How do I cash a foreign currency check?
November 3, 2014 10:03 AM Subscribe
I have a paper check in Australian dollars from the Australian tax office. I have a credit union account in the US where I could deposit it (the default route). Alternatively, I still have an Australian bank account, if that opens up a better way to transfer the money to the US. You are not my foreign exchange day trader, but maybe you have some advice for me?
Some extra clarifications:
Some extra clarifications:
- I have access to Commonwealth Bank in Australia, Capital One 360 (formerly ING) in the US (which apparently does not accept foreign transfers), and my local credit union (which does not have a SWIFT code but does accept transfers indirectly). The credit union will charge $15 to deposit the check, and they make no promises about the volatile exchange rate or how long it would take.
- I'm not in any particular rush to get my hands on the money. The exchange rate does matter - it's not a new BMW amount of cash but more than a used Honda Civic amount.
- If it should be deposited in Australia, either by mail or via favors from friends, what do I need to do on the check? (In the US, I'd sign it on the back and write my account number. I don't think I ever deposited a paper check when I lived in Australia.)
- I'll only use the money in the US, so how do I transfer it over securely / conveniently / at a decent exchange rate? There are dozens of services offering to send money internationally - any personal recommendations?
The $15 fee will likely be less than the cost + hassle/gamble of mailing a signed cheque and then making an international wire transfer.
You can go crazy trying to optimize exchange rate timing. I wouldn't even bother since it will not be that big an amount on a couple of thousand dollars.
I'd only worry about optimizing this situation if it was going to be frequent.
My wife and I skirted the fees on transfers from the UK to Canada for eight years by leaving signed cheques with blank amounts with her parents which they filled in and deposited for us each month in an account that had no fee (other than the exchange rate vig that they take) for international checks. If you can wait for the cheques to clear this is the cheapest way to go. It saved us just under $4000 in transfer fees.
If you decide to deposit in Aus then be sure and mark your signed check as 'deposit only'. Not that this is strong protection but maybe a teller can save your ass if your cheque goes astray or you trust the wrong friend.
posted by srboisvert at 11:03 AM on November 3, 2014
You can go crazy trying to optimize exchange rate timing. I wouldn't even bother since it will not be that big an amount on a couple of thousand dollars.
I'd only worry about optimizing this situation if it was going to be frequent.
My wife and I skirted the fees on transfers from the UK to Canada for eight years by leaving signed cheques with blank amounts with her parents which they filled in and deposited for us each month in an account that had no fee (other than the exchange rate vig that they take) for international checks. If you can wait for the cheques to clear this is the cheapest way to go. It saved us just under $4000 in transfer fees.
If you decide to deposit in Aus then be sure and mark your signed check as 'deposit only'. Not that this is strong protection but maybe a teller can save your ass if your cheque goes astray or you trust the wrong friend.
posted by srboisvert at 11:03 AM on November 3, 2014
I'd eat the $15 fee and deposit the check at your credit union. It saves you the hassle of figuring out how to deposit a check at a bank halfway across the world, then getting the money back to you in the US.
I did this when I closed my Canadian bank account. This was a tiny credit union with three branches, and I had my money within a week. I didn't really care about the exchange rate. Then again, this was somewhere between $250 and $500.
posted by tckma at 11:19 AM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
I did this when I closed my Canadian bank account. This was a tiny credit union with three branches, and I had my money within a week. I didn't really care about the exchange rate. Then again, this was somewhere between $250 and $500.
posted by tckma at 11:19 AM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I've had good experiences using US Forex to transfer money from my account in Australia to my account in the US. I used to just use the native Commonwealth Bank international transfer option, but their rates are exceptionally worse. I do a BPay from my CBA account to an Australian USForex/OZForex/Macquarie Bank account, and they wire the funds to my credit union using the regular ABA/account number technique. My US credit union charges me $8 for receiving the incoming wire. There is a bit of fiddling to get setup with them though.
In your shoes, I'd see if you can get a quote from your credit union for the exchange rate on a particular day and compare it to one from US Forex and see what the numbers are like to see whether it'd be worth the pain to get your check cashed into your CBA account. I wouldn't be surprised if the difference in rates corresponded to a difference in the 100s of dollars, and you can make a call as to whether the time and energy spent doing it via that route outweighs the relatively painless deposit at your credit union. You'd also have the option of trying to time your transfer to your advantage, but I would advise that you don't try and fiddle around with that too much, because it's pretty unpredictable, and in the medium-long term, the value of AUD appears to be headed down rather than up.
