Moving USD from BMO to US bank account

[canak11]

TDW makes it very difficult to transfer USD from WEBROKER to a US bank account(except to their TDNORTH legacy accounts) unless you open a TD Canada trust account and pay hefty wire fees($80+) per transfer. So I have been consider to transfer my account to BMO investorline.

I would appreciate some advise from this board with their experiences with BMO when transferring large amounts(100kUSD+ sitting on my USD sub account) to a US based bank account. Hopefully without the need to open a Harris Bank.

I read somewhere in this board that you are given a accountlink that works as a bank account for this purpose. But you still have to wire the USD funds.

Thanks for your response

[westinvest]

I use BMOIL, and have the USD portion of my cash and margin set up as an account that I can transfer to other BMO banking accounts, and I also have USD denominated cheques for this account.

All my BMO accounts are with the Canadian bank, so I don't have an US domiciled BMO account that uses the US banking system. The only bank I know of in Canada that makes it easy to have both Canadian and US domiciled accounts is RBC / RBC USA. I have a US$ account with RBC Canada, and also a US based account and VISA card with RBC USA that uses the US banking system.

So my process to move funds from my investment portfolio is to write a cheque on my BMOIL US$ account and deposit it to my RBC Canada US$ account, and then use online banking to transfer the funds to my RBC USA account. I can also transfer funds from my RBCDI US$ investment account using online banking.

The good news is I never incur currency exchange fees in this process because the funds stay in US$. I am over 60, so all the bank accounts are free...

[Jaunty]

My BMO bank accounts (1 Cdn & 1 US) are linked to my BMOIL accounts. BMO will not issue additional cheques on these accounts but will honour existing cheques an individual may have.

[canak11]

Thank you Westinvest and Jaunty for your reply.

Westinvest, can you transfer USD from your BMO investorline USD account to any other USD domicilied bank using EFT instead of wire(it that has hefty fees) or cheques? If so, can you do it online from the BMO account link?


I already have a USD domicilied bank account that I opened when I was temp working in the USA. So that side is already taking care of.

[westinvest]

The RBC / RBC USA relationship is the only process I know of to do an online transfer of funds from a Canadian bank to a US bank without fees. Since I have that option available I have not explored other avenues.

IIRC there are some limits on the RBC process also - I'm not sure if you could use it for $100K at one transfer, seems to me you'd run into money laundering questions for amounts over $10K, but I haven't tested this.

[canak11]

Westinvest, is your RBC US account a senior checking account? or a "access usa checking(USD) for canadians" account? would it be any difference if I just use the senior checking since I qualify?

thx

[westinvest]

On the Canadian side it's a "RBC U.S. High Interest eSavings" account, which qualifies as a free account for seniors.

On the RBC Bank USA side it's a RBC Bank Preferred Checking account, which is free with a minimum balance - there's several versions with VISA card options

You can find more info at:

http://www.rbcbankusa.com/toolsresource ... 01822.html

which suggests you can transfer up to $25K online and up to $100K by phone

Good Luck!

[canak11]

That set it. I am leaning towards RBC . Thanks again.

[Isaac]

BMO's Premium banking plan includes "U.S. Dollar bill payments or transfers to U.S. banks by telephone banking service." The monthly plan fee ($25) is waived if you maintain a balance of $5,000 in your main chequing account.

You can link your InvestorLine USD AccountLink chequing account to your other BMO accounts under the Premium plan at no additional cost.

My understanding is that transfers to U.S. banks can be to any bank (not just Harris). I have never used this feature so cannot comment on how well it works.

[Norbert Schlenker]

I use BMO's telephone transfer service to move USD from BMOIL through a BMO USD account to an account at JP Morgan Chase. It works flawlessly. They always warn you during a call that the transfer can take a few business days, but my experience is that the money gets to Chase next day. (It took about a week to set up initially, so don't leave the setup until the last minute.)

[canak11]

Great info guys. I just talked to bmoinvestline and they told me that they would wire transfer any amount(USD) to any UDS based account for $25. They told me that they dont publish it but their transfer fees are different from the BMO bank accounts.

Is this the same charges that you incur when calling by phone ?

[adrian2]

TDW makes it very difficult to transfer USD from WEBROKER to a US bank account(except to their TDNORTH legacy accounts) unless you open a TD Canada trust account and pay hefty wire fees($80+) per transfer.

I have a non-registered TDW US$ account and a US$ chequing account at TD. I can move US$ online both directions between the accounts, paying nothing from TDW to TD.

From TD, sending a wire to a Romanian bank costs $30; I can't imagine paying $80+ to a US bank.

[canak11]

Adrian, if we check TD wire rates
(http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/accounts/accounts-fees.pdf) it says
Foreign / International Wire Transfers And Services
Outgoing Money Wire Transfers
Canadian, U.S. (fee in same currency)
Foreign (fee in Canadian equivalent):
Greater than $50,000 ....................................................................... $80.00

[adrian2]

Adrian, if we check TD wire rates
(http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/accounts/accounts-fees.pdf) it says
Foreign / International Wire Transfers And Services
Outgoing Money Wire Transfers
Canadian, U.S. (fee in same currency)
Foreign (fee in Canadian equivalent):
Greater than $50,000 ....................................................................... $80.00

From the same source:
$10,000 CDN or less.................................................................................$30.00

The wedding present for my niece was in the range I've quoted and did not exceed $50k.

Let me just add that the maximum is $80, so you were wrong in the (+) symbol.