time to pay

caheaton

Advanced Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
98
Hello. The time has come for me to pay the piper....I need to remit funds for our trailer. I had planned on initiating a wire transfer from my fidelity account but it seems it's not so simple...fidelity is only setup for domestic online transfers. It seems I need to go to our local office to conduct the transfer, but looking at the reviews of the office online it seems they have a history of making mistakes with wt's. Fidelity informed me it would take a week for the funds to be available at my local bank due to the size of the transfer.

So, what to do? Risk the local office, transfer to my local bank then overnight a check (which will take some time to do) or use a third party transfer service such as wise or xe? Does any one in the forums have recent experience with these third party services? How reliable are they? I'm reluctant to employ a third party for fear that it would only complicate things if the transfer has a problem

Thanks in advance!
 
Hi caheaton,


I would not farm out to any third party. Keep it simple, stick with your bank. It is a big step, it was for me. I also wouldn't mail any check or send it by Fed / Up so that only leaves wire transfer. If you overnight a check it will still take time at the other end (ETI) to process your check through their bank, which is about a week as well. Take your time, go with your gut. ETI is not going to sell off your trailer. ETI have great people and they know there are bumps in the road of this process.


Take a moment, stand back, think about it, then go with what you feel is right for you. Moving to fast leads to mistakes, don't rush you're going to be ok.


My stomach was in knots till I got conformation through a phone call I made to ETI to hear they received my wire transfer.


Slow and sure...... Good luck. Jack!
 
You might try having your bank do a direct deposit to the Escape bank account. That is the way I got paid from some of my clients in the U.S paying into my account in Canada. You would need to ask your bank what info they require. In addition to the standard bank account information such as account number, address etc they usually need a SWIFT code.
 
Are picking your escape up or having it delivered. If picking it up get a certified check from your back and take it with you to Chilliwack. That how we picked up our 21. There is no issue crossing the border with a certified check. It’s crossing the border with large amount of cash that gets one in trouble
 
Some banks won’t do transfers to Canada. Mine won’t. I just got a cashier’s check from my bank and sent it some kind of registered tracked mail. It didn’t take long or cost much.
 
Well good news, I phoned the regional office for Fidelity and they informed me (contrary to what the local office told me) that they can handle the transfer over the phone. A big plus, no fees on their end for the transfer (wise.com was going to charge around $150 for the transfer). I would have considered mailing a cashiers check, but the delay would have been too much....a week for the funds to post, then courier to Escape and then waiting for the check to clear on their end. Fidelity told me the transfer should post in a couple of days at most.

(I kept the funds for the camper in the Fidelity account since it was earning more interest than my local bank offers...:) ).
 
It’s crossing the border with large amount of cash that gets one in trouble

Not for law abiding folks who can give a legitimate reason for crossing the border with cash over $10,000. Simple process and pretty quick.

Ron
 
Not for law abiding folks who can give a legitimate reason for crossing the border with cash over $10,000. Simple process and pretty quick.

Ron

When we got our 21 in 2018 we were informed by the border agent that bringing in the amount for our trailer would have been an issue where as certified checks were no problem. I guess this has changed since then for those that want to pay in cash. Thanks for the update
 
Just an update to the group in the event that someone in the future wishes to use fidelity for payment.

The process was easy...all I had to do was phone customer service and tell them I wish to conduct an international wire transfer (adding that the money was headed to a US dollar account...it makes a difference on their end and simplifies things). They then transferred me to the appropriate agent who took down my fidelity account info, confirmed I had the funds and then brought in a risk control officer (due to the $$$ amount involved). The risk control guy asked some additional questions to verify I was who I said I was, and then told me they would call me back on the number affiliated with my account. After this they took down the bank information Escape provided and emailed me the transfer form for me to review and digitally sign. The whole process took about half an hour or so.

Quite simple and glad that the only transfer fee involved was Escape's bank fee of $17.50.
 
Just to add: We use Fidelity via our financial advisor's company. They were able to help set up an international wire (to our son in Peru). But I'm sure the folks at Fidelity can do it for you as well, as you found out.
 
We just sent a cashiers check via overnight Fedex. It cost ~$30 for next day delivery. Easy and fast.

Escape called to confirm they received it and emailed all the remaining paperwork.
 
For those with concern their bank won't do wire transfer to Canada the current info from Escape from this week lists a bank in Chicago with an ABA routing number. Was a domestic wire transfer for us.
 
Not for law abiding folks who can give a legitimate reason for crossing the border with cash over $10,000. Simple process and pretty quick.

Ron

Civil forfeiture. It’s a real risk if you’re traveling with lots of cash. They have a significant incentive not to believe you.
 
FWIW - In the last few days my credit union wouldn't do a wire transfer to Escape. Instead they wrote Escape a check and handed it to me as I'll be picking up in Chilliwack. My Credit Union spoke directly to Tanya E. in accounts payable who emailed me letting me know she spoke to them and all is well.
 
When I bought my 2022 5.0, I used a "VIP" check from my credit union....ETI accepted it. Never heard of a VIP check, lol...It was sent and cleared prior to trailer shipment. Credit union wouldn't do a wire transfer for whatever reason
 

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