Sorry, I can't give any advice on how to actually deposit the check in your Australian account. You might be able to get the ATO to deposit your refund in your account and act as if the cheque was lost; see here. That could really simplify matters!
posted by bunyip at 4:25 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
In your shoes, I'd see if you can get a quote from your credit union for the exchange rate on a particular day and compare it to one from US Forex and see what the numbers are like to see whether it'd be worth the pain to get your check cashed into your CBA account. I wouldn't be surprised if the difference in rates corresponded to a difference in the 100s of dollars, and you can make a call as to whether the time and energy spent doing it via that route outweighs the relatively painless deposit at your credit union. You'd also have the option of trying to time your transfer to your advantage, but I would advise that you don't try and fiddle around with that too much, because it's pretty unpredictable, and in the medium-long term, the value of AUD appears to be headed down rather than up.
Sorry, I can't give any advice on how to actually deposit the check in your Australian account. You might be able to get the ATO to deposit your refund in your account and act as if the cheque was lost; see here. That could really simplify matters!
posted by bunyip at 4:25 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I have both deposited Australian cheques in Canada (they've always been put on a three-month hold by my major Canadian bank), and wired money from my Australian bank account to my Canadian bank account through OzForex aka CanForex, USForex. If the exchange rates are favourable to you RIGHT NOW, I would suggest going the USForex route. If they are not, just deposit the cheque in your US account.
Otherwise you will be checking the Australian exchange rate every day off and on for a year or two, always missing the peaks in off-again weeks/months, but never willing to settle for less than the peaks, and ultimately just paying account fees on an Australian account you don't use, and not having access to your money, either. (Ask me how I know.)
posted by snorkmaiden at 8:07 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
Otherwise you will be checking the Australian exchange rate every day off and on for a year or two, always missing the peaks in off-again weeks/months, but never willing to settle for less than the peaks, and ultimately just paying account fees on an Australian account you don't use, and not having access to your money, either. (Ask me how I know.)
posted by snorkmaiden at 8:07 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I'd say depositing it in the credit union would be the cheapest way to go. I'd double check to make sure there aren't any additional costs (for example a % of the amount) first though.
A telegraphic transfer from Australia to the US through CBA costs AUD 22 via netbank (excluding any fees charged by your credit unions or any intermediary banks for receiving the transfer) and, as someone mentioned above, the exchange rates offered aren't the best.
If you do decide to deposit it in Australia, you don't really need to do anything to the cheque. They're pre-printed not negotiable and just need to be deposited into an account in the same name as the favouree on the cheque. Anyone can deposit into your account, they just go into the branch and fill in a deposit slip with your account details. If the branch doesn't have deposit slips, the person can just take the account details to the teller. From my past experience working in branches (not with the CBA), for a cheque of that amount, the teller would definitely be checking to see whether the account name matches that on the cheque. The cheque would also take 3-5 working days to clear before you can transfer the money.
posted by Kris10_b at 11:11 PM on November 3, 2014
A telegraphic transfer from Australia to the US through CBA costs AUD 22 via netbank (excluding any fees charged by your credit unions or any intermediary banks for receiving the transfer) and, as someone mentioned above, the exchange rates offered aren't the best.
If you do decide to deposit it in Australia, you don't really need to do anything to the cheque. They're pre-printed not negotiable and just need to be deposited into an account in the same name as the favouree on the cheque. Anyone can deposit into your account, they just go into the branch and fill in a deposit slip with your account details. If the branch doesn't have deposit slips, the person can just take the account details to the teller. From my past experience working in branches (not with the CBA), for a cheque of that amount, the teller would definitely be checking to see whether the account name matches that on the cheque. The cheque would also take 3-5 working days to clear before you can transfer the money.
posted by Kris10_b at 11:11 PM on November 3, 2014
Response by poster: A follow-up for future readers: I had decided to go the local deposit route, but my credit union deposits foreign checks by clearing them through a third party service and the exchange rate they offered was pretty awful. That made a large enough difference to the conversion amount (over $1000!) that I decided to mail the check to my bank in Australia for deposit there instead.
The customer service email from Australia (via a service center somewhere else, where a rep literally described my problem back to me, said they would "certainly be very glad to help with that", etc.) instructed me to mail the cheque to the bank branch, with my bank account info (BSB/Account number) in a cover letter. I've done that and am waiting with fingers crossed.
That still leaves me with the problem of transferring money out of Australia at some future date - I'll look into US Forex and other transfer services but don't have a definite answer yet.
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:18 PM on December 3, 2014
The customer service email from Australia (via a service center somewhere else, where a rep literally described my problem back to me, said they would "certainly be very glad to help with that", etc.) instructed me to mail the cheque to the bank branch, with my bank account info (BSB/Account number) in a cover letter. I've done that and am waiting with fingers crossed.
That still leaves me with the problem of transferring money out of Australia at some future date - I'll look into US Forex and other transfer services but don't have a definite answer yet.
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:18 PM on December 3, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Poldo at 10:33 AM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]