repatriating cash to US

[duckylucky]

Citibank charges 30 sgd to send a wire transfer, plus a 0.00125 fee on the amount, with a maximum of 200 sgd.

If one has a citibank account in the US and here, the transfer is free. However, the spread can only be described as robbery!

Buy rate USD
citibank 0.7438
Google 0.807
difference = 0.0632 or 7.8% less

In my case, the difference would be thousands fewer US dollars in my pocket! Lots of other people must be unhappy too because there are signs in the branch I use instructing people how to close their accounts!

[zzm9980]

I just logged in to Citibank and went to the transfer tool, and then went to Oanda and this is what I got:

$100 SGD is worth:
80.6367 USD on Oanda
80.53 USD on Google
78.92 USD on Citibank

It's still $1.70 usd per $100 usd (1.7%) compared to Oanda, but not the rates you're posting. That's the free global transfer, and I don't have any kind of special account with Citibank. Just the one that requires S$5k minimum balance.

What are the arcade rates today?

[duckylucky]

I am looking at Citibank in the US for their rate because the money is converted there when it arrives. I assume your numbers are for local conversions for deposits here.

[zzm9980]

I am looking at Citibank in the US for their rate because the money is converted there when it arrives. I assume your numbers are for local conversions for deposits here.

That's the final conversion.

When I go to the global transfer tool for my local Citibank account, I pick my source and destination accounts. I tell them how much to take out of my SG account, and they tell me how much will be in my US account. Or, I can say how much in USD I want to send and they say what it will cost.



I'm not going to send it to prove the point, but I assure you that is the amount that will be in my US account if I had clicked "confirm". It is pretty cost effective compared to a normal wire (which charge a fee + hit you on the spread), and it is instant. I can hit refresh in another browser tab logged into the US side a second later and it will be there.

[vishalgupta2]

I will say, be a little careful when carrying cash in/out of USA. When I traveled to USA this February, on my flight out of Boston to LHR, the officers were asking everyone about how much cash they were carrying and if you said a big number, they were questioning why.

Offcourse this was only on the way out of US, and the OP has obvious and valid reason to have cash. Just be ready in case someone questions you.

[JR8]

I am looking at Citibank in the US for their rate because the money is converted there when it arrives. I assume your numbers are for local conversions for deposits here.

I experienced this in the US. I wired funds over from back home, and it got automatically converted to US$ at destination. The spread applied was akin to financial rape, maybe 5%.

Thereafter I always converted in my home account to US$, paid maybe 0.5%, *then* wired it.

A lot of American banks are incredibly parochial. Singapore might as well be Mars... currency-wise, and well, generally in fact!

[zzm9980]

I am looking at Citibank in the US for their rate because the money is converted there when it arrives. I assume your numbers are for local conversions for deposits here.

I experienced this in the US. I wired funds over from back home, and it got automatically converted to US$ at destination. The spread applied was akin to financial rape, maybe 5%.

Thereafter I always converted in my home account to US$, paid maybe 0.5%, *then* wired it.

A lot of American banks are incredibly parochial. Singapore might as well be Mars... currency-wise, and well, generally in fact!

And again, unless you're going to carry a pocket full of cash, the Citibank Global Transfer we talked about doesn't function like that. OP was mistakenly assuming it is just a free wire transfer with rape-rates on the other end. It's not, it is instant and the conversion happens locally here.

But if you are considering taking a pocket of cash, this infographic posted yesterday in another forum will be useful

http://demonocracy.info/infographics/eu ... piigs.html

[Hidy Ho]

Damn it .. now I need a truck beside my suitcases to carry my wad???

[frabuzz]

Hi guys,

noticed this thread is a lil old, yet hopefully some of you will still be having a look I am pretty much in the quite common situation of possibly moving to the US, therefore needing to transfer all I have saved in SG so far (which is now kept on a local bank account, not Citi, in SGD).

To synthesise, after thinking through and reading on all the usual issues, I guess the most effective and savvy way would be the following:

1. Open a Citi US$ Savings Account in Singapore
2. Close my local SG account and get all the SGD cash
3. Go to Raffles and change all the SGD in USD
4. Go to Citi SG and deposit all of the USD on the SG US$ Savings Account
5. When in USA, open a local Citi account and link it to the SG one
6. Transfer all (or almost all) of the USD in SG to the new US account.

I suppose this way would mean avoiding fees, transfers and conversions rip-offs, be completely fine, and work just okay? Am I forgetting and/or not considering something? Thanks!

[zzm9980]

Re: Step 4, confirm they'll take USD cash as a deposit before you get that far in the plan.

[frabuzz]

Thanks, I will. Yet I hope that is totally normal for a US Savings Account... do you think they may want to charge deposit fees or anything like that? It would be quite "crazy" if otherwise.

Re: Step 4, confirm they'll take USD cash as a deposit before you get that far in the plan.

[frabuzz]

Thanks, I will. Yet I hope that is totally normal for a US Savings Account... do you think they may want to charge deposit fees or anything like that? It would be quite "crazy" if otherwise.

Re: Step 4, confirm they'll take USD cash as a deposit before you get that far in the plan.

Can't believe... it seems they actually do charge a 0.5% fee on USD deposits on a USD Savings Account. It seems banks always find the way to rip customers off...

My "plan" then seems much less valid...

[zzm9980]

Thanks, I will. Yet I hope that is totally normal for a US Savings Account... do you think they may want to charge deposit fees or anything like that? It would be quite "crazy" if otherwise.

Re: Step 4, confirm they'll take USD cash as a deposit before you get that far in the plan.

Can't believe... it seems they actually do charge a 0.5% fee on USD deposits on a USD Savings Account. It seems banks always find the way to rip customers off...

My "plan" then seems much less valid...

Yep. That's why I warned When I needed to move money from the US to SG, it was easier and cost-comparable to just do a wire and take the kick in the balls on the fx spread. I had planned to wire USD into a USD account, but the girl at Citibank warned me the fees to do anything with it in SGD would be quite high to make it not worth it.

[frabuzz]

Thanks, I will. Yet I hope that is totally normal for a US Savings Account... do you think they may want to charge deposit fees or anything like that? It would be quite "crazy" if otherwise.

Can't believe... it seems they actually do charge a 0.5% fee on USD deposits on a USD Savings Account. It seems banks always find the way to rip customers off...

My "plan" then seems much less valid...

Yep. That's why I warned When I needed to move money from the US to SG, it was easier and cost-comparable to just do a wire and take the kick in the balls on the fx spread. I had planned to wire USD into a USD account, but the girl at Citibank warned me the fees to do anything with it in SGD would be quite high to make it not worth it.

That sounds like a rape. I think I will just go with the suitcase method... unless US Banks will ask me a fee to deposit USD, in USA. In that case I will just give up and go meditating in Nepal.

[BillyB]

Can't believe... it seems they actually do charge a 0.5% fee on USD deposits on a USD Savings Account. It seems banks always find the way to rip customers off...

My "plan" then seems much less valid...

Yep. That's why I warned When I needed to move money from the US to SG, it was easier and cost-comparable to just do a wire and take the kick in the balls on the fx spread. I had planned to wire USD into a USD account, but the girl at Citibank warned me the fees to do anything with it in SGD would be quite high to make it not worth it.

That sounds like a rape. I think I will just go with the suitcase method... unless US Banks will ask me a fee to deposit USD, in USA. In that case I will just give up and go meditating in Nepal.