how to transfer money

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frank

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If you were going to transfer money from one bank to another, what is your preferred and safest method? Is ach transfer safe or is wire transfer more secure? how long does it take to do an ach and how long to do a wire?
 
ACH is usually cheaper than wire transfer, but may take a day or two, versus a wire transfer that usually occurs same day. Also, a wire transfer may require more advance planning and documentation. I know of no reason to think that one method is safer than another. Is there a particular risk you have in mind?
 
I was going to transfer money for a sizable cd from my bank to another. I usually don't transfer that kind of amount and was a little nervous about which one was more secure.
 
ACH all the way. If you have at least 2 business days to play with, it's incredibly easy to setup from one back to another (assuming they are both yours) via either a real time log in based setup, or via test deposits. The sending back usually sends two small deposits, then takes them back, and asks you to confirm the amounts - then you're golden.

Wires typically have a sending cost, and may even also have a receiving cost as I just found out with my crappy Chase account. Domestic sending costs usually are around $30 give or take. Chase charged me $15 to receive!

ACH is free. No difference in security.

Another simple way is to write yourself a check from one bank, and phone-app deposit it to the other. Then it's real time depending on how quickly your receiving back credits phone/check deposits.
 
coveredbridge said:
ACH is usually cheaper than wire transfer, but may take a day or two, versus a wire transfer that usually occurs same day. Also, a wire transfer may require more advance planning and documentation. I know of no reason to think that one method is safer than another. Is there a particular risk you have in mind?
Click to expand...


I agree about the safety of both. I took a first-time distribution from a deferred compensation plan this year. My options were: check, wire, or ACH. I hadn’t filled out the paperwork for ACH at the time and went with wire. The destination account, my credit union for years, charged $25 for the wire but refunded that charge at my request.

Everything’s in place for future withdrawals now and I also went through the preliminary paperwork for a different retirement account at Fidelity that has yet to be tapped.
 
We transferred 6 figures from our bank to CD's in VG via ACH. Was seamless. Businesses must do these transactions daily.
 
I just used a wire transfer to move a 6 figure amount, showed up in the new account same day, cost $20. I inquired about using ACH and though free, it would have taken 6 ACH transfer over 6 months with the $/month limit they imposed. Needless to say I paid the $20 for the wire transfer. However, the originating bank was a smaller regional bank.

I also ACH transferred 6 figures from Chase a few weeks earlier with no fees and no hitches. Their limit was $250K.

Practices seemingly vary from bank to bank.
 
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One consideration is the magnitude of the transfer. For instance, I wouldn't count on a phone app deposit working for more than a couple hundred bucks. There may be a limit on ACH, but I've never run into it. There would not be a limit on a wire.



As to the security, not quite the same because usually you're giving an institution permission to ACH, and that typically persists unless you shut it off. Yes, they are "both your accounts", but hanky panky could ensue. Wire transfer is a one time deal. On the other side, if you make a mistake in a wire, it's a federal case to fix, and who knows if you'll see that money again. So just make sure you're not accidentally transferring to your ex's account, lol!
 
Depends on the bank. My rinky-dink credit union takes 3 days to do a wire xfer.
ACH seems a little more fool proof... its account linkages are setup in advance usually with tiny trial deposits, so its already known to work before the big $ move.
While wire xfers are a one time deal, one fat-finger on the account/routing number on the form and your money goes "somewhere".
My only complaint with ACH is banks deliberately slow it down... they have the tech to move it as soon as you enter the transaction, but they choose not to so they can live on the float. The delay is not due to fraud protection, if you pay an $8 expedite fee at Wells Fargo it moves the same day.
 
Are you moving the proceeds from a maturing CD to another bank to buy a CD? Instead of fooling with this, you might consider just buying brokered CDs from your brokerage house. This also gives you easy access to treasuries, which are much more liquid. In some cases that may be an advantage.
 
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Often I just write a check. However if speed is an issue I'll do wire transfers. They cost me $20 per transfer and are usually completed the same day, "unless" I start the transfer process later in the day. Then sometimes it's the next business day before it's completes.
 
I use ACH all the time to move money around. Just bought a CD and funded it with an ACH transfer from my credit union. Never had a problem doing it that way, although it does take a day or two.
 
Whatever works for you. They're both secure.
 
