2016, USA banks with low/no fee for incoming OVERSEAS USD wire transfers?
"Ally Bank $0 - from their website (emphasis mine): To receive a wire transfer from a non-U.S. bank: Incoming wire transfers from a non-US bank are processed by our   designated receiving bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. You'll need to provide the following information to the person or   business sending the wire transfer to you: Receiving Bank: JP Morgan   Chase Bank, N.A. ABA/Routing Number: 021000021 Address: 1 Chase   Manhattan PLZ, New York, NY 10005 SWIFT Code or Bank Identification   Code: CHASUS33 Beneficiary Account Number: 802904391 Beneficiary Name:   List 'Ally Bank' since the wire is being processed by JP Morgan Chase   Bank, N.A. Further Credit: Your Ally Bank Account Number and your name   as it appears on your Ally Bank account. Note: We won't charge you to receive a wire transfer into your Ally   account. https://www.ally.com/help/search.html?term=SWIFT&console=false&context=Help&domain=www.ally.com&section=Help+%26+FAQs Alliant Credit Union $0 - from their website (emphasis mine): Direct international wire transfers  International wire transfers are   handled through our correspondent bank for processing. International   wires can take up to 10 business days to be credited to the receiving   institution. Funds should be wired to: Northern Trust ABA# 071000152 ""Note: US   Banks do not use SWIFT codes. This ABA # is used in place of SWIFT   codes for US Banks."" 50 South La Salle Street, Chicago, IL 60603 For further credit: Alliant Credit Union Account Number 35101804 11545   W. Touhy Avenue, Chicago, IL 60666 For final credit: Member’s name and complete address (No P.O. Box)   Member’s 14-digit account number Destination of funds (checking,   savings or loan number)  Incoming wire transfers: Wire transfers received Monday - Friday,   7:00am - 3:00pm, CT, will be credited to your account the same day.   Wire transfers received after 3:00pm, CT, Monday - Friday and on the   weekend will be credited the next business day. Fees:   We do not charge a fee to receive incoming wire funds. However, the financial institution wiring the funds may charge for this   service. http://www.alliantcreditunion.org/help/receiving-a-wire-transfer-to-your-alliant-account"
I have a bank account in the US from some time spent there a while back. When I wanted to move most of the money to the UK (in about 2006), I used XEtrade who withdrew the money from my US account and sent me a UK cheque. They might also offer direct deposit to the UK account now. It was a bit of hassle getting the account set up and linked to my US account, but the transaction itself was straightforward. I don't think there was a specific fee, just spread on the FX rate, but I can't remember for certain now - I was transfering a few thousand dollars, so a relatively small fixed fee would probably not have bothered me too much. Atm machine and my Credit Union account. Low fees (often zero, if the machine is on any of the same networks) and decent exchange rate, and no need to carry cash or traveler's checks to be exchanged. Alternatively, pay by credit card, though there is a foreign transaction fee on that. "Echoing that bank fees are mostly ""because they can"", although partly this is because simply holding onto the money doesn't really pay enough for the physical infrastructure of branches, ATMs and staff. So like a budget airline they make it up on additional fees. But that document doesn't actually say they charge 3% for currency conversion! It's ""0.20% of transaction amount"" for currency conversion, which is not bad (although watch out for the ""spread"" between buying and selling rates). I see ""International POS/ATM Transaction Fee 3% of transaction amount"", which is very different. That's a card fee. The big issue with these is fraud - your card number suddenly being used in a different country will nearly always trigger extra fraud checks. It also involves a much more complicated settlement process. I'm more unimpressed with the monthly service charges and the huge $85 fee for international wire transfers." I use XE.com for almost the same purpose.  They have free transfer options, such as ACH withdrawals and deposits.  I normally do a online bill payment through my international bank to XE, and have them deposit it in the US via ACH.  It takes 1-3 business days, and there's no fee beyond their small percentage (about 1.25%) on top of the exchange rate. You could use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is THE fee-killer. I haven't used US and China exchanges, but you can connect your US bank account to Coinbase, buy bitcoins, transfer to BTCChina, and sell for CNY. There are many other options to convert from and to Bitcoins, but Coinbase seems to be most practical and most widely used in the US and BTCChina is the largest and probably most trusted exchange in China. You can also use LocalBitocoins for both buying and selling, but people on LocalBitcoins typically charge larger fees than exchanges, though this may vary. Please read a bit about Bitcoin before using it, and be aware of the risks. It's still very new (but revolutionary and very easy and fast to move internationally). Try with a small amount first to check it out. Your electronic