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[Bule_Gila]

Hey guys

Just wondering if anyone can tell me which Bank in Indonesia is good for transferring funds back home (Canada).

Any help would be appreciated!

[jaybet3]

Do you mean "good" as in "good exchange rate" or "good" as in "good service", or "good" as in "good professionalism"?

If you have a job here, the school where you work should have a banking relationship which you could use. That would likely be easier for you to use since you would already have an account.

If you don't have account, then shop around for the best transfer rates or a bank that'll have you as a customer.

I bank at CIMB Niaga since it is a Malaysian Bank and has a more international presence than some of the locals (BNI, BCI, etc.)

It seems that Indo has as many banks as political parties and I don't have much confidence in any of them.

Or, if you don't have a bank account, you can use Western Union but they'll probably give you a lousy rate.

So, for a vague question, a rambling answer.

Anyone else care to chime in?

[eddie honda]

one of the western owned/branded banks for sure... (commonwealth, standard chartered, etc)

u will get a personal banker who u can contact directly which saves u all sorts of trouble.

exchange rates are also usually significantly better than at the local owned banks (and they are often negotiable)

the only reason not to use these banks for international banking is not having the minimum deposit needed to open the account.

you would also want to retain a local bank account for your everyday banking needs tho

[travelNteach]

i disagree with the majority of what was written here. most local banks (except the really small ones) are partially owned by foreign banks, such as BII partially owned by Maybank, a malaysian bank and run by KORINDO, a korean/indonesia company. singapore, japan, and many other countries are also invested in local banks. the so called western banks are forced to have indonesian partners, so they are more like a franchaise than part of the original bank. the only possible advantage might be in the transfer fees, but i doubt it as i am pretty sure they treat each other as separate entities.

for each bank transfer u will have 4 fees. the first one is a standard fee charged by your bank, usually $10-20. Second, they will charge you a percentage of the money u are transferring, usually with a minimum fee of $10. Second, the money is cleared thru an intermediary bank in NY, such as standard chartered, citibank, hsbc, ect. Depending on the bank, they usually charge $10-20. Finally the receiving bank charges between $5-20 dollars for incoming wire transfers. I dont know if fees would be waived if u were sending from hsbc in indo to hsbc in canada, but i think it unlikely. so u have to make sure that u are sending enough money to make it worth while as u likely will be paying $30-50 per transaction. sending $100/month wouldnt be worth it. i agree with jaybet that u have to be careful of exchange rates. i am fortunate in this area that i am paid in us dollars (though the exchange rate is killing me at the moment) but i also have my receiving bank accounts in us dollars. u could do the same thing in canada and have someone transfer the money ( or use internet banking) when the exchange rate is favorable. i am fortunate that i send largish sums of money every month and to an investment account, so i recoup the transfer charges within 1-3 months. after that, everything is profit. are you going to get more ROI (return on investment) for the money that u tranfer to make it worthwhile? currently rupiah interest rates are 5-6% and with the rupiah appreciating, it is more like 10% a year. so unless u can get more than that elsewhere, or are paying off bills, u might be better served to keep you money here.

one advantage of a western bank, hsbc is the one i know for sure, is that they offer bank accounts in 5 types of currency.... rupiah, dollar, euro, pounds and 1 other currency... cant remember if yen or aussie dollar or many singapore dollar. if u are astute, u can make some money on flucuating currency rates. and u dont need to have a local bank account as transferring money between banks is a pain.

personally, i have a rupiah and dollar account with a local bank. i can transfer money from rupiah to dollar or vice versa via atm or internet banking. additionally, i can send dollars to any of my accounts in several different countries either by going in the branch or via internet. on the internet, i am able to save all the bank information such as account numbers, swift codes, etc so i can transfer money with the push of a button and it usually arrives in any of these countries within 2 business days. if u are going to be working at a nationalplus or international school this is important because u will be working during banking hours.

i have also found it much easier to nego rates at local banks vs western banks. and i get personal treatment at my branch and everyone there knows my name. at western banks, only those will millions of dollars get a personal banker.

so find out what your home bank is going to charge u and whether it is worth setting up an account in your home country with a western bank that is doing business in indonesia, such as citibank. then have the wife run around checking out bank charges and interest rates charged/offered by banks here and which intermeditary bank they use in NY and how much that bank chargee and make your decision from there.

if u need more info, pm me

[eddie honda]

absolute nonsense.

$50 dollars a transaction? they saw you coming right enough. no wonder they know your name. i get charged $15. maybe u should consider the advice on offer too.

and like i said, you get a personal banker. fact.

anyway, thats just my advice based on personal experience. you can choose to believe it or not. its not really my concern.

[travelNteach]

what is the name of your bank? what is your personal managers name and number? maybe i will pop around and see him. that $15 is the sending banks fee. they must be sending your money on them, instead of on us. which means that the intermeditary and receiving banks take their fees out of the money that you send. if u send it on us, the bank deducts the additional fees from your accounts, that way the sum that u send arrives in tack.

happy to believe u eddie, provide me with the information i need and i will follow it up. it it turns out to be true, i will post it hear and buy u beers with the money that u save me on my next overseas wire transmit.

and for the record, i didnt say that it cost $50 dollars, i gave a spread of the possible charges due to the different rates that banks charge. mine actually costs me 35 if i send it from the bank and 45 if i send it via internet because they use different clearning banks.

or perhaps u are using a different method to send money or they are part of the same banking group. do enlighten us, or send me a pm if u feel more comfortable with that.

cheers

[rayman]

I'm with HSBSC in Jakarta and they have quoted a $7 charge to transfer any amount to any bank in Australia. I haven't yet checked the charge for my bank in Australia to accept the transfer.

