-2017 14:04

Paypal is cheaper if you can sort that out. There are companies that will do transfers for you with lower fees. Probably not worth too much hassle to save $35.

floydbloke

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#1874122 28-Sep-2017 14:11

Maybe the old fashioned paper cheque is still the way to go.
In the last few years I have received one eachin GBP and AUD an the BNZ happily let me deposit them into one of my accounts at the retail forex buy rate but no other fees. So I guess it's costing me 3-4%.
(They did make me sign a form though that says if the cheque is dishonoured, and this can happen months in the future, that they can take the money back using the forex rate at that time.)

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gcorgnet

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#1874125 28-Sep-2017 14:15

Yeah, really didn't anticipate this at all (especially not having bank take their cuts at both ends).

If I had, I might have used paypal or told them to transfer more.

Anyway, cost of doing business I suppose but I think those fees are out of control

Amosnz

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#1874128 28-Sep-2017 14:21

I regularly invoice to Australia so have setup a foreign exchange (AUD) account with ASB. They pay the invoice value (in AUD) which is exactly what appears in my AUD account, and I transfer to my NZD account when the exchange rate is favourable (no additional costs except for banks margin on exchange rate).

Previously I received into my NZD account so was a the mercy of exchange rates and various bank fees. Sending from a different bank in Aus (to the same NZ account) can result in a different party doing the conversion with different fees.

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Rickles

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#1874206 28-Sep-2017 15:25

Banks are pretty good at extracting fees for such transactions.

However, as Floyd says, good old cheques work fine and usually don't incur fees ... depends on how good your relationship with the bank is. I've received cheques from overseas many times, and provided you sign the appropriate 'laundering' disclosures I've never been charged a fee.

Failing that, just open an account in Oz (maybe with a sister/same bank) and leave the money there until you go on holiday

sbiddle

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#1874209 28-Sep-2017 15:43

gcorgnet:

Yeah, really didn't anticipate this at all (especially not having bank take their cuts at both ends).

If I had, I might have used paypal or told them to transfer more.

Anyway, cost of doing business I suppose but I think those fees are out of control

A simple international money xfer like you're doing is the most inefficient and expensive way of transferring money. If you're regularly doing this there are far better ways.

I don't think the fees are excessive as there is work required - but if you're not aware of these then clearly they will be a shock.

Batman

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#1874247 28-Sep-2017 17:11

timmmay:

Paypal is cheaper if you can sort that out. There are companies that will do transfers for you with lower fees. Probably not worth too much hassle to save $35.

How much does paypal charge?

DaveB

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#1874285 28-Sep-2017 19:07

Rickles:

Failing that, just open an account in Oz (maybe with a sister/same bank) and leave the money there until you go on holiday

That creates it's own earnings/costs/taxation issues.

cokemaster

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#1874306 28-Sep-2017 19:37

If you qualify for HSBC Premier, you could open a HSBC Aussie account (you get Premier status in other countries) and transfer between your NZ and AU accounts with no fees and no commission (and the funds will appear straight away and be accessible via the single internet banking login too).

I use Premier and find it excellent :)

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timmmay

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#1874311 28-Sep-2017 19:54

Batman:

How much does paypal charge?

It depends. Sometimes nothing, sometimes just transaction fees. The trick is getting it loaded there, via a bank account, then getting it out in NZ.

Geektastic

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#1874394 28-Sep-2017 23:26

I receive payments from overseas quite often, usually large ones as the work I do means we are taking a lot of money from clients to pay travel costs etc, and we just build $100 into the budgets for any charges we get deducted by banks. If it exceeds that (don't think it ever has) then we'd just wear it. We also, of course, require that the clients pay us in NZ$ direct to our NZ account and so the client's bank does the forex in reverse, taking whatever is required from the client in order to remit the correct invoiced amount to us.

Linuxluver

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#1874399 28-Sep-2017 23:57

gcorgnet:

So, I got paid for a job from a company in OZ.

The invoice was for NZD400 (~377.79 AUD).

I can see on the receipt that they paid an extra 18 AUD as a transfer fee.

As a result of this transfer, I received $385. I presume ANZ as taken a 15 NZD cut for their trouble.

We are now looking at about NZ$35 of fee to transfer a measly $400 across the ditch... That's 10%!

I personally find this ridiculous and have no trouble thinking that blockchain currency are a way forward to bypass the banks and their stupid fees.

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khull

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#1874480 29-Sep-2017 07:59

For those sums, it would have been cheaper and faster to be paid in Bitcoin