Has anyone found an inexpensive way to send regular payments to Canada. I've only today managed to get all my various accounts closed all over the UK and the remainder of my funds sitting in one bank account. The trouble is the exchange rate has now dropped so I want to hold on from moving it over here for a few months to see what happens in the New Year. Also the fact that it's earning twice as much interest in the UK than it would here.

Anyway, now that I'm moving into my house in the next 2 weeks I could do with the interest payments the money is earning in the UK to be sent over here to help with my living expenses as I really don't want to start breaking into my capital.

I only want about 300GBP transferred per month which is too little for HIFX to handle and First Direct want to charge some ridiculous amount each month if they do it (can't remember how much though).

Anyone else have some suggestions?

I used to transfer about that much every few months, and Thomas Cook counters charged £20 for any size of transaction. Another option, which I have used as well, but becomes tricky if you are no longer in the UK (and don't have any family/friends who can do it for you), is to use a money order payable to yourself.

Without trying to turn the conversation away from your question, anyone know a good way to transfer money from Canada to the UK - earning dollars and needing to pay off pounds is horrible!

Hi there...its a 'no win' situation at the moment I am afaraid. I have approx 1000 Pounds sterling transfered here to canada every month...change in rates has cost me around $200 shortfall over last few months. Such is life. Probably would be as well getting your UK bank to do the transfer for you....because of the small anount...the charge they make 'eats' into the principle...usually around 30 Pounds a time. if you find a more economical way...let me know!!

Yes, I think it was around 30GBP that First Direct quoted. I guess I've got to balance out the better interest rate in the UK against the cost of sending it.

Write a sterling cheque on your UK account and pay it into your Canadian dollar account in Canada. Its time consuming at the till because the teller has to work out the dollar amount but there is no charge.

Mrs G

Hmmm! That's an interesting one Glaswegian. I'll need to try and follow-up on that one! Actually, (I know it's off topic) but I just opened a US dollar account this morning too and should have asked these questions at the time!

Has anyone else been getting these computer rebate cheques in US dollars? They are a bit of a pain! But it seemed stupid to have them changed over when the Canadian/US rate is the best it's been in about 8 years!

I got my rebate cheque in US$. Still have it in my wallet because I can't deposit it in a machine and need to go find a teller type person. However I really don't think the exchange rate difference of a couple of cents is much of a worry on my $60 rebate cheque.

I decided it was too expensive and troublesome to pay off UK debts in Canadian$ and pay the transfer fees so I just took out a loan in Canada and paid it all off at once and the loan in Canada at 3% interest was way lower than the loan interest in the UK. When I paid off two of the loans I used an electronic transfer which cost like $15 or whatever from the bank, but for my Barclaycard I used a money order type thing that was free, I just had to mail it and so forth. So you could get one of those and mail it to a friend/relative in the UK who could deposit it in your account for you.

Drew

Actually some banks charge for this, depending on the level of account you have here. Every time I did this I was dinged between $15 and $22 for "clearing" or "admin" charges. TD, RBC and CIBC did this.

Our TD account doesnt charge separately for this service. We regularly take in cheques valued less than GBP1 (we bundle them for a while and take them all in together). The boys Scotia account accepts sterling cheques also for no fee.

Mrs G

It may have been the "level" of account I had..as I said. RBC still charge me to cash UK cheques drawn on a building society.

Do you still have british credit card?? if so can you use it to pay for stuff in Canada, food, fuel, eating out etc. then set up a direct debit from the UK bank to the UK credit card to pay it off each month within interest free time.
Depending on the UK credit card you may have to pay overseas charge for use, but it is minimal compared with £20-30 for sending the money across by wire,
Also you can use UK credit card in Canada cash machines or at banks to withdraw money, again they charge, but it can still work out much cheaper than having to pay the banks charges for transferring money.

Thanks to everyone! I'm glad I started this thread as you have all come up with ideas I hadn't thought about. Yep, still have the UK bank account and chequing facility and yep, still have the UK credit card.

Actually, you've jogged my memory in that I'm supposed to be able to use my First Direct card to withdraw money from my UK bank account at any Bank of Montreal ATM (any that have the CIRRUS logo). I remember when I was out here for an indefinite time last year and phoned them up to ask them what my options would be if I had to stay on longer than originally planned and ran out of money. Also, they told me to take out as much as I can in one go as the charge is the same regardless of the amount of money you take out. I think I'll give this a go during the week and check out the charges.