Wire Transfer – bank money transfers (literal translation from English – “wire transfer”) of non-cash funds. They are sometimes referred to simply as Wire or wire.
Wire is one of the earliest types of transfers. The process involves: the sender, the recipient and a third party – an intermediary. Agent banks, postal organizations or various payment systems can act as an intermediary.
Both individuals and legal entities can conduct a financial transaction via Wire Transfer. Vayers are carried out not only within one country, but also abroad. A commission for a money transfer is charged from the sender; the recipient of the transfer does not need to pay for the receipt.
To make a Wire transfer, an intermediary agent may require opening a checking account. However, many agents for individuals do not consider this stage of the transaction necessary. The sender simply fills out a form in which he indicates his data, the recipient’s data, the amount and purpose of the transfer, pays the indicated amount and the commission charged by the intermediary to the cashier. The recipient applies to the nearest bank branch or post office with an identity document and receives cash. Such actions are necessary and sufficient for making money transfers within one country. For senders from Europe, the USA, Canada and other foreign countries, it is necessary to have additional information about the recipient (IBAN, IRC, ISC, etc., depending on the requirements of the intermediary bank). When,if the sender or recipient has incorrectly indicated one or more details of the transfer, the bank may additionally require the so-called SWIFT code to confirm the legality of receiving funds.
If you have a bank card of an intermediary bank, you can also receive a wire through an ATM. In addition, some banks provide the ability to transfer funds using the electronic payment system “Internet banking”.
Wire money transfer system is convenient, in particular, for electronic payments via the Internet, in particular, for paying for purchases in online stores or other Internet services.
Wire is special in that some intermediaries may set minimum amounts for international money transfers and amount limits, especially for individuals. Within one country, warrants are carried out without upper and lower borders. In addition, unlike some other payment systems, transfers can be made both in national and in any other convertible currency. When receiving an international money transfer, the recipient has the right to choose in which currency it is more convenient for him to receive a wire.
The size of the commission for Wire Transfer is determined by each bank individually. As a rule, it varies from 0.5 to 2% of the transfer amount. In addition, partner banks set a minimum commission in a fixed amount, sometimes quite considerable. Therefore, using the Wire system, it is more profitable to make transfers of large amounts.
A similar bank transfer system is often used to transfer funds between different countries from one bank account to another by the same person when it is impossible to use an international bank card. That is, the sender of a transfer from one country is at the same time its recipient to another.
The speed of transactions by the Wire Transfer system usually ranges from 1 to 3 working days, but in this case the difference in time zones, the working hours of the branches of partner banks, the time of sending the transfer and other factors also play a role. In addition, the transit time of a money transfer from the sender to the recipient often increases due to the fact that the bank’s security system checks the client for reliability. This, of course, primarily concerns international transfers.
A distinctive feature of the Wire money transfer system is a high degree of security of financial transactions and information protection. International statistics show that warrants are much less likely to not reach the recipient than amounts sent using other transfer systems. This is primarily due to the rather long operating time of Wire in the banking services market and the experience gained during this time.
It should be said that in the Wire system there are no uniform deadlines, tariffs and limits. The powers of the intermediary in this case are so broad that certain features of the transaction may differ significantly from each other. Therefore, it is recommended that before making a money transfer, check the conditions with several Wire agent banks and choose the most suitable one for each individual case.
It is the difference in conditions between different intermediaries that is noted by many clients as one of the most significant drawbacks of the Wire bank transfer system. Such an unified approach often does not allow calculating the timing and cost with the regular behavior of the same type of transactions between different countries, as well as within the same country – between different partner banks.
Lack of confidentiality is often referred to as another significant drawback. The need to provide personal identification data, as well as the purpose of the payment, raises concerns among some customers about the possibility of misunderstandings with the tax authorities in the future.
In addition, many Wire participants are not comfortable with the time it takes to transfer funds, since modern electronic payment systems process such transactions within hours, and sometimes minutes.
However, in general, the Wire Transfer system of bank money transfers is assessed by most individuals and legal entities as a fairly convenient and reliable method of non-cash payments.
