# transfer money



## mitr.in

What is best way to transfer money from a Singapore account to a US account. 
by best i mean obviously best exchange rate..

Thanks in advance


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## BBCWatcher

I haven't found a great way to do it yet.

E*Trade has a small outpost in Singapore, and you can send them Singapore dollars via GIRO which then magically land in a regular E*Trade account in the U.S. as U.S. dollars, able to be invested or pulled via ACH in the U.S. It looks like that costs between 1.2 and 1.3 percent on the small amount I tested. (I'm not sure if the exchange rate markup is lower on larger amounts.)

Citibank Global Transfer is another option (Citibank Singapore to Citibank U.S.) which is decent. There's no flat fee, but the markup on the exchange rate is mediocre.


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## mitr.in

Its interesting.. havent thought about that.. 
not sure about citi bank ..we dont have an account in US...
we have tried DBS to BankOfAmerica..
Bankofamerica.. gave a very poor exchange rate.. it was a big amount that was transfered, so was expecting we would get a descent rate .. but BofA just sucks..


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## dvdlin

Just like to share some good experience about citibank global money transfer from citibank Singapore account to citibank New York account. It takes less than 5 seconds. I login to both Singapore online banking portal as well as US citibank online banking. Once I click submit at Singapore Web Site and switch to US citibank Web Site, the money shows at my us account already. What a wonderful experience!  Dav


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## mitr.in

would you mind sharing the exchange rate that was given to you ?


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## avbferry

Hi guys,

Correct me if I am wrong but the Citibank Global Transfer account is only provided to those who have lived or studied in US?

Transferring SGD to Etrade for conversion is not ideal as they use Standard Chartered Bank rates, which aren't the best. Based on my research, DBS seems to offer the best USD/SGD rates. You can view their rates by going to their website --> personal banking --> rates online --> foreign exchange (unfortunately I can't post the direct links for you cause of forum restrictions) 6 months back, I compared their rates against that of OCBC, HSBC, UOB and SCB for 5 days and it seemed to be the best.

After converting SGD to USD via DBS, I send issue a cheque to Etrade. They would then bank the money in.

Hope this helps.


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## BBCWatcher

Citibank Global Transfer is for transfers between Citibank accounts in several countries where Citibank offers retail banking services. You must have one Citibank account in country A and one Citibank account in country B, and both countries must be CGT countries. One of the countries must be the U.S. if you want to transfer money to or from the U.S. with CGT.

I have no idea which bank E*Trade uses, but their net rate (including all fees and commissions) for SGD to USD transfers to the U.S. is much better than DBS offers via international wire transfers in my experience. In fact, relatedly, DBS just raised its USD forex rate on its ATM/debit and credit cards to 2.8% above interbank, which is among the highest forex spreads in the market. (For comparison, many U.S. credit cards are only 1% above interbank for the reverse transaction, and U.S. credit cards have better rebates and bonuses.)


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