Did you try using a bank wire transfer? I've transferred money from US to Russia via bank wire transfer and they had a flat fee ($45) which is perfect for large amounts.
the flat fee is not the only spot where money is made on these transfers. the big one is giving you a bad rate (so effectively the bank takes a percentage anyway). also they make money through holding your cash rather than transferring straight through.
> the big one is giving you a bad rate
Not sure about that, they gave a usual bank rate, I doubt you can get a much better rate when you transfer and convert money from/to bit coin exchange.
You'll have to go through the same know your customer at a Bitcoin exchange (twice if you go through two exchanges) and then the exchange may also randomly decide to decline your transaction due to "risk".
I can absolutely guarantee you that they screwed you over on the conversion rate. $45 is just a fee to distract you from 3-5% they take on the bad rate.
You don't have to wait a whole day. It takes 10-20 minutes to transfer bitcoins from one account to another. Add another 10 minutes to initiate the withdrawal. Bitcoin dosen't change that much in 30 minutes.
xe.com was the other option I considered, but they are very secretive about the wire transfer fees out of their account. I didn't want to risk getting ripped off.
The problem with wiring money is that it's oftentimes very cumbersome and difficult to do without involving all sorts of different parties. For instance, where I am from, most wire transfers get audited by the tax service and our local banks will often freeze funds until you can prove the source of the money and what it's for.
Here in Japan it's not so bad but when you get audited they generally have a list of all your inbound international wires and ask you to prove that the money is not taxable... otherwise you can get fined heavily.
It's a sad state of affairs when free people are not allowed to move their money as they see fit without explanations and justifications. It's yet another proof that fiat is not really your money and that it needs to go. Can't wait till Bitcoin becomes more ubiquitous.
You might also get lucky that the value will increase throughout the process - it might also drop.
With WU and XE and other exchanges at least you have certainty of the final converted amount you will end up with.
WesternUnion would cost me at least 4.5%, their fee calculator doesn't even support large amounts.
Bitcoin will cost me around 1.0% in fees (including USD wire-in, buy bitcoin, sell for Euro, SEPA-out).
Guess which method I will be using.