We have a bank account here at Banca Toscana where our utility bills are paid automatically every month. Convenient, but expensive! They charge about 30 euro in fees every month. We asked, is there a no fee account? They said, yes — keep a minimum deposit of 1000 euro in the account. Ok… well, that reduced the fees to about 10 euro month. Still fees, and no interest. Fine.
So to get money into the account, I wire funds from a US account. Ameriprise and USAA both charge $25 for this. Wamu does it for free, but the rate is less favorable. So it ends up about the same, though for large amounts the $25 fee is the better option.
Since I’m here though, I figured withdrawing cash from my US account and depositing it directly would be a better option. I should at least get an exchange rate close to normal plus some small fee. The only drawback was that I’m limited to $500/day. Fortunately I have two accounts. Unfortunately, the exchange rate is nearly $1.50 to 1 euro. So, I withdrew 250 euro from each account. Wamu converted that to $374.70 plus 1%, for a total cost of $378.44; USAA converted it to $378.45 with no additional fee. Presumably they roll their 1% into the rate. Either way it works out the same, and both direct withdrawal and wire transfer end up being the same. And both methods are a hassle as you have either walk in or fax instructions plus a phone call. Is there at least a bank that can transfer money internationally without having to talk to someone in person? .
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