BajaNomad

FREE wire tranfers from Washington Mutual

oladulce - 7-19-2006 at 05:41 PM

WAMU now offers free wire transfers when you have a checking account with them- even international wire transfers.

This will be a welcome savings of $40-$45 each time you need to send money to Mexico for real estate transactions, homebuilding etc.

Al G - 7-19-2006 at 05:45 PM

WoW!
I'm in the right bank at the right time, but don't have a Mexican account. Well someday soon it will be great.

Al G - 7-19-2006 at 05:48 PM

oladulce,
Are you saying I can transfer to my stock account free too???

A WM caution about stock accounts...

Mexray - 7-19-2006 at 06:07 PM

...my father just recently passed away, and WM is really giving my sister (who has power of atty of our Trust acct) and me the Royal-Run-Around in closing our father's Brokerage account. WM's 'Expert' has us sign the doc's...then their Trust Dept rejected it, saying we had to sing with a Notary, and not in front of their agent! (10 day delay)...Then after we comply with that request, they tell us our Trust origin and file dates don't match, we we have to notarize another statement - anther 10 day delay. Then the paperwork gets mis-sent within their own company, resulting in more delay! Of course these delays are going on while the Stock Market takes a nose-dive, losing us money! I firmly believe the WM people are giving us the run-around so they can hold onto the trust's money for a few more weeks - and that's CRAP! The two other firms we have dealt with completed the transactions to this same trust within one day!

IMHO, Washington Mutual SUCKS, big time! Buyer beware if you deal with their brokerage or stocks Dept's!!!

Al G - 7-19-2006 at 06:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Mexray
...my father just recently passed away, and WM is really giving my sister (who has power of atty of our Trust acct) and me the Royal-Run-Around in closing our father's Brokerage account. WM's 'Expert' has us sign the doc's...then their Trust Dept rejected it, saying we had to sing with a Notary, and not in front of their agent! (10 day delay)...Then after we comply with that request, they tell us our Trust origin and file dates don't match, we we have to notarize another statement - anther 10 day delay. Then the paperwork gets mis-sent within their own company, resulting in more delay! Of course these delays are going on while the Stock Market takes a nose-dive, losing us money! I firmly believe the WM people are giving us the run-around so they can hold onto the trust's money for a few more weeks - and that's CRAP! The two other firms we have dealt with completed the transactions to this same trust within one day!

IMHO, Washington Mutual SUCKS, big time! Buyer beware if you deal with their brokerage or stocks Dept's!!!


Mexray, I am a day trader and wamu is not involved, but thanks for the info. One word of advice " what go up comes down and WHAT GOES DOWN ALWAYS COMES UP or something to that effect. In other words don't worry so much, just don't ever sell until you are up!!! It is ONLY money and money makes money. It must have done well for your father so, no worries right.

oladulce - 7-19-2006 at 06:25 PM

I don't know how this applies to other types of accounts Al.

Last week my husband went to WAMU to wire more money to our contractor in Baja Sur and was told that we no longer have to pay the $40 for our wire transfers because we have a checking account with them.

Ours is just a standard checking account and we keep the same account number as before.

Al G - 7-19-2006 at 06:31 PM

Before everyone jumps on me, I realize there are some Tyco's and Enron's out there.
Always remember you only lose when you quit good stocks.

[Edited on 7-20-2006 by Al G]

toneart - 8-7-2006 at 03:32 PM

Oladulce,
Does Washington Mutual allow you to initiate wire transfers from Mexico? Bank of America will not. You have to fill out forms before you leave the U.S. They are claiming that since 9/11... Ya da ya da ya da. I was really in a bind because Bancomer, with whom I had an account, wouldn't accept the cashier's check from Bank of America that I had brought with me to deposit.

bajajudy - 8-7-2006 at 04:26 PM

Yes, Toneart
We send money from Mexico(HSBC) to the US into our WAMU account.
My biggest complaint with them is their fees for ATM use...very high. $300...$30 fee. now that was a few years ago, after seeing that on a statement, we never used the atm again.

oladulce - 8-7-2006 at 06:45 PM

Toneart, do you mean when you're in Mexico, can you contact your US bank to have them wire funds from your US account down to Mexico?

I think B of A called this transaction a "Remote" wire transfer (?) We set up this kind of service with B of A before going south because we were going to be in Baja at the same time we needed to wire a lump sum from our US account down to Central America. But there's security checks, passwords and the darn thing expires so often it wasn't worth maintaining it.

We've got the same situation coming up, where we'll be in BCS at the same time we'll finalize the purchase of a lot we bought and need to figure out how to get the payment wired from our US account down to the Notario , while we're in Mexico.

I'll be going to WAMU in a couple of days to see what the options are and let you know, if this is the type scenario you were talking about.

Judy I used my WAMU ATM card exclusively in June and they charged $3 atm international fee, and 1% foreign transaction fee each time.

Each $5000 pesos cash I got from an ATM ($461 dollars) cost $7.61 in fees.

longlegsinlapaz - 8-7-2006 at 07:31 PM

Judy, I think what toneart was asking was will WAMU allow a wire transfer to be initiated FROM Mexico TO a Mexican Bank. Which I don't have the answer to, but I'm guessing it's no because of security reasons. Until a few months ago, WAMU charged a flat $3.00 USD international ATM fee per transaction, regardless of amount. I had my daily withdrawl limit upped to $500 and found one ATM here locally that gives up to $5,000 pesos per day. I know you aren't in La Paz, but it's the first one closest to CCC in the little cluster of ATM's on Colima if anyone else in interested (sorry! I can't remember the name....something about RED!)

I was ecstatic to hear that WAMU now offers FREE ATM both domestic & international.....HOWEVER, they instituted a 1% International Transaction Fee instead, so they're now charging me MORE than they were getting before per transaction! :fire: I KNEW that FREE ATM worldwide sounded too good to be true!

Their website is: http://www.wamu.com/personal/default.asp

longlegsinlapaz - 8-7-2006 at 07:38 PM

oladulce If you convert your account to the NEW free checking you'll get the free ATM, but still have to pay the Internatinal Transaction Fee, but it'd be a savings of $3 to you each time.

oxxo - 8-7-2006 at 09:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by oladulce
we'll be in BCS at the same time we'll finalize the purchase of a lot we bought and need to figure out how to get the payment wired from our US account down to the Notario , while we're in Mexico.


Oladulce, I used Stewart Title in Houston Texas. I deposited the funds in my "escrow" account with instructions that they were not to be released until authorized by the notorio. Stewart takes care of wiring the money to the notorio. Stewart charges around $500 for this service..expensive I guess but saves a lot of headaches.