If you are an American living overseas, transferring money from your US based bank to an overseas institution can be confusing and daunting. However, it doesn’t have to be. With a little time and patience, there are several services you can use to transfer US dollars to virtually any country and in any currency. Wise (formerly TransferWise) and OFX are two of the larger and most well-known of these services. 

I currently have both a Wise and OFX account. Of the two services, Wise is the newer of the two but has far more clients and offers the most services. Wise is more akin to an online bank that allows you to exchange currencies and transfer funds at a low cost with ease. You can have multiple currency accounts which can greatly simply payments options if you need to pay bills in different currencies. OFX simply allows you to transfer funds. 

Wise currently offer payments to 160 countries in 40 currencies. OFX has been around for about 20 years and offers exchange in over 50 currencies. OFX does not charge any fees for transfers, but third-party banks may impose fees that you are unaware of until the transfer is complete. Wise, on the other hand, charges a small fee for every transfer but there are no hidden third-party fees. Both offer very competitive exchange rates, but I have found that Wise’s rates are better.  

On the day I wrote this, Wise proved to be the better platform to transfer/exchange funds from a US bank to an EU bank. The difference was significant even without any potential third-party fees that might be incurred by an OFX transfer.  

Send Euro	Wise USD	OFX USD
1,000	1,071.19	1,089.09
10,000	10,706.11	10,814.32

Wise 

Wise is a Belgium based company that allows an account holder to maintain accounts in different currencies (I currently have accounts in US Dollars, Czech Koruna, Euros, and British Pounds), transfer between them, accept transfers in different currencies, and to even direct deposit your US payroll. Full disclosure – I don’t currently use that feature, but the setup looks pretty straightforward. The Wise interface is not great, but it works. I have never had a reason to speak with customer service so I don’t know how responsive they would be but then again, I have never had a reason to need them. 

As a bonus, Wise offers interest on some accounts to include USD, Euro, and the British Pound. 

I have made hundreds of transfers with Wise, and every single one has been without a problem. The most I have transferred was exactly 5,000 Euros with most averaging about 500 USD. A recent transfer of 500 USD from my US based bank to my USD Wise account cost 65 cents using the Automatic Clearing House (ACH) network. A larger 5,000 Euro transfer from my wise USD account to a Spanish Bank incurred 26.40 USD in fees. 

A quick check online shows that a 5,000 USD transfer from your US based bank to your online Wise account would cost 6.50 USD using the ACH network option or 3.52 USD if you do a wire transfer. As the wire transfer fee is a flat 3.52 USD regardless of the amount transferred, a wire transfer will save you money for larger amounts. The only other difference between the two is you may have to wait a few hours for the wire transfer while the ACH is an instant transfer. 

Converting between currencies within your accounts is easy but does come with added fees. A recent exchange of 1,000 USD to Euros cost 6.52 USD. The good news is all fees and exchange rates are available when you start a transfer so there are no surprises.  

OFX 

OFX is relatively new to me. I recently signed up as there are no fees which may benefit you if you do larger transfers of over 10,000 USD. I did find the process to sign up a bit time consuming and it required three separate phone calls to customer support. However, every call was answered by what sounded like a native English speaker who handled the sign-up process in a professional and timely manner. The principal issue I faced was verifying my ID documents which are done by uploading a copy of your ID and taking a video of your face while you speak. For some reason the AI program didn’t like my face… 

After about a week, I was able to initiate my first transfer of 1,000 USD for Euros from my US based bank to my Wise account. There was no fee, and the exchange rate was at the market rate. As this was my first transfer and from a new bank account, customer service said the transfer would take about a week.  

I have been a customer of Wise for many years and have used them extensively o transfer US dollars to my own foreign bank accounts and to the banks of other institutions like schools and summer camps. I have transferred funds from USD to Euros, Pounds, Mexican Pesos, and even Czech Crowns.