Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
Jan 27th 2017, 8:57 pm
#32
Return of bouncing girl!
Joined: Sep 2004
Location: The Fourth Reich
Posts: 4,931
......
Jan 27th 2017, 9:02 pm
#34
Return of bouncing girl!
Joined: Sep 2004
Location: The Fourth Reich
Posts: 4,931
Jan 27th 2017, 9:11 pm
#36
Concierge
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 46,391
Re: Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
Perhaps a stupid question but why doesn't your company pay you outright in US Dollars. They can wire transfer your salary into our US account can't they since you are not paying taxes in the UK but in the US and they are withholding US federal, state, local taxes, FICA, etc. from your paycheck.
Jan 28th 2017, 2:04 am
#37
Deep in the woods of CT
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 7,002
Re: Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
Perhaps a stupid question but why doesn't your company pay you outright in US Dollars. They can wire transfer your salary into our US account can't they since you are not paying taxes in the UK but in the US and they are withholding US federal, state, local taxes, FICA, etc. from your paycheck.
Jan 28th 2017, 2:35 am
#38
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jul 2008
Location: Portlandia Metro
Posts: 7,425
Re: Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
FYI - my Mum recently sent me around $1700. She paid a fairly small fee to the bank at her end and was assured there would be no other charges. What they meant was that there would be no other charges from them. My bank (Bank of America) charged fees twice on the transfer. Once as it arrived to BofA and then another time when it was deposited into my account. I don't remember precisely what the fees were, but I *think* it was around $30 each time.
Looks as though you've decided on Transferwise anyway (wise choice imo), but I figured I'd put the info there anyway, for others who might find it useful.
Looks as though you've decided on Transferwise anyway (wise choice imo), but I figured I'd put the info there anyway, for others who might find it useful.
Depends how much you are sending. On £500 , 1 or 2% isnt much.
Just looked up the rates to move £1000, transferwise is $1,249.25, citibank is $1,200.75 so you lose $50, but the transfer is immediate. on £10000, it's a more significant amount, $500. Useful if it's an emergency.
Last edited by mrken30; Jan 28th 2017 at 2:37 am.
Jan 28th 2017, 2:55 pm
#39
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Nov 2004
Location: SC
Posts: 4,153
Re: Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
Maybe the reverse to what is being discussed but is XE.com more expensive than Transferwise. I just sent $4000 to and got 3105.2($1.288) pounds when the actual rate shown was $1.259/pound. Allowing for the fact that there has to be profit made by someone is it still cheaper to stay with XE?
Jan 28th 2017, 4:19 pm
#40
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 670
Re: Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
I tell you what, TransferWise looks very, very good, even if the fee is $30 it's alot better than having to carry cash ALL the time which i've been doing for the last 4 months (Transferring pounds to a friends UK Credit Card and taking out cash).
Thank you very much for your suggestion, exactly why I came here. You can google all you want sometimes, but occasionally it's better to come from the horses mouth.
Thank you very much for your suggestion, exactly why I came here. You can google all you want sometimes, but occasionally it's better to come from the horses mouth.
Given that and a standard US account you can just do a bank transfer.
Also uk $ credit cards like clarity offer competitive spot rates for £ to $ so you could use one like a debit card, paying it regally using online banking.
That's a couple of ways I'll x-fer some uk £ to $ when I start in the US (although I'll be paid in $ so don't mind the falling exchange rate so much!)
Just a couple of further ideas in case it helps.
Jan 28th 2017, 5:56 pm
#41
Austin. TX.
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 5,930
Re: Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
If you know you are going to be transferring a regular amount at regular times, most of the FX companies will allow you to lock in a rate for a specified amount of time. Might be worth thinking about?
Jan 30th 2017, 5:47 pm
#42
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2016
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Posts: 334
Re: Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
What I did is opened a Post Office Platinum Credit Card which charges no foreign exchange transaction fees and gives (traditionally) a far better exchange rate than even TransferWise (who I do use to transfer £ to $ on occasion in my US account) and I have a direct debit setup to pay the card off in full each month. Suited me very well! 
Jan 31st 2017, 3:07 pm
#43
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 670
Re: Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
What I did is opened a Post Office Platinum Credit Card which charges no foreign exchange transaction fees and gives (traditionally) a far better exchange rate than even TransferWise (who I do use to transfer £ to $ on occasion in my US account) and I have a direct debit setup to pay the card off in full each month. Suited me very well!
Also is not restricted to just dollars. I have one, plan to take advantage of it for these types of £ to $ transfers and particularly while waiting to get established with a bank and healthy $ balance from regular $ salary payments.
Hassle free sign up online too
Feb 10th 2017, 10:17 am
#44
Forum Regular
Joined: Dec 2006
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 66
Re: Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
Maybe the reverse to what is being discussed but is XE.com more expensive than Transferwise. I just sent $4000 to and got 3105.2($1.288) pounds when the actual rate shown was $1.259/pound. Allowing for the fact that there has to be profit made by someone is it still cheaper to stay with XE?
I just compared transferring £1,000 via TransferWise and XE. TW sends $1,243.73, XE $1,228.05. I do not know if both will result in a $15 fee on receipt, but TW looks clearly to be better.
Feb 10th 2017, 2:01 pm
#45
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2015
Location: New Jersey, USA
Posts: 566
Re: Banking - Paid in £ but living in US
I highly recommend Transferwise. I did a transfer to the US last week and they deposited the funds using ACH (as always) so no fee.