It's worth noting HSBC also charge some ridiculous fees for other matters. If for example your bank account drops below $1000, you will be charged $10 for each ATM transaction, even from an HSBC ATM. Of course they won't mention this in person during the 45 minute process of opening the account. Nor is it written in the shiny brochures. We found out the hard way after being charged $40 for 4 atm transactions. I find it difficult to recommend them unless you consistently have $10 000 plus in your account. Even then, best to have a local Indonesian account and have your employer transfer a set amount monthly to your overseas account, if possible IMO.

[eddie honda]

international transfer fees are calculated based on a number of charges.

1. sending fee charged by sending bank

2. intermediary bank fee (if applicable)

3. receiving bank fee (if applicable)


fee number 2 depends on the relationship between the sending bank and the receiving bank and the countries that the sending bank has a presence in. It also depends on how greedy they are. it is quite possible that you will not have to pay any fee for this. your best chance of avoiding this fee is by being with a major western/international branded bank.

receiving banks might charge a fee - they might not. this depends on a number of variables. my bank does not charge a fee for receiving transfers. - others might.

[travelNteach]

sorry double post

[travelNteach]

changed your tune a bit from your previous post. and i had already mentioned those charges plus one that u left off, which is a percentage of the money transferred. all banks charge for number 2. u are right that some dont charge for number 3 on your list, but most charge 5-10 dollars.

if u go to the hsbc indonesian website:
http://www.hsbc.co.id/1/2/hsbc-premier_en_US/tariff-premier

u will find the folloing information under the heading of payment services of cheques, giro, drafts, and transfers via branch. it is much easier to read on their website.

Telegraphic transfer
Involving currency exchange IDR 25,000
No currency exchange USD 10
If remitter bears all charges, including correspondence charges
for USD TT OUR
USD 25 plus the tariff above

for non USD TT OUR Equivalent to USD 30 plus the tariff above

Incoming transfer
Request for fund transfer from HSBC overseas branches
Instruction sent by telex IDR 50,000
Instruction sent by mail IDR 50,000

information on chages for transfers in non us dollar currencies can be found here: http://www.hsbc.co.id/1/2/misc/eb/correspondence-charges

it says that the charge is $30 if the remitter choses to bear all chargers.


did u have a personal banker or just a customer service representative? still they should be able to tell u the corresponding bank that they use and how much the fees are. as you can see from the information on their website, it is definately more than the $7 that u quote or the 15 that you quoted previously. perhaps the person gave u bad information or the website could be wrong. have u ever actually wired money overseas? what were the exact charges? the charges are even higher if u are a advance customer instead of the higher ranking premier customer.

http://www.hsbc.co.id/1/2/miscellaneous_en_US/others/hsbc-advance-tariff


Telegraphic transfer
Involving currency exchange IDR 50,000
No currency exchange USD 15
If remitter bears all charges, including correspondence charges
for USD TT OUR USD 25 plus the tariff above
for non USD TT-OUR Equivalent to USD 30 plus the tariff above

Incoming transfer
Request for fund transfer from HSBC overseas branches
Instruction sent by telex IDR 75,000
Instruction sent by mail IDR 75,000

thanks for the heads up about the ATM fees, definately something to consider when opening an account. at the end of the day, doesnt seem to be much difference in the amounts listed on their websites vs the amount i pay using BII sending money to the various countries that i do.

good idea about the employer sending the money overseas, but knowing my employer as i do, no doubt they would charge me double the fees. while typing this, i just sent 2000 dollars to the states via internet. took all of 2 minutes and cost me $35 for all 4 fees, roughly the same as HSBC according to their website.

[eddie honda]

anyway back to the OP:

benefits of 'western' bank:

1. more personalised service - staff usually better trained - usually better standard of english. You should have your own contact at the bank who you can phone directly on their mobile who knows you and will assist you. this is very useful at times because some indonesian banks are not very good at helping you - especially if you have a problem.

2. interbank relationships: you can often avoid paying an extra fee to an intermediary bank on foreign transfers (sometimes as much as $25 per transaction). if u pay this or not depends on the relationship between the sending and receiving banks and the geographic 'reach' of the bank, currency involved, etc..

3. from anecdotal evidence (although i haven't researched it) better interest rates

4. better exchange rates


negatives of western banks:

1. usually have a minimum account balance under which fees are charged

2. not so practical for 'day-to-day' banking - (atm availability, bill payment from atm, etc)


as i mentioned previously, as long as you have enough money to meet the minimum balance requirements, it is better to have a western bank for savings and transfers because it often saves money and customer service is better. you would also want to have an indonesian bank for day to day banking.

if you don't want to have a certain amount of money (probably about $1000) - tied up meeting your minimum balance requirements. then find one of the better local banks to bank with.