Is there any Wise-like service that would give me a CHF IBAN in my own name? Or is there a transfer company like Knightsbridge that a Swiss bank would accept for doing the transfer to my Canadian account in my own name? Or a bank in Switzerland that would let me have a CHF account even though I'm no longer a resident? Or a bank in Canada or elsewhere that would let me have a CHF account from which I would be allowed to send to Wise?
I moved from Switzerland back to Canada. The Swiss bank let me keep my chequing account for a little while to settle my final bills. My rental deposit was transferred into the chequing account. With all the bills settled, my plan was to send myself the remaining funds to Canada using Wise. The Swiss bank refuses to send to Wise now that I'm no longer a resident because Wise's account is not in my own name. (Sending to Wise worked fine before when I was still in Switzerland.) I could transfer directly to my CAD account, but I'd lose like $1000 on the rip-off exchange rate and wire transfer fees. So I'm looking for an alternative.
I just realized that I can easily get a CHF account in the EU country that I'm a citizen of. I could then send the CHF to myself in the EU, then send it back to Wise's account in Switzerland, and finally do the Wise transfer to Canada.
Is sending CHF between Switzerland and the EU cheap and easy just like SEPA transfers of EUR within the EU, or are there crazy fees like anything having to do with Canada?
Consider opening an account with Interactive Brokers, they have a Swiss IBAN for you to make deposits. The currency exchange happens at the spot rate for a minimal fee (like $1 fee per $25k). One outgoing transfer is free per month (some $10 fee for all aditional ones in that month), AFAIA regardless of the destination country, you could use this month's to test the payment instructions and do the big one in September.
I don't know the cost to close your IB account though, if anything at all. Keeping it open is free.
Why not open a Wise account in your name?
IBKR is primarily a stock trading platform. They get hot and bothered about using your account only for currency exchange. I know because that's what I did and got warned that they would place restrictions on my account.
Only EUR SEPA transfers are regulated and price limited. More specifically SEPA is by definition an EUR transfer. If you transfer CHF it is a normal IBAN/SWIFT transfer and charges can apply.
Thank you all for the information.
IB is a good suggestion since I was thinking of opening an account with them anyway for investing. Do they give each client an individual IBAN in their own name, or do they have a single IBAN where everybody sends their money and they assign it to the right client based on the reference number? The former should work but the latter won't because the Swiss bank refuses to send to it.
Island Monkey, I do have a Wise account in my name, but Wise does not provide CHF bank details for receiving funds in the name of each individual client, only a single CHF bank account in their own name for receiving CHF, which they then put into the right client's Wise account using the reference number. The Swiss bank refuses to send to this Wise account now that I'm no longer a resident. Wise support told me there's nothing they can do for now, but they might add personalized CHF IBANs for individual clients sometime in the future, but they don't know when.
Use either Revolut (offers option to receive CHF plus good fx rate) or Currency Fair (similar fx rate as Revolut).
The latter.
You transfer to IB's IBAN "for the further benefit of My biggest transfer is 200k from Raiffeisen CH a couple years ago, without problem or delay, though I'd called Raiffeisen customer support in advance and previously used both accounts for transfers in both directions.
I very much doubt that this is possible. The EU have strict money laundering laws and they are strictly enforced by the ECB.
I mod on a financial forum within the EU and the experience I see there is that some of the banks make it was to sign up and transfer money into the account, but once you try to do anything beyond moving a few hundred euro around you get hit with all the usual money laundering requirements including physical identification of some kind.
So make sure you know all the ins and outs before you go down this road.
As an update, after reading the discussion here and considering it carefully, I finally gave up on the idea of using Wise and let the Swiss bank do the conversion. In the end the fee ended up being "only" $400, mostly hidden in the exchange rate markup, but at least I have my money. Thank you all.