Transferwise has reduced its fees for sending money to Indonesia.

[CaturMuka]

Transferwise have just announced that they have reduced their fees for sending money to Indonesia. You can see their pricing here:

https://transferwise.com/pricing#?from=AUD&to=IDR

Personally, I think they're the cheapest and easiest way to send money. Please let me know if you've found a better option.

 

[waarmstrong]

I don't use Transferwise or any other similar service, for that matter. The fee for an international wire transfer from my bank in the USA to my Indonesian USD account in Jakarta is $45 regardless of the amount.

 

[dafluff]

From their website they charge 1% + 2 USD, for USD TO IDR transfers (and using mid-market rate), so it is better for people wishing to send smaller amounts of money.

 

[CaturMuka]

I don't use Transferwise or any other similar service, for that matter. The fee for an international wire transfer from my bank in the USA to my Indonesian USD account in Jakarta is $45 regardless of the amount.

That sounds pretty good for large amounts but you'll still need to compare the exchange rates between your bank and Transferwise.

 

[waarmstrong]

From their website they charge 1% + 2 USD, for USD TO IDR transfers, so it is better for people wishing to send smaller amounts of money.

I also learned from the web site that if wiring less that $4,300, then Transferwise is the better value. I have not transferred amounts less than that and do not plan to, simply because making infrequent larger transfers keeps the transaction costs at the minimum available for my circumstance.

 

[Davita]

I've been advocating TransferWise on this forum and others...see 'we got 2000$ through paypal....'

Just now did a fake transfer of AUD to IDR....

AUD 100 would net IDR 983,656 which includes an AUD 2.97 fee.

AUD 1000 would net IDR 10,020,505 which includes an AUD 11.88 fee.

AUD 10,000 would net IDR 100,339,560 which includes an AUD 100.99 fee.

Both would be delivered to my Jakarta bank by tomorrow.

If I try UK£ or US$ it would not arrive till Monday.

 

[waarmstrong]

That sounds pretty good for large amounts but you'll still need to compare the exchange rates between your bank and Transferwise.

As I said earlier, I avoid the exchange rate kiting, seemingly common among some banks and transfer services, by transferring USD to a USD account I maintain at my bank in Jakarta.

 

[Davita]

As I said earlier, I avoid the exchange rate kiting, seemingly common among some banks and transfer services, by transferring USD to a USD account I maintain at my bank in Jakarta.

I do similar as I have an HSBC account in Jakarta with internal IDR, CDN and GBP accounts. I can freely transfer in the same currency using HSBC Global Transfer but, at some point, have to exchange/transfer to the IDR account to use the money in RI.

My personal relationship Manager in HSBC gives me the best rate but, yesterday, I wanted to transfer £10,000 from my UKP account to my IDR account. I found TransferWise would be a better net amount than the bank's exchange.

i.e. If I had kept the GBP in my UK account in UK and transferred to Indonesia using TransferWise my net would be IDR2 Juta more.

 

[CaturMuka]

As I said earlier, I avoid the exchange rate kiting, seemingly common among some banks and transfer services, by transferring USD to a USD account I maintain at my bank in Jakarta.

Yeah, but you'll still need to check that last step when you exchange the USD in your Indonesian account into Rupiah. But it looks like you've done that already as you mentioned in your other post. Thanks, good to know that it still might be better to check with your bank for large transfers.

 

[brian@bekasi]

In regards to bank transfers, I can use two methods. Either transfer AUD between my HSBC Australian and HSBC Indonesian Accounts at no cost or pay a fixed rate of $20 to transfer fromother Australian banks.

When I transfer using HSBC I get a poor exchange rate from my Relationship Manager when I convert to IDR. When I transfer and pay the $20 in Australia I transfer to my BNI account in Indonesia.

My BNI Relationship Manager gives me a far better exchange rate which is close to the real time mid rate.

The net result is about the same for my fortnightly transfers of $2000 but far better with BNI if I transfer a large sum.

 

[waarmstrong]

I like to keep the transfer process separate from the exchange process. My Indonesian bank offers a competitive exchange rate, so its usually a matter of monitoring the ForEx market and calling in an exchange amount when I view the rate to be in my favor. If I get it wrong it's on me; I like it that way.

 

[Wisnu]

I do similar as I have an HSBC account in Jakarta with internal IDR, CDN and GBP accounts. I can freely transfer in the same currency using HSBC Global Transfer but, at some point, have to exchange/transfer to the IDR account to use the money in RI.

My personal relationship Manager in HSBC gives me the best rate but, yesterday, I wanted to transfer £10,000 from my UKP account to my IDR account. I found TransferWise would be a better net amount than the bank's exchange.

i.e. If I had kept the GBP in my UK account in UK and transferred to Indonesia using TransferWise my net would be IDR2 Juta more.

Similar with us, we use HSBC premier and having USD, Euro, GBP and Rp, my salary is in euro and our expenses are in those four currency. The relation manager usually will call my wife for best exchange rates, and up to us whether we want to buy or not.
We can withdraw from ATM with debit card from each account. According my wife, the cost of money is almost nothing and the exchange rate is not bad at all.

