Sending your euros abroad

I found a new service which I used to transfer money to the US for my forthcoming trip. I have visited the site frequently for exchange rate info when I found out that they offered a money exchange service. The site is www.xe.com if you're interested (I assume that other expats who read this blog may require the same services). Setting it up was a bit of an annoyance due to all of the security controls. But, thanks to terrorists and scams I suppose they are more than necessary. They had to call me and confirm all of the data I entered and they caught me at a bad time and I had actually forgotten most of the things. Anyway, they somehow believed that I was legit and agreed to set up my account. I had to set up my Italian bank account as the "source", and my US bank account as the "beneficiary". The trade is simple, plus, the exchange rate was much more favorable than what I get at my bank. I initially thought that everything was automatic, but I actually had to go to my bank and order a money transfer. XE routes the money through a bank in Germany, so it takes less time than a transfer to the US. If I were to do it from my Italian account directly to my US account, the international transfer costs €15 going out, and the US bank charges $10 for incoming transfers. Between charges and lousy exchange rate, you can wind up losing close to $100. Since I did it with XE, who routed the money through a European bank, I paid an inter-EU transfer cost of €5, and I haven't seen any charges from my bank for the incoming wire. The whole ordeal took 5 working days, not bad!

By the way, I have no profitable affiliation with any of these places mentioned in this entry, and use their services at your own risk!