This topic has probably been covered to death, and then again but I just have a quick question.

I need to port around 5k GBP to Canada. I obviously want to get the best rate as possible. Am I OK doing this through my bank or will they screw me over? Do I have to go through some specialist company?

Id like to hang on to every penny as it all counts!

Thanks.

Do you have any mates that work in banks! They get staff rates on foriegn currency transfers, just get one of them to wire it across, and it'll save you fees!

In short - no

1. If you have a bank account in Canada you can mail a GBP cheque drawn on a UK account to your Canadian bank and they will deposit that to your account. You get the rate prevailing at the time of deposit.
2. FX house, such as Custom House Exchange can do this for you and deposit it into any bank account you wish, so long as the deposit currency matches the account currency.
3. Wire Transfer from you bank in the UK to Canadian bank, bank rate may differ from FX house by a couple of pennies.

Hi,

Banks will definitely vary depending on who you are with. During our move we used various options due to changing circumstances and amounts. If you already have a bank set up in canada you have to beware too as they can charge for the money coming INTO the account also! We used Halo Financial for our larger house amounts and i played them off against what the bank would offer me and managed to squeeze slightly higher amounts. That worked well, but meant that we were charged to send the money from the bank ( HSBC) to Halo and then for HSBC in Canada to receive the money plus the fee to Halo ( each was about GBP15).( still a better option as it was on a large amount) For anything under GP 10,000 i was able to send to Halo by Bill Payment and no charge - there are time issues/delays with this way. The option we have and use all the time now is an overseas transfer online from HSBC UK to HSBC Canada. The transfer generally takes 24-48 hours to be complete and rates are ok. The rate i believe is just over 2 to 1 again so i would just bite the bullet to what works for you conveniently as you could lose more if the rate drops in the again!

I hope that helps a little, and wish you well

Tina