Considering taxes and fees,exchange rates what’s the best way for my parents to transfer the money.
Looking at multinational banks there.
Not sure about bitcoin etc. due to volatility…
Just wire it? At that level, the currency conversion rate ought to be negotiable. Use a multinational bank like HSBC?
Can they get an Interactive Brokers account with linked bank accounts in both countries? That would be super-cheap as you’d xfer at forex trading rates rather than retail. Xfer Indian to IB, change Indian for US within IB account, wire out to US account in USD.
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I’ve thought about IB as well. Their Mumbai location is close by. I’ll have them look at the fees/forex restrictions there.
Do they have US bank/ check writing abilities like a regular bank?
Any sign up promo?
No. They’re just a broker, although they did just announce debit card access. No signup bonuses that I know of.
They have no intention of becoming a retail bank or traditional discount broker.
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Yes I saw their new ad on bloomberg. I figured with Debit CC they’d use a check/sweep account as well?
IB has no checking account. I was hoping they would introduce one because with their low margin rates, I sure would like to easily access my funds there.
hmm how about ACH/Wire out?
They offer ACH and wire. One free wire per month. ACH is free all the time, I believe.
One free ACH every rolling 30-day. Additional ACH is $1 each.
$1 is not much. But if IB provides checking, it is much more convenient to use it as a transactional account and not worry about it going to the negative.
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I’d prefer not. Too risky to have retail checkwriting linked to an account holding almost all my liquid assets. They want to be your broker, not your bank.
I don’t like checks linked to my brokerage accounts, but it might work for you. I like knowing how much available margin/buying power I have, and open checks would not be shown and would be one more thing to track. Plus i never know when some weird glitch will hit one of my trades and my margin is wiped out for a few days while some merger settles. Checks would bounce during that time.
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Is that you, Raj?
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how about other fees?
If you are transferring $1 million, why worry about other fees? You can easily make up the other fees with just earning interests or smart investing of $1 million. Just find a reliable, trustworthy way to transfer the money. Citibank usually have banks worldwide. So may be able to keep money in India in withdraw at US branch as your parents need the fund.