My friend moved to NYC and she told me that she wants to send money to another bank account but its not free?
I think you guys call it a wire transfer?
In the UK its just a bank transfer and its free. Any person, any bank, and I’ve never come across an upper limit.
You get charged to move your own money? Surely she must be mistaken?
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It really depends on the bank and the type of account. A $20-40 fee to do a wire transfer is not all that uncommon though. There are plenty of free methods though.
Zelle is free.
Nope. Banks in America are in a pissing contest to see who can be more predatory. Instead of declining cards they’ll charge fees. Interest on it is so low you’re guaranteed to get a better deal after fees keeping your money in your mattress like the good old days.
No? Zelle and Venmo, the two most common services for that here, are fee free for personal transactions.
Even “old school” wire transfers, which aren’t instantaneous, don’t have a fee.
Zelle and Venmo are free.
Bank transfers cost $15 for me if it is a wire transfer, but like I said Zelle is free and my bank uses that.
Zelle and venmo are both free.
I only have to pay when I transfer money internationally. I think it’s just $10 usually.
Bank transfers are free (Zelle, Venmo, etc) . Using the SWIFT network incurs a fee, even for you guys. Using a service like Western Union is not a bank transfer, and that has a cost as well.
So depending on the specifics she was correct, or incorrect.
It depends on your individual account terms.
They are referring to one particular type of transfer, which often does incur a fee. As others have noted there are lots of other free services for moving money around, but the ‘default’ mode of bank-to bank-transfer in the USA that all banks I know of use is called an ACH transfer. These are free and work well for large sums, but are slower than a wire transfer. Depending on the use case, sometimes you do have to use a wire transfer (common for things like down payments on a house), but at that scale, the $30 fee or whatever isn’t the end of the world.
As someone who’s visited this subreddit for years, I’ve learned that the Brits have an unhealthy obsession with American banks, bank cards, wire transfers, etc.
[It would certainly be nice if any of you ever stopped for a second to ask which countries use IBAN.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Number) If take a look at the link, you’ll notice this system is mostly used in Africa and Europe, not North America, not Oceania, and not Southeast Asia. Were it not for IBAN, you’d likely not find it as easy to transfer money.
[If you take a look at this link, you’ll see there are quite a few American banks that use BIC and SWIFT.](https://wise.com/us/swift-codes/countries/united-states) Please, save us all from this constant barrage of bank questions and share this information with your fellow American banking fanatics.
Wire transfers are how you send money if you find yourself in 1905
In order to send someone money, you have to know their bank account number. The US bank system allows you to credit another bank account, but it also allows you to debit it too, so people are reluctant to give it out.
A company was supposed to credit my friend $10k, but instead did a $10k debit. It was a big mess. It’s easier to just avoid it and use alternative systems.
ACH transfer, the default ‘free’ version at most banks, is also not instantaneous because of silly legacy reasons.
You’re using the services of a 3rd party to transfer the money from one place to another and follow all the correct laws in the process. Why do you expect not to pay for that service ?
Your friend is either wrong or is with a shitty bank.
Wire transfers of funds from one account to another account (not talking checking to savings, I’m talking from one unique account to another unique account) sometimes is charged for, because it is an instantaneous transfer of funds.
If you process the transfer through ACH, it is typically free but may take up to a few business days to post.
That person doesn’t know their options.
You can transfer to/from banks directly without a fee. Even if they don’t know their options, they can use PayPal to transfer for free.
We have plenty of free services to send money to people
We also have checks.
Nope. Cash App and Venmo are free unless you want instant transfer.
A wire transfer is different from a bank-to-bank transfer. A wire transfer is usually 2 people sending each other from gas stations (or other businesses) across the country without the involvement of banks. If you don’t have a bank account then this is the way to send money to people far away.
There is no fee for most ACH transfers. There is a fee for wire transfers.
Zelle or ACH is the way to go. These are free. Wire transfers have a fee, but others are free.