The agreement is going to allow one to authorize funds transfers from a designated account in their name to any account at another financial institution. They'll be given a secret personal identification number, or PIN, that they will use to prove their own identify when calling in and initiating a transfer. They'll use the touch-tone keypad on the phone to enter basic information. At the conclusion of the entry, they'll be connected to a live person who will take additional information and verify identify. At that point, they can hang up and the money will be transferred. The source account will be debited the amount of the transaction, plus a fee ranging from ten to twenty-five dollars that he bank charges for performing the service.



There are a few things one should be aware of when using a transfer agreement. First, when moving small amounts, the fee is excessive because it is fixed and can be a significant percentage of the funds that are sent. With larger amounts, the fee becomes a diminishingly smaller percentage of the money. Second, if one provides incorrect destination information, and the money ends up being transferred to the wrong account and cannot be recovered, the sender is out of luck. The bank takes no responsibility for the customer's mistakes. Third, transfers to foreign countries will result in a foreign exchange fee. Currency values fluctuate continuously in the open market. When you move US Dollars (USD) to a bank in Great Britain, for example, your dollars are converted into Great Britain Pounds, or GBPs, for short. The same thing goes for any other foreign country. Australian has Australian dollars, AUD, Switzerland has the Swiss Frank, or CHF, Japan has the Japanese Yen, or JPY, and most European banks accept conversion to the Euro, or EUR. There is a fee, called the spread, that is charged for making the conversion. It is a percentage fee, and varies, depending on which currency pairs are being exchanged.



The fourth thing to remember is that the wire transfer agreement states that the bank assumes no liability for losses that are the result of mistakes or delays in the transfer. After the bank enters the instructions, the order goes to a third party and is out of the banks hands. The transaction does have a transaction number by which it can be tracked and examined, should the need arise.