Intermediary US bank for wire transfer to PostBank

Hello -

I'm trying to do a wire transfer from SmithBarney in the US to PostBank in Germany. SmithBarney REQUIRES a US intermediary bank for PostBank. My husband went in to PostBank to ask who that was, and the teller absolutely refused to acknowledge that there was such a thing, then he went to call someone, and they told him that yes, there is such a thing. The problem is that he wouldn't give my husband that information, the only way for him to find out is to do it IN WRITING to an address somewhere, which would take at least a week or so to process and get an answer. So weird, I thought this would be published information, since routing numbers aren't top secret or anything.

So does anyone have this information already or been in this situation??? Thanks!

Why can't SmithBarney tell you which intermediary bank they use?

I thought the intermediary bank is for the recipient bank and that it's the only one that can be used??? Can you tell I'm new at this? I thought that since SmithBarney is asking for it and don't mention that there's a "default" intermediary bank that can be used, that PostBank needs to supply one. We tried faxing in the form w/o one, but they sent a fax back saying that they need that information. Grrrr...

Sounds like SEC laws. SmithBarney aren't allowed to do business overseas or something. To send you money, they need to send the money to your bank in the states which then can transfer it to your bank here. There may be a way around that by having it transfered through a Federal Reserve bank. Easier still is to have it sent to a family member in the states who then transfers it to you if you don't have an account in the states.

Well, I wanted to do it through SmithBarney because they are only going to charge $10 for a wire transfer, but now I'm wondering if the intermediary bank will also charge on top of that (there was no mention of an "extra fee" but you never know). Too good to be true. I think I'll just have them send a check to my regular bank account and I'll wire it from there (where it's $30 but needs no stinkin' intermediary).

But still, if anyone knows this info, it would be greatly appreciated in future dealings with SmithBarney or other banks that may need this info.

If I were you i'd talk to SmithBarney and ask them to recommend an intermediary bank in the U.S. If I recall correctly, SmithBarney is a broker and that's presumably why they can't transfer cash to any other bank other than your "house" bank in the U.S. I would recommend that you have SmithBarney transfer the money first to your U.S. "house" bank (i.e. BankofAmerica etc.) and then transfer the money from there to Germany. If it's urgent to get the money transfered now you'll have to get all the intermediary info (IBAN etc.) from your house bank and give it to SmithBarney so they can make the transfer. If you're nice to the people at SmithBarney you might be able to just give them the phone number of your representative at your house bank and let them work it out with each other. If your house bank is not a full service bank, then you'll just have to ask SmithBarney to recommend a different intermediary.

P.S. you can bet that the intermediary bank is also going to charge you a fee.

Open a US and a German Citibank account. S-B is a branch of the Citigroup and transfers to the banking side are fast and easy. Then transfer from Citi-US to Citi-DEU, the an Überweisung to PestBank. A bit complicated but gets rid of fees and keeps all the banks happy.

Or if you need this fast, just open a US Citibank account and use that for the intermediary.

woof.

Great, thanks for the good info. I was under the impression that the intermediary bank was a "special" bank that works with PostBank, but from your responses, it's just a regular ol' bank that I have to have an account at. I hope I'm understanding this correctly. It is no different then if I had them just transfer it to my checking account in the US and then doing a separate wire from that bank to Germany.

I did look into opening a Citibank account on both sides but found two problems. One is that I'm limited to $1000 or $1500 at a time, and you only can do a certain number of wires a month. And then I did call customer service to ask if it was indeed free and they said "no, of course there is always a fee". So, I abandoned opening the account. Since I'm probably only going to do 1 or 2 more wire transfers, I figured it wasn't worth the effort.

You've got it. You don't necessarily need an account to use a bank as an intermediary though even though it will most likely be cheaper if you do. In your case, the intermediary does have to be a U.S. bank though because SmithBarney obviously won't transfer the money internationally.

Also, depending on how much money you want to transfer, you always have the option of just using your ATM card from your house bank in Germany. Often times that ends up being cheaper but obviously you're restricted as to the amounts you can withdraw per day.