Possible Banking Savings

[nerveandmuscle]

For people who need to wire transfer money, Washington Mutual Bank is offering free outgoing wire transfers for people who have a WaMu Free Checking account. When I had to send my university application fee, the cost of a wire transfer was almost as much as the application fee itself. The account also comes with free (in that Washington Mutual is waiving its fees but there might be other transaction fees) international ATM cash withdraws.

http://www.wamu.com/personal/accountchoices/checking/wamufreechecking/default_CA.htm

[pandaxiongmao]

It isn't true.

For ATM withdrawls in China, Washington Mutual charges $3 International Transaction fee + 1% of the transaction amount. So if you withdraw $300, you get hit with $6 in fees. There is also a limit of $300 per ATM withdrawl (although that is more than the 2000RMB limit at most banks in China).

If you want to withdraw money in Taiwan, you have to find a Citibank or HSBC. Taiwan banks require 6-digit PIN numbers, which WAMU didn't give me.

Their wire transfer fees are also no better than any other bank I've used. They may be blaming other banks for the fees, but they are definitely there.

Which is why I don't use them anymore for international banking...

[nerveandmuscle]

*shrug*

I just heard their ad on the radio so I assume their free wire transfer and atm offer just started recently. But yeah, there is fine print on that webpage about associated charges. So "free" might just end up being a discount rather than free.

The cheapest way I found to get money into China was to write myself a check from my US account . Bank of China only charged me 20 yuan and I got the higher non-cash exchange rate. Unfortunately the check will take 2 weeks to clear.