It's expensive and a total hassle transferring money internationally. Here are good tricks ...
PayPal
I haven't tried this yet but it looks feasible -- AdamShand
If you sign up for PayPal and say that you are from a country other then the UnitedStates you are allowed to list both international and US bank accounts and credit cards. This can be used to transfer money around. Be aware of transaction fees and maximum limits though, also if you're new to PayPal be sure to read some of the recommendations and risks of trusting your money to the PayPal system (in my personal opinion you are very safe so long as you aren't buying/selling with unknown people).
Note that non-US accounts loose the ability to have some features (like PayPal credit/debit/money market accounts). Also if you already have a US PayPal account you'll need to create a new account to be able to add international accounts as there doesn't seem to be any way to convert a US account to a non-US account.
PS: PayPal practices a 2.5% currency conversion fee, which is not such a good deal. It is very close to say, using a debit card in a foreign country. For a really good deal, use XETrade. Their rates are around 0.5% above wholesale rates.
New Zealand to US/Canada
Originally researched by Justin Miller at WetaDigital (May 7, 2003)
Setting Up:
Go the XeTrade's site (http://www.xe.com/) and sign up for an account, which takes a few days because you have to fax something back to them.
While you wait for that to clear, follow the "EFT Bank Accounts" link from XeTrade's main page, then hit the "Add New Bank Account" button. Here you will enter info about the US/Canadian account (sorry others!) that will receive your funds via EFT (ElectronicFundsTransfer). It will ask you for various bank account information, all of which can usually be found on one of your checks (See the Bank of America sample check at the bottom of this page. Your bank's website will probablly have this information on-line). You will also need to fax a page for this.
Using your NationalBank account, set up Custom House Currency Exchange (ie XeTrade) as a Bill Payee, with this account number: 06-0501-0870311-00. Also put your XETrade user name as the "Particulars" for them to receive, so they know it's from you. I checked with them and this is okay. Since the account is a National account as well, it works just like a transfer, and you don't have to pay any wire fees! There is a one time fee of $3.75 for setting them up as a payee.
Transferring Money:
After your XeTrade account is active, go to their web site and do a "Basic Trade" to buy US/Canadian currency. They will then give you wire transfer instructions, including the amount of NewZealand dollars they need.
- Go to the National Bank website (or your bank) and do a bill pay to Custom House Currency Exchange for the NZ dollar amount you got in the step above.
That's it! No fees, all online, and you get a better exchange rate than the NationalBank! Woo hoo!!!!