 

[Davita]

Similar with us, we use HSBC premier and having USD, Euro, GBP and Rp, my salary is in euro and our expenses are in those four currency. The relation manager usually will call my wife for best exchange rates, and up to us whether we want to buy or not.
We can withdraw from ATM with debit card from each account. According my wife, the cost of money is almost nothing and the exchange rate is not bad at all.

I understood the facility to withdraw from an ATM in a foregn currency was withdrawn in Indonesia....can you confirm you still get USD from an ATM?

TransferWise has a facility to email any exchange amounts you wish to order up...I get a daily GBP-IDR/CDN report. It can also advise, by email, when a pre-determined exchange rate has been reached.

 

[Wisnu]

I understood the facility to withdraw from an ATM in a foregn currency was withdrawn in Indonesia....can you confirm you still get USD from an ATM?

TransferWise has a facility to email any exchange amounts you wish to order up...I get a daily GBP-IDR/CDN report. It can also advise, by email, when a pre-determined exchange rate has been reached.

Not from ATM in Indonesia. The ATM in Indonesia and many other countries is single currency ATM. So, in Indonesia I withdraw Rp. only from my Rp. account. If I need USD or Euro in Indonesia, I go to the HSBC bank in Talavera from my USD or Euro account.
In Europe I withdraw euro from my euro account, similarly in UK.
In KZ, the HSBC ATM machine (not sure if all) provide USD, Euro, and KZT. I can withdraw USD or Euro from any account.

 

[sumyunggai]

I've been advocating TransferWise on this forum and others...see 'we got 2000$ through paypal....'

Just now did a fake transfer of AUD to IDR....

AUD 100 would net IDR 983,656 which includes an AUD 2.97 fee.

AUD 1000 would net IDR 10,020,505 which includes an AUD 11.88 fee.

AUD 10,000 would net IDR 100,339,560 which includes an AUD 100.99 fee.

Both would be delivered to my Jakarta bank by tomorrow.

If I try UK£ or US$ it would not arrive till Monday.

Actually, despite what they say, UK£ is delivered same day. I am not quite sure the parameters for this but it would typically be around 3:30pm WIB. If you transfer before noon WIB the money arrives (at least 9 times out of 10) the same day.

 

[Davita]

Actually, despite what they say, UK£ is delivered same day. I am not quite sure the parameters for this but it would typically be around 3:30pm WIB. If you transfer before noon WIB the money arrives (at least 9 times out of 10) the same day.

You are correct...they often actually do the transfer quicker than they say. Also, when it is sent they advise...I suspect any delay is at the receiving end and what time or day it is...weekends take longer.

My HSBC simple global transfer, sans exchange, is instantaneous.

 

[sumyunggai]

From their website they charge 1% + 2 USD, for USD TO IDR transfers (and using mid-market rate), so it is better for people wishing to send smaller amounts of money.

It depends on the currency. For GBP the charge is only 0.7% + £1

That's equivalent to a spread of 116 rupiah. Most banks have bigger spreads than that for GBP. Plus of course it will cost more than £1 to send GBP from a UK bank.

For USD you get better rates in Indonesia and the fee is higher.

 

[sumyunggai]

You are correct...they often actually do the transfer quicker than they say. Also, when it is sent they advise...I suspect any delay is at the receiving end and what time or day it is...weekends take longer.

I find for a transfer Monday to Friday it will arrive around 330pm if sent on time, and if not around 11:30am the next day. However if you miss Friday's cutoff it won't arrive till Monday. Also no transfers on public holidays.

 

[sumyunggai]

Transferwise have just announced that they have reduced their fees for sending money to Indonesia. You can see their pricing here:

https://transferwise.com/pricing#?from=AUD&to=IDR

Personally, I think they're the cheapest and easiest way to send money. Please let me know if you've found a better option.

Revolut is potentially a little cheaper. They charge £5 UK, €6 europe, elsewhere €30, one-off, for a physical debit card that they send to you.

Balances can be held in GBP, Eur, or USD only.

Payment/ATM withdrawals can be made in almost any currency, at a rate of 0.5%. Some currencies they don't offer 0.5%, due to illiquidity. These include THB, but not, interestingly, IDR. They accept topups via debit card (free except in the US) or bank transfer (outside of the EU you will probably have to pay to send them money). From Friday to Sunday (UTC, presumably) they add on 0.5% (major currencies) (1.0% other currencies) to their spread to cover the risk of currency fluctuations.

So realistically it is probably only useful for UK and eurozone customers, due to only supporting GBP, USD and EUR as base currencies, and the cost of getting money in for US customers.

There is a maximum of £200 in ATM withdrawals per month - after that you pay 2% ATM fee). The overall cap is £5000/month (so you can withdraw £200/month from an ATM, but can spend a further £4800 in retail outlets - they support bank transfers for some currencies, but not Indonesia).

So in summary:

Monday - Thursday: 0.5% currency markup
Friday - Sunday: 1.5% currency markup
with a max £/€200 ATM withdrawals per month and £/€5000 overall spend

 

[fastpitch17]

I have a US bank. I use my bank issued card in the ATMs here and get Rupiah. No fees and Visa has good exchange rates. I don't need dollars.