Best bank for international wiretransfers

I suggest you find the websites for the various banks, check them all out ti find which one does international transfers

Perhaps you could consider a foreign owned bank such as Barclays, or Standard Chartered.  In any case, I would tend to stick to the larger well established banks.  Please remember to check out the banking and transfer fees before you open an account.

We have banked with Kenya Commercial Bank and Chase Bank (K) Ltd.  Both handled money transfers to and from the UK, fairly promptly and the charges were not unreasonable.  Many Kenyan banks seem to go through an intermediary bank for money transfers, which tends to cause a bit of confusion with my UK bank.

However, I have found that money transfer services, such as World Remit and Simbapay are better and cheaper than going through the bank.

I have used Ecobank  and it has a good footprint in Africa

Banking in Kenya can be quite user UNfriendly. Many expats operate with only the use of AMTs. These are typically fee of charge (with the exception of Barclays) and offer the very best exchange rate. This of course won't work if you need to move very large sums of money or if you need to make local deposits.

ChaseBank

Sorry, I meant ATMs.

In my experience, use of ATM's isn't free. For an expat making withdrawals from a foreign account, the home bank imposes a charge.  I know that Barclays charges a fee of around Ksh 400 for ATM withdrawal for non Barclys customers. My bank in the UK does not offer a great exchange rate for ATM withdrawals, either.

If you are here long term, then opening a local account and transferring larger amounts periodically, from the bank in your home country is arguably more cost effective - you pay the one off fee for the transfer, rather than every time you visit the ATM. Local ATM charges are much lower.

You can also consider M-Pesa. Money transfer services such as Western Union, World Remit and Simbapay allow transfers from a foreign bank account, direct to an M-pesa account. You need to research whether this service is available from your home country.

Longonot62: So sorry for the way your bank treats you. My US bank charges no fees whatsoever. I get the best exchange rate (better than I get for cash or checks at any forex or bank). Barclays is the only bank I'm aware of that charges any fees on this side. For many of us -- ATMs are a win-win.

Some banks have limitations. My US bank allows me to withdraw up to US$1,000.00 per day -- which far exceeds my needs or resources. If I need to withdraw more on a given day, I can request my bank to raise the limit for a given date (as simple email suffices). I've done that a couple of times when we had a construction project going on. However, I have friends who have accounts at US banks that have no daily limit. The only issue is the need to keep making withdraws, as the ATMs here will not allow one to withdraw more than Kshs. 40,000/- (about US$400.00) in each transaction.

I've lived in Kenya for 35+years, but have not operated a local bank account of any kind for the last 15 years. ATMs work great for me. No fees, no lines, best exchange rate.

thanks for the tips...will check them out.

probably go for kcb or standard.

cheers