Citibank Plus Transaction Account Exchange Rates for International Bank Transfers

vawiyoci on 29/01/2021 - 10:41

Hi:

When I used my citibank plus account for ATM withdrawals while overseas their exchange rate was normally dead on or only a couple of cents off sites like XE, so when I tried for the first time to transfer some money to a mainland Chinese bank account last night I was surprised to find that their exchange rate was about 4-5% worse than the market spread (￥4.72 vs ￥4.95 last night).

I realise that on Citibank's own website they state that they don't charge any fees for international bank transfers, so is this simply a way for them to charge a hidden fee like the big 4 banks do except without their ~3% fees?

Does anyone else have experience with this or is this simply an issue with transferring to mainland China banks?

Thanks.

Financial

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Comments

  • jimbobaus on 29/01/2021 - 10:48
    +2

    The transfer rates are set by the receiving bank, not the sending bank
    This has always been the case for international bank transfers.

    its not citibank trying to cover their fee losses, its them passing on the costs set by the Chinese bank

    ATM withdrawals are Citibank rates

    • vawiyoci on 29/01/2021 - 11:19

      Ah thanks so the rate is dependent on the receiving bank then. What about their rates shown here https://www1.citibank.com.au/banking/convert-currency?

      • jimbobaus on 29/01/2021 - 12:58

        Those rates are for buying
        I do not think it applies to a wire transfer ( i could be wrong)

        it does say this though:
        You may be able to access better rates over the phone or in person. Fees and charges may apply. There may be limits on how much currency you can transfer and other conditions applied to specific currencies.

        • vawiyoci on 29/01/2021 - 15:20

          Well it actually lists both the sell and buy rates on that page but I guess it doesn't matter now since my main question was around the exchange rates that they use for their plus account withdrawals which I now know doesn't apply for international bank transfers so I'll just have to use transferwise or ofx or something cheaper in the future.
          Thanks for your help!

          • jimbobaus on 29/01/2021 - 15:43

            @vawiyoci: I use World Remit when i send money OS
            its almost instant in most cases and they have decent rates.

            The customer service is awful when there is an issue though … so can be annoying

        • [Deactivated] on 30/01/2021 - 21:06

          When you send a SWIFT transfer, you choose whether to send it in foreign currency or AUD. If you send in foreign currency (where legally allowed - some countries don't allow foreign inward transfers in their local currency) then the amount that gets there will be whatever your bank sent in foreign currency minus fees.

  • JimB on 29/01/2021 - 14:02
    +2

    International Bank Transfer ≠ ATM withdrawal

    • vawiyoci on 29/01/2021 - 15:15

      Yeah I know that but citibank advertises no transactional fees for both products so I had assumed the same great exchange rates would apply too. Guess that's not the case so oh well.

  • kawinuyo on 29/01/2021 - 16:03

    I recently did this but to Canada. It was less than the Google exchange rate but then I checked all the other banks and citibank still came up with best test after everything considered.

    • kawinuyo on 29/01/2021 - 17:21

      *best rate

    • ilikeradiohead on 30/01/2021 - 05:26

      Did you look at transferwise or OFX?

    • vawiyoci on 03/02/2021 - 11:09

      Yeah citibank is definitely better than any of the big 4 esp without any transaction fees on their end but the it seems like you can get much better rates with one of the smaller online vendors.

  • ilikeradiohead on 30/01/2021 - 05:25

    Can you use Transferwise to China? They generally have excellent rates.

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