Chile Forum

Hi everybody,

I'm new with the forum, I've been researching and calling to the States for almost two weeks and I ended up asking for help in a Chilean forum. Anyway, I've recently resigned from a Chilean branch of an American company, and some guys I did business with while I was there, want to send me a commission for a job that was closed after I resigned, almost 17K usd in two payments of equal amount, first now and the other one in three months. As money laundering is an issue, I want to avoid at any cost to delay the first payment and get both together. Another option would be two checks that --only if possible-- I'd cash in Chile, but this I suspect is very unlikely to happen with the Chilean banks.

This company has an account at Bank of America, and they keep saying that they need a routing number in order to perform the wire transfer, on the other hand, my bank (Edwards) keeps telling me that this is not applicable for an international transaction, which makes perfect sense to me as I lived in Germany for a while and never needed such number to send money to Chile.

I provided the BofA with the following info:

Name: XXX, YYY ZZZ (Name, Last Names)
Account Number: 00-000-00000-00 (Check Account or "Cuenta Corriente")
Bank Name: Banco Edwards / Banco de Chile
Bank Address: Orrego Luco 026, Providencia, Santiago - Chile.
SWIFT: BCHICLRM
IBAN: 004817
ABA: VID004817

Last but not least, BofA's helpdesk really stinks, can the counterpart go to a Citibank branch and do the wire transfer without opening necessarily an account? the company that wants to send me the money is a very small one, with no more than 5 employee, and I myself are very good friend with the owner.

Thanks a bunch and best Regards,


Ricardo.

P.S.: I have received traveler checks in the past as gifts from my previous employer and the commissions that AFEX charges are simply ridiculous.

your info is enough and legit. thats all they need. but they do need an account in a bank or they will have to go to Western Union or similar to send it.
The ABA is your routing number.

Not really sure what you are asking.

The ABA routing number functions as a SWIFT number for banks outside the U.S. I know sending money in to a U.S. account.

Think I understand a bit more now.

If you send it in two parts, it will come in under the $10,000 limit for money laundering laws. Essentially they don't care about amounts that small. You can check with either Banco Estado or Santendier I know both will accept wires to their desk without an account under your own name.

Thanks both for your replies.

admin:

BofA is asking for a routing number, the typical used on every transaction in the states, it's an eight (8) digits number that refers to the receipt bank's branch, it's often written at the bottom of any US check. That's the number they're looking for. Maybe is just that specific branch in Mesa, AZ, or definitely the BofA doesn't want anything with this kind of transactions, don't know.

I have an account at Santander, but don't think that the story might get any different if BofA still bugs me for the "routing number".

Anyway, just spoke to my contact in the States and she's going tomorrow to the bank again.

My last option, which I don't actually want to use it for now, is to get the money transfered to a friend's Wachovia account and get it in "greens" here in Chile. It's not my favorite one as the maximum per day is 2.500 and don't feel quite comfortable asking that.

admin wrote:Not really sure what you are asking.

The ABA routing number functions as a SWIFT number for banks outside the U.S. I know sending money in to a U.S. account.

Sorry, the post has no specific question actually, it's just the BofA is not going to do this transfer because they're asking for something that doesn't even exist, for me a wire transfer is very common operation, and I don't feel comfortable with their stubbornness. Question should be, has anybody had any experience dealing with wire transfers from the Bank of America to Chile?.


Maybe my contact in the states is not asking properly, I don't know, that's why any experience will be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

In the US, a routing number for each bank is a 9 (nine) digit number. You can look up this number by looking at your check book and find the 9 digit number preceding your account number at the bottom of your check. You can also google search for the routing number of your bank.

For the sake of curiosity, I asked my account manager at Santander bank in Chile about the routing number and she gave me the SWIFT code.

TP

Internationally, routing=ABA=SWIFT, its the banks code they use to send intl wires, they all have their own.
IN the US, the 8 number code is for national transfers.
I have used BofA for Chilean transfers for business and never had a problem but either filled out the forms myself or did it online, it was never an issue.
I think your contact is confused or looking for that checking account number which is not what you need. I believe most banks list their transfer numbers on their website.
This is a super easy thing to do and is done all day long.
I would contact someone else in the bank.

We just had a conversation today with our guy at Banco Security in Chile. He told us they have an agreement with Wachovia in the States. They have a regular account at Wachovia in the State, you have the deposit made to that account with the final destination bank and your identifying information such as RUT number and account, and they act as a clearing house. You do not need an account with them. Normal rules of money laundering law compliance are still in effect, just they specialize in handling international wires. Might be worth contacting them.

admin wrote:We just had a conversation today with our guy at Banco Security in Chile. He told us they have an agreement with Wachovia in the States. They have a regular account at Wachovia in the State, you have the deposit made to that account with the final destination bank and your identifying information such as RUT number and account, and they act as a clearing house. You do not need an account with them. Normal rules of money laundering law compliance are still in effect, just they specialize in handling international wires. Might be worth contacting them.

Sorry I took so long to come back with an answer. Banco Edwards is definitely not doing anything to help me out, so I contacted Banco Security, and they gave me this account number at the Wachovia (with an actual routing number).
But I'm concerned about getting the money and not losing it in the way. I'm opening an account there as it's better suited for a consultant like myself that is constantly getting money from the States and many other places, but opening an account takes 15 days, and as I said, I don't want to delay this payment any longer as if it get mixed up with another, some flags may arouse, even though they said they aren't concerned about that.

As per your experience, would you recommend me to go ahead and do the transfer without having an account there yet? do they usually deliver it in cash or checks? have you ever done this in the past with this bank?

Thank you and best Regards,

We have only done one transaction through them, but it was more accidental. A bank in the States lost a wire, and it was Banco Security that called us directly as they had an unclaimed wire while we where desperately scouring the international banking system for any sign. So, at least as far as that one went, they did a good job even though no one even knew they where involved.

They will want to do a bank to bank transfer inside the country to your bank here. You will need to have online transfers enabled on your Chilean bank account. They also will simply issue a bank counter check to you directly. Not sure about cash, but I suppose they would give you cash. I would talk to them.

admin wrote:We have only done one transaction through them, but it was more accidental. A bank in the States lost a wire, and it was Banco Security that called us directly as they had an unclaimed wire while we where desperately scouring the international banking system for any sign. So, at least as far as that one went, they did a good job even though no one even knew they where involved.

They will want to do a bank to bank transfer inside the country to your bank here. You will need to have online transfers enabled on your Chilean bank account. They also will simply issue a bank counter check to you directly. Not sure about cash, but I suppose they would give you cash. I would talk to them.

Sounds quite good, I'll do the wire through them then.

I really appreciate your help, if things go fine this time, who knows, I might contact you in the future when my partners in the States decide to finally establish an actual operation in Chile.

Thanks and best Regards,

Ricardo,