Transferring money from US to Europe-complicated!

[Janie1975]

My friend urgently needs to transfer money from his bank account in the US (Wells Fargo) to his French Bank Account (Soc Gen). However, although he is a US citizen he lives in France with no US address, just a French address. Wells Fargo will only arrange a 'wire' if he goes into his bank in person to sign some documents, which is impossible as he lives in France!
I suggested PayPal, so he opened an account, transferred money into his PayPal account, but this hasn;t worked as he has used his US bank account funds but has a French address so his money is just sat there and he cannot access it.
Does anyone have ANY suggestions of an alternative way of transferring his money? Wells Fargo are adamant that they will not accept a fax/e-mail/passport copy..NOTHING!

[dzug]

Maybe a second paypal account linked to his French bank account?

[pink-kittens]

The PP money will be automatcially refunded after a certain amount of time.

A cheque? Does he have some one who he can send a chqeu to who wil then wire him the money? He will neend to include conversion fees don't forget

[pink-kittens]

PS:

You can have (up to) 2 PP accounts per person but one must be a business account and one personal.

Thinking about it also, the payment he has already transferred? What does it say about the money there? It can take 5-10 days for the money to go from a bank to PP on a transfer, even longer in the reverse, so, he could be looking at waiting up to 2/3 weeks for any money anyway. If he needs the money quickly, best way is a nice mate or cq

And I am almost sure you must be verified if you have a business account so that's a longer wait on top for verification

[Janie1975]

Thanks for your replies. The problem with PayPal is that he needs money from his US account to go in his french account. So even if he did set up a French Paypal account, he still couldn;t access his US bank account from there.

I think cutting someone a cheque and then wiring it over is the only way to go but really wanted to avoid that if possible.

Thanks for your help though folks!

[fasttimes1]

I have an american account,,,i was issued with the normal debit card,,,this works very well [no problems] in Uk and i believe france to be the same......apply for card and have it sent to france,........alternativly give check to french friends account ,who you can trust to pay you...