Transferring funds from the US to another EU country

The question at the top of the thread: what’s the best way to move your savings from a US bank to a bank in whichever country you're planning to settle in—ideally while minimizing fees and making the whole process as painless as possible?

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SEPA transfers from foreign currency accounts into EUR.
JPMorgan Chase and Citibank both charge a fee of $10 via online banking, though JPMorgan Chase imposes a daily limit of €10,000, whereas Citibank limits you to €3,300.

Look, you don't have to dump all your cash in one giant lump sum if you don't want to, but since our banks here love to nickel and dime us with those annoying SEPA transfer fees, I’d say just do it in as few transactions as humanly possible to save yourself the headache.

Transferwise.

ironcyclist58 said:Transferwise.

Look, that’s only a smart move if you’re sitting on a pile of USD and desperately need Euros. If you already have the Euros ready to go, just stick to a standard SEPA transfer and call it a day.

hiddentiger51 said:Look, that’s only a smart move if you’re sitting on a pile of USD and desperately need Euros. If you already have the Euros ready to go, just stick to a standard SEPA transfer and call it a day.

So what you're saying is—if you're using Citibank, the transfer limit is capped at $3,300? That is absolute garbage.

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wiredtinker11 said:So what you're saying is—if you're using Citibank, the transfer limit is capped at $3,300? That is absolute garbage.

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Look, I’m with JPMorgan Chase, so I can't speak for them. But honestly, what's even worse is how you can't just move money between different foreign currency accounts here in the US unless you have power of attorney over both of them. I have no clue if you can actually open a JPMorgan Chase foreign currency account and pull funds directly from Citibank, or if you're forced to deal with physical cash to make it happen.

What you could probably do is just park your cash in the Citibank account and use that to pay for everything abroad, then just wire over whatever small amount you need to the other bank later. For your day-to-day spending, that Citibank Visa card works perfectly fine—there's really no point in moving massive chunks of cash around unless you're dealing with some seriously huge sums.

wiredtinker11 said:So what you're saying is—if you're using Citibank, the transfer limit is capped at $3,300? That is absolute garbage.

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You can bump up the limit, but you'll have to actually show up at a branch.

Greetings from Washington, D.C.

Most banks offer foreign currency accounts. If you're starting with USD and dealing with a significant amount—say, upwards of $3,000—it might be worth asking a teller if they can offer a better exchange rate through the treasury department rather than just using the standard retail FX rate.

Then there’s the matter of incoming wire fees; every bank publishes their fee schedule online. Are your funds already sitting in an account somewhere, or are you still looking to open one?

If you haven't opened an account yet, your best bet is to aim for a bank that offers the lowest outgoing transfer fees.

As far as I know, SEPA transfers don't really work when moving money from the US to other EU countries; I was actually moving a larger sum of EUR just yesterday, and a wire transfer was my only option. For instance, moving money from Austria to Slovakia works seamlessly without extra fees since they are both part of the EMU.

If the bank where you open your account belongs to the same international banking group as your current one, the fees are usually much lower. For example, if you have an account at JPMorgan Chase now and you go to Austria to open an account with Bank of America, my advice would be to stick within the same banking network to make those initial and future transfers much smoother...

Keep in mind that you could run into situations where foreign banks start asking tough questions about your source of funds or might even refuse the deposit altogether... especially since you’re a new client walking in with a large amount of cash. When I handled my own transaction, I made sure to give my employer's bank a heads-up first. I didn't actually move any money until the compliance and AML department gave me the green light.

Also, definitely double-check how the tax authorities will view the payment, whether it's classified as a gift or a transfer...

Chris Chase5 said:Most banks offer foreign currency accounts. If you're starting with USD and dealing with a significant amount—say, upwards of $3,000—it might be worth asking a teller if they can offer a better exchange rate through the treasury department rather than just using the standard retail FX rate.

Then there’s the matter of incoming wire fees; every bank publishes their fee schedule online. Are your funds already sitting in an account somewhere, or are you still looking to open one?

If you haven't opened an account yet, your best bet is to aim for a bank that offers the lowest outgoing transfer fees.

As far as I know, SEPA transfers don't really work when moving money from the US to other EU countries; I was actually moving a larger sum of EUR just yesterday, and a wire transfer was my only option. For instance, moving money from Austria to Slovakia works seamlessly without extra fees since they are both part of the EMU.

If the bank where you open your account belongs to the same international banking group as your current one, the fees are usually much lower. For example, if you have an account at JPMorgan Chase now and you go to Austria to open an account with Bank of America, my advice would be to stick within the same banking network to make those initial and future transfers much smoother...

Look, SEPA definitely works within the EU. I've sent transfers from JPMorgan Chase over to Estonia and Ireland before and didn't run into a single hiccup. Generally speaking, the funds show up by the next business day.

I reached out to Citibank regarding a limit increase, but they wouldn't budge.
The maximum allowed is $8.25/day.
If you are dealing with significant amounts, your best bet is to open an account at JPMorgan Chase and transfer in increments of €10,000, though I would suggest verifying their current policies first...

Ultimately, you should contact your bank directly, because you will find far too much unverified information here on Reddit...

hiddentiger51 said:Look, SEPA definitely works within the EU. I've sent transfers from JPMorgan Chase over to Estonia and Ireland before and didn't run into a single hiccup. Generally speaking, the funds show up by the next business day.

I'm not saying it doesn't work; I'm just pointing out that it isn't free, unlike sending money from Austria to Germany or Slovakia. I actually checked the JPMorgan Chase website, and it looks like what they call a SEPA transfer is essentially what people in Europe refer to as a foreign payment order, and they base their charges on the standard fee schedule.

A foreign payment order or international wire works globally, but it definitely comes with a price tag.

That's why I'd suggest the user double-check those fees and maybe focus on one specific international region—especially if they aren't already banking in the US.

If someone is already a client at a bank here in the US, it might still be worth targeting a specific group of countries just to make processing easier and avoid too many headaches regarding the source of funds.

One more thing worth mentioning is that the fees shouldn't be massive—not upwards of 75-$100 as far as I know...

I mean, nobody actually said it was free. Someone clearly stated right up there that it costs $10.

I’d be pretty shocked if the maximum fee was capped at $10 regardless of how much you actually transfer :-)

Look, the total amount matters, the country matters, and your bank matters. But honestly, it’s all fairly straightforward. I’d say the author has most of the necessary info... they just seem to be missing the specific fee schedules from the banks' websites.

Yeah, that’s the final number. With SEPA transfers, you actually know what the costs are upfront. No random surprises waiting for you like when you're dealing with SWIFT...

Chris Chase5 said:I’d be pretty shocked if the maximum fee was capped at $10 regardless of how much you actually transfer :-)

Look, the total amount matters, the country matters, and your bank matters. But honestly, it’s all fairly straightforward. I’d say the author has most of the necessary info... they just seem to be missing the specific fee schedules from the banks' websites.

JPMorgan Chase is $10 via online banking (supposedly 90% in the branch) no matter how much cash you're sending or where it's headed (assuming the destination isn't part of the EU or SEPA system, then it obviously can't be a SEPA transfer)