How do you transfer money to Georgia using a European EMI?

[anotherone]

I often read stories on this forum related to Georgia. However, Georgia is not part of the SEPA zone. So, I wonder how do you when you want to transfer money to Georgia when you use EMI.

All my EMI accounts only allow transfers using SEPA and none of them use SWIFT.

So, how is it possible to transfer money from an EMI account based in Europe to Georgia?

 

[Outlander]

Simple, you cannot use your EMI which only supports SEPA. You need an EMI which supports SWIFT, such as Transferwise.

 

[khinkali]

@Outlander do Transferwise not have GEL accounts? I was intending to sign up to TW for this purpose, but if they use SWIFT then I'll keep looking.

@anotherone for small amounts, debit card and ATM are fast. I find Wirex convenient; using the debit card in GEL is quite cheap.

 

[Outlander]

@Outlander do Transferwise not have GEL accounts? I was intending to sign up to TW for this purpose, but if they use SWIFT then I'll keep looking.

@anotherone for small amounts, debit card and ATM are fast. I find Wirex convenient; using the debit card in GEL is quite cheap.

You can hold GEL as a balance in your TW account, and you can send GEL/EUR/USD/GBP/whatever to a GEL account in Georgia, it will be converted automatically.

However, you cannot receive GEL in your TW account as TW only offers bank account details for major currencies. So, for holding GEL, you must receive a major currency first and then manually convert.

 

[khinkali]

@Outlander that's fine, you can convert to GEL in TW at good rates. But if they use SWIFT for the payment it could be take a while?

I assumed that TW had Georgian accounts to send from, as they used to say it took only 2 days and under $1 to send to a Georgian account.

 

[Outlander]

@Outlander that's fine, you can convert to GEL in TW at good rates. But if they use SWIFT for the payment it could be take a while?

I assumed that TW had Georgian accounts to send from, as they used to say it took only 2 days and under $1 to send to a Georgian account.

They often overestimate the time it takes. From my experience, it takes one business day to send SWIFT transfers to Georgia.

 

[anotherone]

Thank you all, you confirmed what I thought. The solution is not a straight line. No irony here. I just wanted to evaluate the feasibility.

 

[clemens]

Possible solution setup Georgia company with TW and receive GEL as you are used to do!

 

[Traveler]

@Outlander that's fine, you can convert to GEL in TW at good rates. But if they use SWIFT for the payment it could be take a while?

I assumed that TW had Georgian accounts to send from, as they used to say it took only 2 days and under $1 to send to a Georgian account.

They do have a TBC account. So payments to other TBC accounts are pretty much instantaneous, while payments to BoG usually take a few hours (as long as it's during business hours).

Note, though, that these time frames apply only from the moment TW actually processes your payment. It appears they're not overly liquid over here so while most of the time, they process GEL payments straight away, other times I've had a 2-3 day wait which, I'm guessing, is necessary for them to fund their GE account when it's run dry.

 

[khinkali]

Thanks @Traveler I was getting a bit skeptical about this thread. It looks like TW is a good choice. I guess if more people use then then they'll have more liquidity in place.

 

[menzu]

Western Union is probably your best option, Georgia customers can pickup cash or fund their account with Western Union directly in USD, EURO etc.

Instant, cheap and safer than regular banks.

 

[khinkali]

Since this discussion the crypto situation has evolved.

Cryptal.ge and mycoins.ge now take foreigners without a residence permit. For example, transferring GEL from Cryptal to TBC VISA card costs $0.34 and can be spendable (as negative blocked balance) within a minute. If you want to transfer the balance out, you need to wait a few hours for it to clear.

If you're using a fast and cheap blockchain such as XRP or LTC, the whole process to get money into Georgia and spend it is almost free and instant compared with other approaches.

Of course you should check with your bank first, to find out how much $ value per month they're comfortable with you receiving from crypto.