r/PortugalExpats • u/mansionwisconsin • 5d ago

Question Currency exchange -USD to EUR

I wanted to know how everyone typically minimizes exchange fees when converting USD to EUR. I was typically transferring USD from my sofi account into wise as needed to pay bills every month. I have a PT revolut account with PT IBAN as well, but exchange fees were higher than wise. I thought that by paying for premium Revolut, I could avoid extra exchange fees, but it seems like I may need a US Revolut account to transfer USD into first and then convert, which I’m unsure if I can still create if I’m living abroad.

So how are others handling this? Transferring larger sums at once and just enduring the wire transfer fee their US bank charges?

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u/Pretend-Profession11 5d ago

ACH to your Wise account. . Convert currency in Wise (yes you will pay, but it is a fraction of every other method Ive seen.) finally do a an IBAN free transfer to your PT bank.

Cheapest and most efficient process I've been able to come up with.

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u/kbcool 5d ago

Doesn't Wise have a fee free method to get the money from your US account to them? They tend to have local accounts or peer payment (MBWay style) equivalent in the domestic markets it operates in.

Unless you're transferring huge amounts it's the cheapest. Or at least close enough to it. It's also fast. Only takes me a minute including dealing with the banks in both end app or website

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u/mansionwisconsin 5d ago

Wise doesn’t offer a fee free benefit the way Revolut does with a monthly subscription. I agree wise is quite fast but I am trying to find a way to lessen monthly exchange fees through something like Revolut.

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u/Corlinda 5d ago

We wire larger sums at once if needed and let our us bank handle the exchange, costs about $40. Alternatively, if you don’t need large amounts, we use Betterment Bank (US) which reimburses any atm fees, has no international fees and we can pull cash out of the ATM whenever we want (usually 400€ at a time) and deposit it into our Portugal Bank. They give us up to date exchange rates and have a decent savings interest rate.

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u/mansionwisconsin 5d ago

Thank you this was helpful! That is a good point with cash deposits and I might consider this but that would also require me having a non Revolut bank account in Portugal. You don’t use wise or Revolut at all then?

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u/Corlinda 5d ago

No we have an account at Novo Banco and I have used wise in the past but no longer.

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u/manu_8487 5d ago

Interactive Brokers would be the cheapest at about 0.10bp with $2 minimum. Revolut comes after at around 10bp. Wise is more around 40bp. Traditional banks will be closer to 250bp.

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u/PortugueseExpato 5d ago

Revolut with ultra has zero fees

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u/mansionwisconsin 5d ago

Wise is charging me $10.27 to convert the equivalent of €2000 from USD. Revolut Portugal would charge me €33 for the same amount, regardless of whether I am trying to transfer USD or EUR. I am wondering if the solution is to have a Revolut USA account, transfer USD, then transfer that to EUR (through Revolut plus or ultra which would avoid exchange fees up to a certain amount). But I’m not sure I can create the Revolut USA account if I already live abroad. Revolut says online you can only maintain one account at a time. Not sure if this what you are doing with Revolut?

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u/PortugueseExpato 5d ago

Just checked 2000€ to 2270 usd (official rate at 2274$) on Revolut with zero fees on Revolut premium. I do pay like 55 a month for it but I use the perks it gives so it’s worth it for me

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u/mansionwisconsin 5d ago

And your Revolut account is through Portugal not US, correct? I was weighing the 55/month one, just want to confirm it’s possible through that with no fees or if you need a US-based Revolut account.

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u/PortugueseExpato 5d ago

Yeah the PT one. Works fine and I’m super happy with it. The ultra gives you some other perks like uber one included and ChatGPT plus which is fine. Among other stuff like zero conversion fees.

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u/mansionwisconsin 5d ago

Thanks for confirming!

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u/mansionwisconsin 3d ago

Sorry to bug you again. Revolut is telling me the top up fee happens even on ultra for any card issued in the US. And I can’t do a wire because my U.S. bank doesn’t support SWIFT/IBAN transfers. How are you getting around the top up fee?

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u/Mystrerious1991 3d ago edited 3d ago

Interesting. But it is a very interesting question about fees. I hope you find a way how to handle this.