My daughter is moving next month to Denmark for 3 years. She will be paid in Danish kroner. Today she bought some kroner (to get started over there) at a cost of over 10% to the bank (shocking!). Is there a way she can buy dollars/transfer money back from DKK to USD so she can pay student loans without losing so much again in the bargain? Thanks for any advice/ideas with which you have experience!
Posted by
Chicago
2876 posts
An easy option for your daughter for transferring funds internationally is xe.com. It's fast, easy, and reliable and almost always less expensive than using banks. She can go to the website here to read how it works. The website also has an explanatory video. http://tinyurl.com/ygp7vyg
Posted by
Copenhagen, Denmark
265 posts
You should know that there is a major difference between handling paper money and making electronic transactions. Handling paper money across borders is of course much more expensive (I assume that the 10% fee was for getting actual bills). Once in Denmark your daughter probably will have to open a bank account with a local bank in order to get paid, and the local bank will be able to wire money to a US bank account for a significantly smaller fee than 10%. However, when choosing a Danish bank, it pays to investigate the market and pick a bank that handles international transactions cheapest possible, as in your case, these fees will be a substantial amount of the fees you will pay the bank.
Posted by
Oak Park, Illinois
4535 posts
Christophe is right, the more she does her banking electronically, the better off she will be. Banks typically use the interbank rate which is within 1% of the daily exchange rate. That's why using an ATM card is the best exchange method, because you get the interbank rate and some banks don't add much more in fees on that. So she should talk with her bank to understand their process and then make sure her Danish bank will be accomodating too. BTW good to know her purchase rate was 10%. Wells Fargo is reportedly only 5%, but not everyone has access to that bank. One more reason NOT to buy euros ahead of time for people thinking they can game the exchange rates markets.