Not really sure this is the ideal forum for this question, but here goes:

I'm receiving my US SSA monthly benefit at the Lao Development Bank. It seems I'm getting a few dollars less than what SSA shows they are sending out to me. I've confirmed with FBU in Manila the amount I am entitled to and confirmed that this is indeed the amount being sent out.  I checked with Lao Development Bank; they say they only take out a $2 service fee. So $15 is going missing somewhere along the line.  The intermediary bank is Standard Chartered in New York. I have no way of contacting them, however, to find out if take out a service fee.

 

I know it's not much, but ... 

 

Any other US expats in Laos receiving SSA benefits experiencing something similar?

 

Thanks.

Hi,

 

It most likely is the SWIFT fee charged by a correspondent bank. I am regularly transferring funds from EU to LA and the correspondent bank costs for amounts around 10k USD are somewhere between 10-15 USD.

 

You may try asking the party sending the funds to change the SWIFT instruction (e.g. to OUR instead of SHA/BEN) and see if this will help - most likeky won't make any difference, the amount will still be deducted at some point of the process.

 

Another option would be to receive the funds into your US account and then use a money transfer service such as Wise for the transfer to Laos - it _might_ be more cost effective.

Instead of paying SWIFT fees, an excellent method would be to maintain your bank account in the US and have it transferred there. Open a Binance account in Laos. Then transfer the funds into a cryptocurrency exchange, sell to USDT, from there to Binance (Binance is not available in the US). Then you sell the USDT for LAK in Binance peer 2 peer. and it goes into your BCEL account. The USD/LAK rates are even better than the best exchange shops in Vientiane and you don't have to be ridiculous SWIFT fees.