Foreign Remittance - Between Singapore and Australia

LurvinOZB on 07/01/2014 - 20:42

Thought I seek out the brains of OZB … thanks in advance for your replies.

I am relocating to Singapore for work, getting paid locally in Singapore. I have a mortgage here in Australia. I intent to maintain majority of funds here in Australia, but if the AUD strengthen in the near future, I may want to move funds out of Australia to pay for a property purchase in Singapore. In the meantime, I will be transferring a portion of my pay back to Australia to pay for mortgage and financial commitments here on a monthly basis.

What are my options? I done a couple of international funds transfers and got slugged on the forex front, and also to receive money! I have foreign currency account with a local Singapore bank and even if I withdraw foreign currency from that account, the bank gets a certain percentage of it. I believe its the same here too.

Looking for ideas …

Cheers
B

Financial

Comments

  • quirki on 07/01/2014 - 20:58
    +2

    Best option by far is to sign up for an Oanda account and do an fx fund transfer yourself. It's as close to spot as you can get. http://fxglobaltransfer.oanda.com/.

    • LurvinOZB on 08/01/2014 - 22:22

      Hey, few years back I used a company called ozforex. Back then their rates were better than the local banks, now the rates are worse off than xe.com.

  • PissLUR on 07/01/2014 - 21:07

    Have you tried asking CBA in singapore if you can transfer internally for free?
    I know for students you can get free transfer.

  • jace88 on 08/01/2014 - 00:54

    Are you renting out your place which is subject to the mortgage (don't forget the tax considerations), and also are you relocating permanently to Singapore? Keep in mind property prices are quite expensive, and you also will probably be buying leasehold property (freehold isn't common).

    In terms of money transfers, some banks e.g. Citibank offer free international transfers between Citi accounts however you do get slugged on the FX front.

    If you're transferring a large amount (say $100k+), you can always negotiate a better spot rate (I used to personally call the FX desk at Citi when I do a conversion) and then you hold the funds in a SGD at-call account, and then do an IMT with this. The only thing you might get hit with is a fee on the other end to receive the SWIFT funds

    • LurvinOZB on 08/01/2014 - 21:36

      yea there is a need to factor in tax implications on the rental of the property. was thinking of securing tenancy and fixing a couple of big ticket items such as roof refurbishment and having them depreciate over time. i think the essence here is probably the timing; i.e. having tenancy, getting things fixed and paid before jun this year to take advantage of the expenses.

      will be talking to one of the consultants at the local citibank branch. i have a sneaky suspicion that the consultants are really only interested in accounts with large cash holdings >100k. i might be wrong …

      100k … hmmm … that will only happen if i get lucky to secure a reasonable priced property … then again private properties in singapore (condos) are usually above 1 million at current prices for 90-100 sqm. might take a few years of hard work =)

      • jace88 on 13/01/2014 - 18:27

        probably worth mentioning the consultants at citi are really just trying to sell you products- they won't be able to offer tax advice or anything remotely useful beyond helping you set up an account there.

  • raffy on 08/01/2014 - 08:38

    Hi,
    I use XETRADE http://www.xe.com/xetrade/

    Their fees seem reasonable and they claim to have the lowest FX margins.

    Cheers
    Raffy

    • LurvinOZB on 08/01/2014 - 21:25

      coincidentally, i just registered with them for an account. it will be interesting to see how good the rates are. In singapore, money changers are common and if you put in effort, some of them can provide rates similar to that on xe.com/ucc.

      only problem is bringing cash in and out of australia. always an element of risk especially with large sums of money >10k.

  • perthwa on 08/01/2014 - 11:00
    +1

    I hope we still see you in Oz again since lifestyle is so much cheaper in Singapore :)

  • y on 30/01/2014 - 11:56

    Currencyfair.com will probably offer the best rate of any of these companies

  • illumination on 31/01/2014 - 02:25

    Don't know what would be best, but just to let you know I've used Currencyfair to transfer from HKD->AUD. Got a good rate too.

  • snirodha on 04/02/2014 - 17:56

    Hi Lurvin are you happy to share information about how u found the job in Singapore ? I am currently looking for an IT jobs in from singapore while working in here ausi. I have applied through online job sites similar to seek in ausi. Did u use a spwcific agent ? And how long did it take u to get an interview. Appriciate of u can share information

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