Why is wire transfer so slow and expensive in the USA?

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I’m a foreigner but work for a US company. The company gave me some stock (on E*trade) which I sold, so there is some money, and I’d like to wire the money to another account, which is also in US (firstrade)

The wire took several days and charge me 25 US dollars. In my country, wire transfer between different banks is near instant and charge less than 1 US dollars.

So my question is, is it how wire transfer normally works in the USA? Or perhaps it’s because I’m a foreigner? If it’s normal, what’s the difference between US bank and other countries’?

In: Economics

12 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I’ve had to wire find multiple times in the last six months between law offices, my bank, my financial services company, to other individuals’ banks, etc. All of it has been essentially instant. The banks and financial services companies sometimes have time for the money to “settle” but that’s their internal whatever, not the wire transfer system itself.

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