Transferring Money before arrival in Finland

Muneeb Abbassi · Post by **Muneeb Abbassi** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 3:19 pm

Dear all,

I have been granted student resident permit and I am planning to move to Finland within a month. Actually I want to transfer an amount up to 8000 euros before arriving in Finland. My bank in my country would ask for a bank account in Finland to transfer money which I don't have. I can not take more than 5000 USD cash out of my country so taking more than that is also not an option. The only option which I have thought is transferring through PayPal but it charges 3.9% of the transferred amount which is a bit expensive. I just want to know is there any other options available to transfer such an amount ?

**Sponsor:**

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 3:48 pm

Muneeb Abbassi wrote: I have been granted student resident permit and I am planning to move to Finland within a month. Actually I want to transfer an amount up to 8000 euros before arriving in Finland. My bank in my country would ask for a bank account in Finland to transfer money which I don't have. I can not take more than 5000 USD cash out of my country so taking more than that is also not an option. The only option which I have thought is transferring through PayPal but it charges 3.9% of the transferred amount which is a bit expensive. I just want to know is there any other options available to transfer such an amount ?

Here's some options:

bitcoin
https://www.currencyfair.com
power of attorney to a trusted person to your current bank account

Beep_Boop · Post by **Beep_Boop** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 3:58 pm

Bitcoin is a bad idea due to its volatility.

I highly recommend doing what I did when I came here. I gave power of attorney to my mother and took 1000 with me to Finland. Once I arrived, I got my henkilötunnus and openned a bank account. I then sent the IBAN to my mother and asked her to transfer the money.

If you have someone you trust, this would be the safest and cheapest option.

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 4:22 pm

adnan wrote: I highly recommend doing what I did when I came here. I gave power of attorney to my mother and took 1000 with me to Finland. Once I arrived, I got my henkilötunnus and openned a bank account. I then sent the IBAN to my mother and asked her to transfer the money.

If you have someone you trust, this would be the safest and cheapest option.

Assuming it's possible in the source country, the risks can be mitigated by drafting the power of attorney so that it's only possible to use it for this transaction.

007 · Post by **007** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 4:27 pm

How about western union or similar money transfer services? Or bank transfer once you have account here? When I was in my country and I needed money, I transfered money from here to my country while being there via Worldremit. I had to go through some phone calls because ...well they wanted to make sure..the receiver and the sender is the same person or something

However, in my case...transferring dollars/euros out of my cvountry is real pain in the ass.

Muneeb Abbassi · Post by **Muneeb Abbassi** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:02 pm

adnan wrote:Bitcoin is a bad idea due to its volatility.

I highly recommend doing what I did when I came here. I gave power of attorney to my mother and took 1000 with me to Finland. Once I arrived, I got my henkilötunnus and openned a bank account. I then sent the IBAN to my mother and asked her to transfer the money.

If you have someone you trust, this would be the safest and cheapest option.

Yes I am also thinking to do that. By the way how much Finnish Banks charge you upon receiving a bank transfer from foreign banks particularly Nordea because I am thinking to open an account in this Bank.

betelgeuse · Post by **betelgeuse** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:11 pm

Muneeb Abbassi wrote: Yes I am also thinking to do that. By the way how much Finnish Banks charge you upon receiving a bank transfer from foreign banks particularly Nordea because I am thinking to open an account in this Bank.

http://www.nordea.fi/Personal+customers ... c1426a9baf

6,75€

DMC · Post by **DMC** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 11:51 am

adnan wrote:I highly recommend doing what I did when I came here. I gave power of attorney to my mother and took 1000 with me to Finland. Once I arrived, I got my henkilötunnus and openned a bank account. I then sent the IBAN to my mother and asked her to transfer the money.

Sounds a good & simple solution so you get some bonus questions:

Were you able to create that "power of attorney" yourself or did you have to have something created / witnessed by a lawyer or notary?

Would it not have been simpler to transfer the money to your mother before leaving and have her send you the money from her account after opening your account here?

Did anyone (such as the sending or receiving bank or the tax authorities) query the transfer?

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:24 pm

DMC wrote: Were you able to create that "power of attorney" yourself or did you have to have something created / witnessed by a lawyer or notary?

Adnan's experience being directly applicable only to his home country, the relevance of this question to others seems very small (I've authorized or participated in quite big financial transactions in this country with a "valtakirja" without any witnesses or additional formalities).

Would it not have been simpler to transfer the money to your mother before leaving and have her send you the money from her account after opening your account here?

Did anyone (such as the sending or receiving bank or the tax authorities) query the transfer?

I assume that would be rare. If that happened anyway, it would seem have been a good idea to have the transfer made between two of one's own bank accounts.

Beep_Boop · Post by **Beep_Boop** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 5:35 pm

DMC wrote:Were you able to create that "power of attorney" yourself or did you have to have something created / witnessed by a lawyer or notary??

Probably different from country to country, and even bank to bank.
For me, I went to a notary office and created the PoA paper then went to the bank branch with my mother and setup a special version of PoA for the bank for that particular transfer operation.

DMC wrote:Would it not have been simpler to transfer the money to your mother before leaving and have her send you the money from her account after opening your account here?

I don't think so. For me, it's safer for my money. I might trust my mum, but I probably don't trust the people she trusts, and I definitely don't trust that she'll be able to detect fraud the same way I might be able to, especially with a large sum of money like that.

DMC wrote:Did anyone (such as the sending or receiving bank or the tax authorities) query the transfer?

I was asked about it only when renewing my RP. The officer saw that I transferred from my account to my account, so he knew it's mine.

CONQUER · Post by **CONQUER** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 6:10 pm

adnan wrote:Bitcoin is a bad idea due to its volatility.

I highly recommend doing what I did when I came here. I gave power of attorney to my mother and took 1000 with me to Finland. Once I arrived, I got my henkilötunnus and openned a bank account. I then sent the IBAN to my mother and asked her to transfer the money.

If you have someone you trust, this would be the safest and cheapest option.

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