I am a retired Federal employee and receive a pension from the Federal Government in addition to a monthly dispersement from a Morgan Stanley IRA.

Does anyone have any cheap and simple solutions for getting money from the United States to a Swedish bank account?

There really isn't anything cheaper and simpler than a debit card, if you need to get the money out regularly in $(maximum withdraw amount) sums.

You need to find out what the one-time fees and exchange rate margins your US bank has and compare that to the fees and exchange margins for wire transfers. Your best bet is probably to make a couple of large wire transfers per year to Sweden.

Ditto to what adamrush said.

My bank (Wells Fargo) charges $30 for a wire (up from $15) so I'm trying not to transfer more than once every two months. If I could afford to, I would hold out longer, just to avoid the fee. Although, besides the fee, there's also the question of the exchange rate. I also try to maximize that.

You'd have to check with your bank, but my debit card only allows $409 per day, and they charge $5 plus 3% of the total withdrawal. (Of course, Wells Fargo is known for its high fees, so some other bank might do better.) I only transfer money this way when I absolutely have to, even though since the withdrawal gets the bank's official exchange rate rather than their buy/sell rate, I win back a little there.

Some people on the board have used xe.com--I haven't tried that, but it looks like you'd incur a wire fee getting money to them. Might be different with different banks.

I put any proceeds from my Morgan Stanley account into my Wells Fargo account (by check!) just because I haven't gotten around to setting up a wire agreement with MS. I only have a regular investment account there (not an IRA) and don't transfer money often.

Note, too, that some banks require you to go into an office to set up a wire agreement--check that out before you leave the US.

Finally, I get my Social Security deposited directly to my Swedish account (can't do that with my State pension--they require direct deposit to a US bank). Any possibility you could go that route with your federal pension?

I have my son on my account, and i scanned the documents so i can fill them out and email them to him to get the process started. I have a credit union, so my wire rate is only $20 with another $5 fee when it gets here.

I need to check the full price for ATM usage, again, the CU is pretty reasonable.

OPM requires an American banking institution, but thanks for the heads up on Social Security, I will start drawing that in a couple years.

Morgan Stanley doesn't even want me to have a foreign address, they say it raises red flags with homeland security.

It does help to have another person on an account in this sort of situation. Also, I think you're wise to be dealing with a CU--they have limitations but seem a bit more personal. Wish I had stayed with mine instead of moving everything to Wells Fargo.

Ditto for me with Morgan Stanley--I use my daughter's address with them although I have never lived there and she is not on the account. They are fully aware of this, as I was in the last time I was in town and even got her to go with me so she also could meet my new financial advisor. Oh well--whatever makes them happy.

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Originally posted by gms57tr3:
I have my son on my account, and i scanned the documents so i can fill them out and email them to him to get the process started. I have a credit union, so my wire rate is only $20 with another $5 fee when it gets here.

I need to check the full price for ATM usage, again, the CU is pretty reasonable.

OPM requires an American banking institution, but thanks for the heads up on Social Security, I will start drawing that in a couple years.

Morgan Stanley doesn't even want me to have a foreign address, they say it raises red flags with homeland security.

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Originally posted by adamrush:

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Originally posted by gms57tr3:
I have my son on my account, and i scanned the documents so i can fill them out and email them to him to get the process started. I have a credit union, so my wire rate is only $20 with another $5 fee when it gets here.

I need to check the full price for ATM usage, again, the CU is pretty reasonable.

OPM requires an American banking institution, but thanks for the heads up on Social Security, I will start drawing that in a couple years.

Morgan Stanley doesn't even want me to have a foreign address, they say it raises red flags with homeland security.

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Again, check the margin they put on their exchange rates for debit card withdraws and wire transfers.

Moving $1000 with a 3% margin is $30. If you are moving several thousands of dollars at a time, the transfer fee isn't what will cost you.

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Nordea does not seem to be charging me to accept my Social Security, however I do get some odd looking exchange rates. On the other hand, what I get is sometimes lower and sometimes higher than what I had seen anywhere on the currency exchange websites. It has more or less evened out so far; if someone is charging a fee, it's not coming out on my bank statement as one.

If SEB charges you to receive these payments, I suppose it would be because the transaction is somehow different than the SSA transfer--more like a wire. Nordea charges me 60SEK to recieve wired money

looks like i need to do some research, Länsförsäkringar only charges about $5 to accept a wire transfer

We had a thread started by Lonette on this topic February 2011. I came across a post on the Local discussing some solutions using investment companies (Schwab, Vanguard, et.al.) who may not charge fees on ATM withdrawals. If you have an IRA with MS, they might have an account service you can enroll in that will reduce your costs for overseas transfers. Otherwise, you have the option to transfer your IRA to one of the other companies - Vanguard, Fidelity, etc. who might offer a low or no cost solution for money transfers.
[/url] http://www.thelocal.se/discuss/index.php?showtopic=35698 [url][/url]

I use PayPal. It's very easy and only takes 1-2 business days for the money to transfer.

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Originally posted by alisoninsweden:
I use PayPal. It's very easy and only takes 1-2 business days for the money to transfer.

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Originally posted by adamrush:

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Originally posted by alisoninsweden:
I use PayPal. It's very easy and only takes 1-2 business days for the money to transfer.

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What does it cost?

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Originally posted by adamrush:

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Originally posted by alisoninsweden:
I use PayPal. It's very easy and only takes 1-2 business days for the money to transfer.

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What does it cost?

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Regardless of what it costs, 2,5% on top of their bank's margin according to the American site, Paypal is just too risky to be using for thousands of dollars at a time. They automatically lock accounts all the time for sudden changes in balance.

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Originally posted by adamrush:
Regardless of what it costs, 2,5% on top of their bank's margin according to the American site, Paypal is just too risky to be using for thousands of dollars at a time. They automatically lock accounts all the time for sudden changes in balance.

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Why do they sound like urban legends? I know both private and business users who have had their accounts locked. Even in the last year or two.

Why are you bickering with me about this? They sound like urban legends because they are told in hyperbolic language and they are never about the person telling the story, always some vague third party. I use PayPal successfully to transfer money between private US and Swedish bank accounts. *I* do, not friends of friends, not random people I heard about on the internet. People reading this thread can take or leave that information. I have no personal stake in convincing anyone to use PayPal, I'm only saying that I do and I find it fast, easy, and inexpensive.

(Incidentally, I quit using this website for about a year because I got fed up with all the negativity, and as soon as I come back and try to provide helpful answers, here it is! Oh, well.)