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Transferring money overseas, any tips?

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Strive:
Hi Patrick - did you ever find out more about this? I'm also wondering if it'd be a good idea to get some assets as far as away from SA as possible, but it does seem like the usual suspects charge an arm and a leg for the privilege.

Patrick:
I'm down to Exchange4Free and Currencies Direct. Both seem to charge midmarket +1%, so you'll end up paying R10k on R1m. Pity I didn't do that in November already!!!

There are cheaper exchange places available, but none I've found with an SA account for taking deposits yet. Mercantile said they don't assist individuals, only companies. If you have a company then they will give you an account for R35 a month, and can change money for as little as midmarket + 0.1%.

I've considered bitcoin, but I don't trust it enough at the moment.

gcr:
Patrick - you have opened your account in the USA and have moved some funds offshore to fund the account.
Do the people you transferred the funds to; provide you with direct access to your current balance, and in what currency?. How frequently do you get a statement or can you get access over their platform and view your holding and currency balances whenever you wish to access their platform.
Do you initiate your buy/sell orders, or do you have to place an order with them, for them to place an order into the exchange?
Are the people you are dealing with creditable? - i,e, you don't lose any sleep at night around the safety of your funds?

JDP:
And opening that overseas bank account, man its difficult to find proper info on this, if indeed you find any.

Patrick:

--- Quote from: gcr on February 17, 2016, 03:15:09 pm ---Patrick - you have opened your account in the USA and have moved some funds offshore to fund the account.
Do the people you transferred the funds to; provide you with direct access to your current balance, and in what currency?. How frequently do you get a statement or can you get access over their platform and view your holding and currency balances whenever you wish to access their platform.
Do you initiate your buy/sell orders, or do you have to place an order with them, for them to place an order into the exchange?
Are the people you are dealing with creditable? - i,e, you don't lose any sleep at night around the safety of your funds?

--- End quote ---
I'm a little different to most here gcr, I opened a bank account in the states through my employer, it's one of the perks of the job. They're also putting 50% of my salary into that account every month. I asked for 100%, but they said no. They have agreed to put all my travel money in there too. What I'm left with is my local investments dividends, and what remains on my local half of my salary. I live on a lot less than half my salary (my wife calls me cheap sometimes, but I think she doesn't understand frugality).

For the first few months of the year my money will go into my and my son's TFSA, from then onwards I'll have to put it into ETFs. Then I need to figure out when to take it offshore. I was getting tempted again at the lower levels of R15, but then we had budget and the Pravin/Zuma fight. I want the dust to settle there before doing anything.

I've looked onto every possible way I could think of for getting money offshore. It's still looking like exchange4free is the cheapest. Bitcoin doesn't work for us, as bitcoins are about 10% more expensive in SA than offshore. That's great if you want to bring money into SA, but terrible taking it out!

I did find someone who wanted about $2000 worth of Rand they had in a paypal account, so we traded at the mid-market rate. If only I could find more people who want Rand in an SA bank account for their dollars.

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