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| Transfer funds from BofA to Westpac? | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 8 2010, 08:16:34 AM (1,831 Views) | |
| aroth | Feb 8 2010, 08:16:34 AM Post #1 |
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Anklebiter
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Long story short, I'll be moving on Australia on September 18th of this year. I just recently opened bank accounts for myself and my wife at Westpac, and have been trying to transfer some funds over using the BofA website. The problem is that BofA keeps telling me that they can't process the account details that I'm providing them. Is there some trick to getting them to recognize the Westpac account? Any ideas what I might be doing wrong? As far as I can tell, I'm putting the details in the correct spots. I've got a six-digit BSB code, and a six-digit account number (seems suspiciously short, to me), and am specifying the correct Westpac branch address. One thing that's a little weird is that the BofA page wants the address of the account holder. Currently that would be my San Francisco address. But if I enter the country as United States, then the form doesn't let me select Westpac (or any other Australian bank). I have to set the country to Australia in order to select Westpac, so that means I can either specify something like "San Francisco, Australia", or enter the bank's address as my address, but neother of those things are really correct. Could that be what is causing the problem? If so, how do I fix it? Has anyone else managed to successfully transfer funds from BofA to Westpac? If so, how did you do it? |
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| aroth | Feb 8 2010, 08:29:47 AM Post #2 |
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Anklebiter
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Nevermind. Apparently I just wasn't being patient enough, and BofA was just throwing up confusing error messages. Despite the message about not being able to process the accounts, if you just leave them to sit there for a few hours they eventually go into the "Verified" state and become usable. Once that happens transferring funds into them is simple and straightforward. |
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| jayde | Feb 8 2010, 09:06:49 AM Post #3 |
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Yacker
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Are there huge charges to transfer this way and did you have to set it up with BofA in person? thanks |
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| aroth | Feb 8 2010, 09:15:57 AM Post #4 |
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Anklebiter
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No, I was able to do it entirely online. The charge for the transfer is a flat fee of $35 if you do it in AUD, or $45 if you do it in USD. However, they do seem to give a relatively poor exchange rate. At the time I made the transfer, third-party sites were reporting the exchange rate as being 1 USD = 1.146 AUD, but BofA only game me 1 USD = 1.116 AUD. Essentially, it looks like they took a 3% commission for themselves by tweaking the exchange rate. That may or may not be a lot, depending upon the amount of money that you are transferring. In my case I essentially ended up with $1000 less than what I would have had I gotten the 1.146 rate, which pretty much renders the $35 fee moot. If you're planning on moving large sums of money around, it may be better to look for someone who will give you a better exchange rate than BofA. For the moment I'm willing to put up with it as a matter of convenience, though in the future I may look for a less costly alternative. Edited by aroth, Feb 8 2010, 09:27:39 AM.
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| pastrycook-136 | Feb 8 2010, 12:51:36 PM Post #5 |
True Blue Mate
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Welcome to YDU! If you plan to transfer more funds in the future use a service like Ozforex or XE trade to get a much better exchange rate with minimal or no fees. This can save you hundreds of dollars or more with the transfer. I used Ozforex and I was very pleased with their service. There are plenty of posts on this website on how to to do this. |
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| meg1388 | Feb 8 2010, 04:40:32 PM Post #6 |
True Blue Mate
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I agree with pastrycook, try using OzForex or XE! I just moved to Australia about a month ago and have been using OzForex. Another happy customer here... At first I was a little nervous using the service--I had to wake up in the middle of the night to call my bank to make a wire transfer to OzForex's Bank of New York account. I was nervous that I was forgetting/switching account & reference numbers in my sleepy state. But the customer service is excellent and will walk you through any concerns you may have. And the turnaround time is great--the biggest slow down was my bank in the US making the wire transfer. I think once the wired funds were received in OzForex's account, they forwarded it to ANZ within 12 hours. I feel that they offer the best exchange rate and your first two transactions are free of charge (i believe). However, my bank in America charged me $20 to make the wire transfer, but ANZ did not charge for the incoming funds. Best of luck with your future move! |
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| aroth | Feb 9 2010, 07:54:03 AM Post #7 |
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Anklebiter
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I'll definitely have to take a look at OzForex for my future transfers. Some further details about BofA: - Although you can enter the transfers online, they require phone confirmation before they will let the transfer go through. - It's possible to avoid getting their crappy exchange rate. If you do the transaction in USD instead of AUD, then the flat fee is $45, but you get to use the exchange rate from the receiving bank. From what I can tell, Westpac only takes half the cut that BofA does, so that is the better route when transferring larger amounts of money. I redid one of my transactions this way when they called to confirm, so as soon as it posts to my Westpac account I'll be able to confirm if they give a better rate than BofA. |
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| Sandgroper74 | Feb 13 2010, 04:04:38 PM Post #8 |
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Anklebiter
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Forget transferring directly from you US bank, they offer crap exchange rates and expensive fees to do so. I also have a BofA account (and a Chase account) and am wiring all of my money to Oz (Bank of Queensland) via XE.com. Quick and easy to use and best rates around. All online, no need to visit a branch of any kind. |
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| aroth | Mar 1 2010, 11:59:13 AM Post #9 |
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Anklebiter
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So, finally confirmed the transfer with Westpac (they didn't send me any electronic confirmation, so I had to wait until my Vonage hookup arrived so that I could call them and not get slammed with excessive international dialing rates for doing so). The final numbers are: BofA: $1000 USD = $1112 AUD (1.112 exchange rate) WestPac: $1000 USD = $1140 AUD (1.140 exchange rate) ...from what I remember of when I made the transfer, the market rate was hovering in the 1.15 to 1.16 range. So both banks take a cut, but BofA takes a much larger one. The Westpac rate is not terrible, however. |
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| JimmyD | Mar 17 2010, 03:29:03 PM Post #10 |
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True Blue Mate
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Something else to keep in mind. I'm not sure if this is only on savings accounts or if it is on all accounts... You need to make sure you give Westpac the tax ID number you will be issued by Australia. If the bank does not have this number then some kind of tax gets taken directly from your account. Don't worry too much though. When you get your tax ID number you can then claim back the taxes taken from your account at the end of the financial year, but you will need copies of your account statements showing the withdraw. |
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