Aviator

Are you comfortable travelling with large sums of money? Also depends what you call a large sum?

If carrying cash of 10k or above, you may be asked the source of the funds. If they are unreported earnings in another country, proceeds of criminal activity or extortion, there may be a problem.

Reporting any transaction over $10,000 is mandatory. If you do a bank transaction over $10k the bank reports it anyway.

You are only taxed on any gain on most assets after you become a tax resident of Canada. Monetary sums would be Fx gains, interest or a capital gain. If over $100k for most assets a T1135 needs to be filed with a tax return after then end of the calendar year.

JanieH

My large sum isn't a large sum for most ...it would be around the 10k mark and if it's from a house sale that should be ok right?

BTJ

I've only had to move a few thousand pounds to Canada, but have found withdrawing cash from a Canadian ATM using a Halifax Clarity Credit Card and then paying the balance on the credit card immediately quite an effective way of getting a good rate. There are no fees on the card and the rate is the same that Google quotes. The only disadvantage is that interest begins accruing immediately, so need to make sure to pay off ASAP.

Limit to how much you can withdraw from an ATM per day of £500 though.

Aviator

Definitely not a good way to get the better rates. FX rates change by the second, so what Google quotes could be way off and Google last I checked is not a Fx broker. There are some sites that offer live rates though, then you will see how fats it changes. Credit card companies will give the Visa or Mastercard (or their own card rate) rate for the day, plus 2% premium. The only card I know of that does not charge the 2% is Amazon. Add the interest and this has to be the worst way to enact a FX transaction.

Aviator

Should be fine. Put it in a UK bank and write yourself a cheque here or use a FX broker to do it for you. Most definitely do not use a credit card.

BTJ

Halifax's Clarity card doesn't add the usual 2% margin so uses the pure MasterCard rate. My experience so far has been that it offers a very good rate. For instance I withdrew $800 on May 16 for £419.60 plus 3 days worth of interest at 17.9% APR. If we compare this to the rate quoted on Oando.com on the same day (1.8919CAD = 1GBP), I should have paid £422.86 for $800.

I estimate the 3 days worth of interest to only be 58p. Hardly the worst method of exchanging currency, and avoids the ridiculous wiring costs for lower value exchanges.

evelyned

We used transferwise to move over a biggish sum of money to our bank account in Canada. Was easy, fast and fees are very good (they explain how they you get better fees on their website). We saved £500 then if we had done it with the bank. https://transferwise.com/