Best ways to move money from US to SG
The most cost effective ways for transferring funds internationally
Working in the United States but planning to return to Singapore at some point? If you do not have a priority banking account or bankers on your speed dial, you will need to source for the best way to move funds from your US paycheck back to Singapore [for family support, property mortgages, CPF top ups (which you should do) etc]. I’ve spent lots of time examining the various options and am laying out your best options below.
- Interactive Brokers (sign up here)
Overall, the most cost effective way to move funds is through an Interactive Brokers account. It is a brokerage account but you can set up one for free and you don’t have to hold assets in it. If you choose to hold shares, they allow you to hold both US and SG stocks, as well as stocks in many other markets.
To move money internationally, first transfer USD in, convert to SGD at great real time rates, and withdraw it into your Singapore account. This takes a few steps but the lack of fees makes this the absolute winner.
Withdrawals are free once every month. However, if you need to withdraw more than once a month, IBKR will charge you a nominal fee.
On the day of writing, US$10,000 gets me SGD$13,311 at an exchange rate of 1.3311 with no additional fees or charges.
IBKR individual accounts are free to sign up and no minimums are required.
2) Transferwise (sign up here)
If you need your money super fast, Transferwise is your friend as the money reaches your account in minutes / hours on weekdays. You can connect up your US bank account to Wise for the process to be super seamless.
They have great exchange rates and charges a small fee. For the convenience and speed, it really isn’t a bad deal. I used them for years before I set up my IBKR account.
On the day of writing, US$10,000 gets me SGD$13.246.21 at an exchange rate of 1.33155 and fees of US$52.04.
3) International Bank wiring
If you already hold a Singapore bank account, you can now open up additional multicurrency USD accounts with banks such as DBS, UOB and Standard Chartered online, within their mobile app quite seamlessly. Most US banks do not charge you a lot to wire USD to another USD account (even if its a Singapore account) and some are even free. For instance, wiring US$10k from my Charles Schwab brokerage account to my DBS USD account is free of charge (as of time of writing) and DBS charges me only US$7 for the privilege of receiving my own money. However, if you need to convert it from USD to SGD, thats when they get you with the terrible conversion rates which can easily cost you to lose out on S$100 per S$10,000 or more. Hence if you need your dollars in SGD, IBKR and Wise are still your best options.
Even if you do not need to move money immediately it’s still good to set these up because you probably will use them eventually. Your 401k withdrawals will be substantial enough for you to want to minimize transfer fees.
Please sign up for these accounts via my referral links (IBKR, Wise) if you found this post helpful, you will get an attractive new user bonus and I will be rewarded as well — win-win!