I'm moving to CH, and my employer is going to open the cantonal bank account to deposit my paycheck into.
No problem. I'm ok with that.
My US bank does not have an IBAN number, and I just went through a huge ordeal over a reimbursement because of this.
I'm thinking it might make my life easier in der Schweiz if I move my US banking to a bank that can give me an IBAN, or maybe an 'global' bank like HSBC. Since I'll still have rental income and tax returns, etc in the US, I'd like to have an account that can receive those deposits, but also have the flexibility to be easily accessed to transfer money to/from my Swiss account.
As you correctly state US banks don't use IBAN numbers but Bank of America has a 'dummy' IBAN called BOFAUS3N and I have been able to make transfers via UBS direct to BoA online using that code. It did take BoA a few days to work out how to do this but it has worked without problems in transferring money to the US.
That's not an iban, it's a BIC or Swift code. You can set up a transfer from your account as "international transfer without iban" you include you us account info - Aba routing and account, address of bank and it should work. I do it every month or so to my BoA account. Takes 3-5 days, so plan accordingly. Works from credit-Suisse anyway.
I use XE trade to move CHF -> USD. No per transaction fees, and their transaction rates are normally 1.75% from their mid-market rates. As far as I know, this compares well with what you will get from a traditional bank transfer, at least in the retail "500-5k" transaction size range. I would be happy to learn of cheaper options.
I've also been using XE.com to move money over to the States. I didn't even realise that I could do it directly from my PostFinance account. I'll have to double-check the fees and rates and see which is the better deal.
That's not an IBAN, that's a BIC. All major US banks have them - none I have dealt with supported IBANs. Not supporting IBANs means for us here longer time for transfers and higher fees.
There are also no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and it's also free to transfer through ACH within the USA.
I am charged a nominal fee for the outgoing transfer by my Swiss bank, but that's it (12 CHF I believe) and at a good rate. I know other American banks charge $20-30 for an incoming wire transfer.