in in the same place but still in my early 70's. I just Rick $500/month into savings and pay out of pocket. If course, cancer drugs could change that in the future but then I'd have a different set of choices
agent is completely unnecessary. Process is straight forward and easy to follow. Can feel a bit tedious at times, but all in all an easy process for non-o visa.
but the variable fees will kill you. It used to cost me about $26 to send my monthly allowance visa wise. When i switched to using swift through Schwab, they dropped to $15 and I'll never have to worry about the deposits being tagged as foreign funds or not....
if you send in your native currency you'll get reasonable rates from there receiving bank. Usually near mid market. Wise might be marginally better, but not enough to matter. Remember wise fees are variable so the bigger the amount, the higher the cost. Swift is fixed rate for fees.
All depends on what your bank charges for swift transfer. If you're doing swift through wise then your doubling up on fees. My swift fees from Schwab are only $15 for any amount, but my credit union wants $60. So milage varies by sending bank. Always send in your native currency for best exchange rate.