wallet can be stolen, and you're exposed to certain risks of exchanges shutting down or government/banks stepping over their boundaries. One nice thing is that you probably won't be affected by volatility as you won't be holding bitcoins for long. Also be aware that the Chinese don't like capital leaving China and there is a possibility that China government will introduce further regulations on exchanges (though they have stated that buying, selling and owning bitcoins is legal). You're doing the opposite, importing money into China, but you'll probably feel it in one way or the other. P.S. Approximate fast fee calculation: Coinbase has 1% transaction fee + $0.15 bank fee. Bitcoin transfer is free or in some cases with minimal 0.0001 BTC fee (a bit less than $0.01 currently). BTCChina has 0.3% trading fee and 0.5% CNY withdrawal fee. As you can see, the main fees are exchange fees, but still less than 3% and if you find a good exchange combination with low fees you're golden, or might even make money on transaction if BTC price rises. Also check this Reddit thread - there are alternative China exchanges with lower fees. P.P.S. Found this blog post, maybe a bit outdated, but probably with better calculation than mine as it takes into account exchange prices. I doubt you're going to find anywhere that will give you free outgoing wires unless you're depositing a huge amount of money like $500K or more. An alternative would be to find a bank that offers everything else you want and use XETrade for very low cost online wires. I've used them in the past and can recommend their services. Most banks won't charge for incoming wires. I have accounts at E*Trade Bank that don't charge any fees and I can do everything online. You might want to check them out. E*Trade also offers global trading accounts which allow you to have accounts denominated in a few foreign currencies (EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD and HKD I think). I don't think there is a fee for moving money between the different currencies. If your goal is simply to diversify your money into different currencies, you could deposit money there instead of wiring it to other banks. "This answer is somewhat incomplete as I don't have definitive conclusions about some parts of your question.  Your question includes some very specific subquestions that may best be answered by contacting the investment companies you're considering. I don't see any explicit statement of fees for TIAA-CREF either.  I suggest you contact them and ask. There is mention on the site of no-transaction-fee funds (NTF), but I wasn't able to find a list of such funds.  Again, you might have to ask. Vanguard also offers some non-Vanguard funds without transaction fees.  If you go the Vanguard page on other mutual funds you can use the dropdown on the right to select other fund companies.  Those with ""NTF"" by the name have no transaction fees. Scottrade also offers NTF funds.  You can use their screener and select ""no load"" and ""no transaction fee"" as some of your filters. You are correct that you want to choose an option that will offer a good lineup of funds that you can buy without transaction fees.  However, as the links above show, Vanguard and TIAA-CREF are not the only such options.  My impression is that almost any firm that has their own funds will sell them (or at least some of them) to you without a transaction fee.  Also, as shown above, many places will sell you other companies' funds for free too.  You have plenty of options as far as free trades, so it really depends on what funds you like. If you google for IRA providers you will find more than you can shake a stick at.  If you're interested in low-cost index funds, Vanguard is pretty clearly the leader in that area as their entire business is built around that concept.  TIAA-CREF is another option, as is Fideltiy (which you didn't mention), and innumerable others.  Realistically, though, you probably don't need a gigantic lineup of funds.  If you're juggling money between more than a handful of funds, your investment scheme is probably needlessly complex.  The standard advice is to decide on a broad allocation of money into different asset classes (e.g., US stocks, US bonds, international stocks, international bonds), find a place that offers funds in those areas with low fees and forget about all the other funds." For those who are interested, I am answering my own question: We used Postbank and transferred 6000 Euro, we chose to Transfer in US$, and selected Shared Fees. There were three fees in total: All in all, I paid ~37$; this is about half of what I expected; and I got a perfect exchange rate. Postbank might have its downsides, but it seems they are still a good deal. India does allow Resident Indians to open USD accounts. Most leading National and Private Banks offer this. You can receive funds and send funds subject to some norms. The best way is to approach your bank and fill out a transfer form to send USD to your US account (if you are visiting India). They will require quite a number of proof (AADHAR, PAN, Passport) copies.  