walkjivefly wrote: OP has 2 choices:

walkjivefly wrote:

bolueeleh wrote:

timmydownawell wrote: Thanks, but when they send the money via SWIFT won't it still go via the intermediary bank who charges 3%?

most banks hv to go thru some kind of intermediary, unless u r a huge conglomerate like citi with presence in over 100 countries

OP has 2 choices:
1. make a payment from home country bank account to destination account in Cambodia. Likely to involve a currency exchange in the origin country and not at a favourable rate. Likely to incur a service charge from the origin bank. Almost certain to go through at least one intermediary bank which will almost certainly charge a handling fee, usually a fixed amount between $25-$50 but it could be a percentage. You'll probably get no choice in which intermediary bank is used. Your origin bank will probably claim not to know which bank it will be nor how much they will charge.

2. Use a currency transfer intermediary. There are lots to choose from. Rational FX have been mentioned already. Make a payment in your home currency from your bank to the FX company. Probably there will be no fee for this payment. They'll do the currency conversion at a better rate than your bank would and then transfer the money, again via an intermediary who will again charge a fee.

In both cases when the money arrives in Cambodia the receiving bank will probably charge a fee based on the amount.



Some random things I've learned transferring money from the UK to Cambodia:
1. (UK banks claim) all US$ transfers must go through a US intermediary bank.
2. ABA and possibly other Cambodian banks (claim they) will accept payments in GB£, and give a better exchange rate than the UK bank, but both UK banks I asked to send GB£ said "cannot". They couldn't explain why.
3. Xendpay (Rational FX) have a "no surprises guarantee" which promises to refund any intermediary (but not destination) bank charges. They don't like to honour it and are slow to do so but they have refunded all the intermediary fees I've incurred in the last 2 years.
4. Peer to peer FX companies like Transferwise and CurrencyFair do not operate in Cambodia and are unlikely to do so any time soon.
5. Many traditional FX companies also don't support transfers to Cambodia.
6. The AML/KYC requirements of some traditional FX companies make then unusable by expats in Cambodia.

Jamie_Lambo wrote: i usually transfer £1000 at a time
they charge £4-5 handling fee
ABA charge $10 for the transfer into the bank,
i did notice the last transfer i got them to do came through about $30 shy, but that might be due to the intermediary

timmydownawell wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote: i usually transfer £1000 at a time
they charge £4-5 handling fee
ABA charge $10 for the transfer into the bank,
i did notice the last transfer i got them to do came through about $30 shy, but that might be due to the intermediary

That last part's what I am trying to avoid. I sent US$1500 from Australia and got charged US$16 by my Australian bank, US$36 by the intermediary, and US$10 by ABA - that's $62, more than 4%. It's such a ripoff for an electronic transaction that in reality would have cost them something like 5 cents each. Not to mention the crappy USD conversion rate from my AU bank.

When I get my Citibank card it'll just be $4 or $5 per ATM withdrawal. But when and if I need to transfer a bigger sum that's where the problem lies. Hopefully walkjivefly's info/explanation helps.

SinnSisamouth wrote:£1000,$10000?

pfft, large sums my arse.