Hi there,

I want to send money to my mother. She lives in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Russia, so the only possible option looks like is a wire transfer to her bank there.

My local bank here in IL charge $40 for an international wire transfer no matter what the amount is. I tried to search for a lower cost at other banks. I found couple of $20 - one is a credit union, I'm not eligible there, another one is Chase, but I don't know how to do it without their checking account. CITI bank charge $30 for it, but again I guess I need their checking account, but I don't want it as I would have to pay fees or make direct deposits every month after, which is a hassle.

So, could you help me to find the one? Thank you so much in advance.

Why not send your mother an ATM card?

rrbruinfan said:Denisevi4 - Open a free WAMU checking account and get free outgoing wire transfer both international and domestic. Here's the URL : http://wamu.com/personal/accountchoices/checking/wamufreechecking/default.asp

Good luck.Just keep in mind that the wire transfer fee is only waived on the WAMU end. For international wire transfers, WAMU (as well as most other banks out there) use a correspondent bank, such as Bank of New York, which will charge a $15 fee for its services. There may also been a recipient wire fee imposed on your mother in Russia. You may want to explore Citi's global money transfer services, which are typically incredibly inexpensive but require access to a Citi branch in Russia.

I wired money to Russia before and to avoid 1% fee the bank had to keep money in the bank for 1 month and after that there is no fee to withdraw. Let her find out

irinagrit, which bank are you talking about, Sberbank?

geo123 said:Just keep in mind that the wire transfer fee is only waived on the WAMU end. For international wire transfers, WAMU (as well as most other banks out there) use a correspondent bank, such as Bank of New York, which will charge a $15 fee for its services. There may also been a recipient wire fee imposed on your mother in Russia.

It's not quite true about WAMU - there won't be any fees if you initiate the transfer in foreign currency, just tell in the brunch that you want to send XYZ rubles. If you however, initiate international wire transfers in US$, then scenario with a correspondent bank (exactly - Bank of New York) plays and you'd get an extra fee.

I was a happy users of WAMU free outgoing wire last year; however in January they "improved" their wiring software - as a result it blocks half of european banks as having wrong SWIFT code.

Worth a try, but YMMV