Review: XETrade

Do you need to make an internation transfer?

XETrade is a company that will help you exchange money and make internation transfers. Read this review to find out the details.

For most people the following issue is irrelevant, but for some, this issue can be important � and complicated. The issue is international money transfer. In my case, for those who don�t know me, I am marrying a German (I myself being American) and we are planning to move to the US in the near future. My fianc�e has some savings here in Germany and we wanted to bring some of it to America. Of course, moving money isn�t as easy one could hope. Cash isn�t a great idea. It�s risky and the bank exchange rates are bad. Travelers checks are also plagued by high rates (lower than cash, I think), but at least the risk is lower. However, a transfer would be much simpler.

I talked to the Deutsche Bank in Germany and they said it would cost around 4% plus whatever costs the bank in America would charge (I think typically around $50 for an incoming wire transfer). That�s too expensive.

It would have worked with Citibank, since they exist in both Germany and America, but for some reason they refused to give me a bank account in America.

So, I looked around a little bit and I found a company called XETrade (www.xetrade.com). They made some claims on their website about being able to transfer money with rates that they guarantee as the best, but I failed to find any good reviews (this is the reason that I am writing this review now). Because I failed to find any other good option, I decided to give this company a try.

Signing up:
This was harder than I had expected, but not without reason. XETrade has legal obligations not to transfer money for criminals or criminal purposes, so they do some identity checks. Here�s what was needed:
*A credit reference (a landlord, bank account representative, someone who manages your mortgage, people who gave you a loan for a car, etc).
*Two forms of identification (I used a driver�s license and a passport). These can be scanned into your computer and uploaded by a secure file transfer or you can fax them or if you request the mailing address, you can mail them. The secure file transfer is a really good idea, and I made sure the certificate was valid and all that.
*A signed contact. Again, this can be sent via secure file transfer, fax, or mail.

After you have signed up, they will email you asking you for a good time to call up. At the time specified, they will give you a telephone call (at the number you signed up with!) and they will ask you to confirm the information that was used in signing up. They will also ask some other security related questions. The man I talked to was very friendly and the conversation went smoothly. Have your non-American bank account information ready, since they will probably ask for this (they want to know what bank account you�ll be sending money from).

Shortly after that they will activate your account. After entering your US bank account information (EFT is the type of transfer you�ll probably want) you can start trading.

Once you make a trade, you will have to transfer the money to their European bank account. Their bank is Bank of America in Frankfurt, Germany. If you live in Germany, this means that your transfer will cost the same as a standard transfer (Ueberweisung) which is free with many bank accounts. The bank uses a standard German Bankleitzahl (bank code) and account number. This means you can even make the transfer from your living room if you have online banking with online transfers. So let me review the transfer�

Wednesday, December 14th, 2005, 9:49AM German time. The current rate is listed as 0.830556 Euros per dollar. The rate I accepted was 0.84017989 Euros per dollar. I decided to sell 100 Euros, which means I should have gotten $120.40 if life were perfect. Life isn�t perfect so instead I got $119.02. This means I lost $1.38 (1 Euro and 15 Cents). To be relatively exact, I lost 1.146% of my money.

Wednesday, December 14th, 2005, 10:20AM German time. I transferred the money from the bank account in Germany.

Friday, December 16th, 2005. XETrade reports that my transfer has been received.

Monday, December 19th, 2005. An EFT transfer of $119.02 is cleared in my Bank of America account in America.

So the total processing time was 5 days, or in my case just 3 business days (I�m not sure what would have happened if I had transferred the money on Monday�).

So, I�ll sum it up:
*Total cost: 1.146% of the money transferred (there may be transfer fees outside of Germany if you are in the EU). Otherwise there are no fees. They claim this is the best fee in the industry and offer a guarantee to that effect.

Here�s a list of pros and cons:
Pros:
*Excellent prices. For example, 1000 euros of traveler�s checks currently cost $1244.42. They should cost (in a perfect world) $1184.88, so you lose $59.54 or 4.784%. Another comparison: PayPal charges 2.7% to change currency.
*It goes from your current German (or European) bank account into your current American bank account. There is no need to change banks.
*It�s pretty fast (transfer completed in 5 days)
*Friendly and responsive customer service.
*You can make small transfers (my first transfer was only 100 euros)

Cons:
*You must have a bank account (or a friend with a bank account) in both countries. This means if you don�t have a bank account yet, you�ll have to sign up for one. This can be a pain if you don�t currently reside in that country.
*The signup process can take a while.

So, overall, I�d say this is probably the best option. Unless you have something that you know is cheaper and works better (please tell me if you do), give this company a try.

Also, if you found this review helpful and you have a website, feel free to post a link to this review. Currently, as of this writing, if you Google XETrade Review you don�t get any good websites.

-Michael