If you ever need to send a large sum of money internationally, one of your simplest options for doing so will be to travel to your bank to make an international wire transfer.
But before you head over to your bank to make the transfer, you first need to know the various steps you’ll need to do once you arrive.
Here are the steps you need to take to make an international wire transfer in person:
Confirm
Before you even arrive to your bank, you first need to confirm with them that you can even make an international wire transfer in the first place. If the answer is yes, then you can proceed.
Bring The Details
There are a large number of details that you will need to bring to your bank to complete the transfer.
In general, the following is what you will need:
- The name and address of your recipient
- The type of account your recipient has
- The name and address of the bank of your recipient
- The international bank account number of your recipient
- The BIC or SWIFT code of your recipient
Out of these, the two that will be the most difficult for you to find out are the last two.
You should be able to find out the international bank account number of your recipient by simply giving their bank a phone call or e-mail, or ask the recipient themselves.
As for the BIC or SWIFT code, you can use an online SWIFT/BIC code finder to locate it for you. It’s important to have both the SWIFT/BIC code and the international bank account number, because without them, your bank cannot complete the transaction.
Choose The Transfer Amount
This is simple enough. How much money are you wanting to send to your recipient?
Choose A Currency Option
So long as you are not the recipient yourself, you will want to check with them to confirm the currency option they need. Keep in mind that your recipient may not need the currency of the country they are staying in, because they might have a multi-currency account.
Once you have selected the currency, your bank will tell you what the exchange rate for that currency is.
Pay The Transfer Fee
You will be charged a flat rate by the bank for making an international transfer. In most cases, the free will be anywhere from $40 to $100. $50 is considered to be the general baseline so that is the amount you should expect to pay.
In addition, the receiving bank will also charge your recipient. Usually, it will be a smaller amount of around ten to twenty dollars.
Making An International Wire Transfer
Sending money internationally is actually not as intimidating of a process as it may sound, and these are the main steps that you will need to follow to do it.