Otherwise speak to your bank about how to do a wire transfer from your India A/C to US; after de-moitization regulations have tightened, the best course of action would be to speak to your bank directly. "Not every American credit card charges Foreign Currency conversion fees. I won't mention the specific one I know about as I'm not interested in shilling for them. However, if you Google ""No foreign transaction fee"" you will find a couple of options." I have taken to using the service TransferWise. I have found them to be faster and cheaper and easier than using SWIFT, given the US Banking's... antiquated system of doing things. I've made dozens of transfers between my international accounts with TransferWise over the past 18 months. Some of them very large and some of them tiny, and even when there's been an issue (I once wrote an offensive joke in my narration for the transfer and they noticed) they have handled it respectfully and quickly. Prior to transferring money to US accounts, I used the SWIFT system - but SWIFT has a pretty spotty record in the US. Some banks you can do it all online but other banks, as Dheer mentioned, you have to go into the bank and sometimes find a senior staff member before you can find someone who even knows what SWIFT is. To transfer US$30,000 from the USA to Europe, ask your European banker for the SWIFT transfer instructions.  Typically in the USA the sending bank needs a SWIFT code and an account number, the name and address of the recipient, and the amount to transfer.  A change of currency can be made as part of the transfer.   The typical fee to do this is under US$100 and the time, under 2 days.  But you should ask (or have the sender ask) the bank in the USA about the fees.  In addition to the fee the bank may try to make a profit on the change of currency.  This might be 1-2%.    If you were going to do this many times, one way to go about it is to open an account at Interactive Brokers, which does business in various countries.  They have a foreign exchange facility whereby you can deposit various currencies into your account, and they stay in that currency.  You can then trade the currencies at market rates when you wish.  They are also a stock broker and you can also trade on the various exchanges in different countries.  I would say, though, they they mostly want customers already experienced with trading. I do not know if they will allow someone other than you to pay money into your account. Trading companies based in the USA do not like to be in the position of collecting on cheques owed to you, that is more the business of banks.  Large banks in the USA with physical locations charge monthly fees of $10/mo or more that might be waived if you leave money on deposit. Online banks have significantly lower fees.  All US banks are required to follow US anti-terrorist and anti-crime regulations and will tend to expect a USA address and identity documents to open an account with normal customers.   A good international bank in Europe can also do many of these same sorts of things for you. I've had an account with Fortis. They were ok, there were no monthly fees but there were fees for transactions.  In some countries I understand the post even runs a bank.  Paypal can be a possibility, but fees can be high ~3% for transfers, and even higher commissions for currency change.  On the other hand, it is probably one of the easiest and fastest ways to move amounts of $1000 or less, provided both people have paypal accounts. "Simple. If they don't allow you easily transfer money then they get to keep your money longer and earn more interest. Not to mention they can continue to charge fees for wire transfers. When I was in Colorado Springs all the banks allowed free bank to bank transfers. Why? Because their clients demanded it. Most of their clients were military members who needed to be able to send money home or to relatives in other states etc. When I moved to Texas I could not find a single bank that allowed free bank to bank tranfers. They had varying fee schedules for wire tranfers ranging from $7 to as high as $22. When I asked why they charged a fee to send money basically over the internet I was told that the Feds made them charge a fee. Big bunch of bull but I had to have a bank. Banks, in this country, will make it as hard as they legally can for you to remove your money from their greedy little mitts. I am going through this now with a bank in Idaho. Supposedly I can send funds bank to bank but I have to jump through a bunch of hoops that are difficult because I work during the bank hours. The bill pay site says I can do external tranfers but the button to ""set up external transfers"" is mysteriously missing. So I have to fill out paperwork in the presence of someone at the bank and submit it. I was even told that it had to be typed or it may be refused. The more I travel the more I mistrust banks and their schemes to keep my money." The website http://currencyfair.com/ provides a service which gives you both a decent exchange rate (about 1% off from mid-market rate) and a moderately low fee for the transfer: 4 USD for outgoing ACH in the US, 10 USD for same-day US wire. For the reverse (sending money from the US to EU) the fees are: 3 EUR for an ACH, 8 EUR for a same-day EUR wire. It has been online for quite a while, so I assume its legit, but I'd do a transfer for a smaller sum first, to see if there are any problems, and then a second transfer for the whole sum.