I've never used a wire to transfer between accounts. Always use ACH.

If the $ amount is high, I initiate the transfer from whichever institution has the highest ACH transfer limit.
 
To me the main advantage of wire transfers is speed, if time is of the essence. However wires usually involve fees.

I use ACH most of the time to do routine transfers between accounts I own.
 
We occasionally transfer money back and forth between our HISA bank to our day to day bank.

Very easy. Most often the transfer occurs overnight, two days at the most depending on the day and time that we hit the send button.
 
When I ERed 10 years ago, I cashed out the company stock I had in my employer's retirement plan run by Principal Financial Group. I had to liquidate the entire account in order to take advantage of NUA, so I used ACH to move the cash to my local bank. I had to complete a bunch of forms which included a special medallion signature and stamp from the receiving bank because the amount being transferred was more than $100k. It was a minor PITA to get that done, but the transfer went through just fine in a few business days.


I use ACH many other (smaller) money moves between my brokerage account (FIDO) and my local bank. They take 2 business days.
 
I have ACH'd six figures from my brokerage to Ally Bank. Spending money for the next year or two that I wanted to keep in cash. And then five figure amounts back to the brokerage checking account as needed. I think once I divided an ACH into two parts a day apart to avoid exceeding transfer limits.
 
We use ACH for all our transfers and phone app deposits for any checks we receive. Of the 3 banks & brokerages our local bank will accept up to $1,000 by phone app deposit, Discover Bank will allow up to $10,000 and Fidelity app will take up to $200,000
 
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1. Wire Transfers can be done in hours, ACH is at least over night (but is moving towards faster clearing). ACH transfers are done in batches by banks. With wire, the receiving account can use the money immediately. (At least in theory a wire should be equivalent to a cleared check.)

2. ACH transfers in can be reversed, in general a wire cannot. That also means when sending a wire, you need to be absolutely sure of the validity of the recipient.

3. As noted, many institutions charge for wire transfers. (Note: One of the good things about Ameritrade is that they do not charge me for wiring money.)

Other lessor known:
4. Wire transfer are a direct bank-to-bank transaction, and both account holders are verified. Part of the reason there is cost is that the receiving institution is contacted directly.
5. ACH stands for Automated Clearing House. As mentioned, it is a network operated by banks but typically using batch. Originally created by some banks in California, there are now national rules for ACH:
https://www.ccbg.com/files/ACH_Batch_Listing.pdf

and recent changes:
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-09-11/pdf/2017-19135.pdf
 
any one heard of, or use shared branches at credit unions? I was checking in to this whole transfer via ach thing and found out that the credit union I want to send the money to is a shared branch with my local credit union. from what I read online you can do withdrawals, and deposits from the local credit union to a credit union in Dallas.
 
I have always used ACH and continue to do so between our bank and Vanguard.

I often transfer up to $10k from our US bank to our UK bank using Transferwise. It is ACH from our US bank to Transferwise and if I initiate the transfer in the morning it is in our UK bank next day.
 
frank said:
any one heard of, or use shared branches at credit unions? I was checking in to this whole transfer via ach thing and found out that the credit union I want to send the money to is a shared branch with my local credit union. from what I read online you can do withdrawals, and deposits from the local credit union to a credit union in Dallas.
Click to expand...


You might want to call your local credit union to check. I’m a member of two credit unions in two states and, while I can do ATM withdrawals without fee in my current state (funds coming from the other CU), I can’t deposit paper checks at the local CU and have the deposit recorded at the other.

I learned this after receiving an insurance reimbursement. Smart phone deposit was rejected due to limits ($1500 per check, 5 checks max per day) and a “manual” attempt at the local CU wasn’t accepted. I ended up mailing the check to the remote CU.

I didn’t look into depositing locally and doing an ACH transfer between the two because I don’t expect the need to arise often.
 
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Ally limited my transfer to $150K when I was moving money from Ally to Vanguard. Took 3 days.

When I move small amounts from VG checking to my B&M bank (using ACH) it usually takes 3 days. But last time, I just wrote myself a VG check and did a mobile deposit into my bank and it was accepted and available the same day. Of course, this is dependent on the receiving bank as to how fast they make mobile deposits available. I won't be doing anymore ACH's for my normal monthly transfers.
 
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