Transferring money between two banks
"Why? Because they can get away with it, of course. In short - why not? You may want to read the answers to this similar question (my answer is the one accepted by the OP). Who has the money? The banks, who else. I have found that some banks are capable of sending/receiving ACH transfers faster than others. I have accounts in two banks, lets call them A and B. If I send money (push) from A to B, it may take several days. But if I decide to pull the money from A to B by originating the transaction through my account at B - the money arrives the next day! So the actual transfer only takes a night, one business day. Its just the direction that matters - if the bank has to give the money out, it will do all it can (including taking 2-3 days for ""processing"") to keep the money as long as possible. But when another bank charges them - they have no choice but to pay. By the way, bank B behaves better - when I send the money from my account at B, it arrives to A the next day as well. Try a similar experiment. Instead of originating the transaction at the sender bank - try to originate it at the receiver bank, see how long it takes then for the money to appear on your account after it disappeared from the other one." The US (in fact the global) banking industry is subject to Anti-Money Laundering & Counter-Terrorism funding laws, slowing down funds transfer eliminates a great deal of fraud.
Transferwise gives an excellent exchange rate and very minimal costs. They save on costs by not actually changing any money; your money goes to someone else in the US, and the Canadia dollars you want come from someone else in Canada. No money changes currency or crosses borders, there is no bank transfer fee (assuming that domestic bank transfers, inside the country, are free), and they give an excellent exchange rate (very nearly the spot rate, I find; far better than many rates I find online for sending money across the border).  I sent money from the UK to Japan with it last week, at a fixed fee of about three US dollars (I was charged in GBP, obviously). About one tenth the cost of an international bank transfer. I just double-checked; at about midday on the fifth of October 2016, they gave me a rate of 130.15 JPY per 1 GBP, and then charged me two GBP to transfer the money. The rate that day, according to xe.com, varied between 130.7 and 132 ; basically, I don't think I could have got a better deal pretty much anywhere. As I type, this very second, they offer 1.33 CAD for 1 USD , and google tells me that this very second, the exchange rate is 1.33 CAD for 1 USD - transferwise is giving the spot price. I don't think you'll get a better rate anywhere else. After transferring, do we need to file any forms to IRS regarding money transfer?  Not immediately. Do we need to file any forms in US as part of tax returns for this transfer? In case the recipient and the sender are not the same person, the recipient must attach form 3520A to his/her tax return. If you are transferring between your own accounts - you're good to go. However, this NRE account must have been reported on your FBAR and form 8938 attached to your tax return. Do we need to inform my local bank in USA regarding the transfer in advance?  You probably want to confirm the transfer instructions with them (SWIFT instructions, routing info, etc). There are two (main) ways of transferring large sums of money between banks in such a situation. 1) Have your bank mail a cashier's check.  They may or may not charge you for this (some banks charge up to $6, the bank I work at doesn't charge at all).  You have to wait for the check to go through the mail, but it usually takes just a few days. 2) Wire the money.  This could cost $50 or more in combined fees (usually around $30 to send and $20 to receive), but you get same day credit for the funds. The limits to online transfers are in place to protect you, so that if someone gets into your account the amount of damage they can do is limited.  If you need those limits lifted temporarily, check with your bank about doing so - they may be willing to adjust them for you for a brief period (a day or two). "The easiest and least expensive way of doing this, similar to the answer from Randy Coulman, is to write a check and deposit it into the Canadian Institution. Since this transfer is between accounts you own the easiest thing to do is to do a deposit by mail. Contact your current institution on where you would need to mail your deposit to. You can then write yourself a check on the US bank and mail it to the Canadian bank; be sure to write ""For Deposit Only"" along with your account number (and Branch Number for Canada) on the back. This is the slowest, but cheapest method. An alternative option is to use Wire Transfers, but they can be very costly (you'll usually incur a fee when sending and when receiving). I only recommend them when you need the money in the account fast (they are usually settled within an hour)." A non-cash transaction will not be a problem. The bank will have to fill out federal paperwork if there are large amounts of cash involved.  This is to stop the underground economy.  This can even extend to non-banks. If you were to walk into a car dealer or some other stores and hand them a bag  of cash they will also report it. You can do what you propose without having to transfer any money between accounts. Your girlfriend can put the furniture and landscaping on her credit card, or write checks to the stores or companies. Based on the number of questions on this site regarding how to transfer funds between banks and accounts, the mechanics of the transfer is the hard part. Resist the urge to use cash to make the transfer. That will require paperwork. Many people find that the old standard of using checks to transfer funds is easy, safe and quick. SurePay is not designed to send money from one person to himself.  It is designed to transfer money from one person to someone else. What SurePay does, is allow you to link an account to a name/email/phone number.  Then, when someone else, who's also linked an account to a name/email/phone number, selects your name/email/phone number to send money to, the money is transferred.  This doesn't buy you anything when transferring money to another of your own accounts.  I won't say it's impossible to use SurePay to do so, but it's definitely not designed to do so, and may not be permitted.   If you could use it for that purpose, you would have to separately register your two accounts, using a separate email for each, and then use the first email to send to the second email; each will have been tied to a different account, so you'll know which is which. My suggestion would be to follow Wells Fargo's instructions here: Can I transfer funds to or from my accounts at another institution? You can transfer money between your Wells Fargo checking and savings accounts and accounts you may have at other U.S. financial institutions. Wells Fargo gives you greater flexibility, convenience, and control to transfer funds where and when you need it. Sign on to Wells Fargo Online and click the Transfers tab to learn more about transferring funds to your account at another financial institution. As that should give you the official answer, at least. "When Laurence Olivier took the role of Douglas Macarthur in the Unification Church's filming of Inchon, he told the press, ""People ask me why I'm playing in this picture. The answer is simple: Money, dear boy."" Banking systems are typically decades old and subject to innumerable legal and technical restrictions. Moving money more quickly from one client's account to another would definitely be in the clients' interest, but" "For most banks this is not the case.  Transfers within the bank are usually instantaneous. It is not uncommon for banks to draw out the length of transactions because while the money is ""transferring"" or ""settling"" it is actually sitting on the bank's balance sheet, being lent out but not earning any interest.  A good deal for them when you aggregate over the millions of customers they have.  Your bank may be trying to squeeze a few pennies of interest out of you. Delays in transactions also allow their fraud team the flexibility to investigate transactions if they want to. Normally they probably don't but if the bank delays all transactions, then those being investigated will not be aware of it."