British Expats

British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)
-   Moving back or to the UK (https://britishexpats.com/forum/moving-back-uk-61/)
-   -   EXCHANGE RATE (https://britishexpats.com/forum/moving-back-uk-61/exchange-rate-925061/)

phoenix3 May 18th 2019 12:54 am

EXCHANGE RATE
 
Hi all
Happy Saturday.
We are moving back to the UK next month from Canada
Does anyone know if HSBC premier account gives the mid-market exchange rate and if there are fees associated with that?
Transferwise and Moneycorp have mid-market rates and their exchange fees are transparent, but I notice a few people have had issues with transfer wise.
The exchange rate seems to be dropping, presumably with a no-deal brexit on the table.
Does anyone have experience of transferring funds after they return to the UK through HSBC with a HSBC UK account?
Thanks a lot
P

durham_lad May 18th 2019 3:34 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 
I have an HSBC account in both the UK and USA and regularly transfer money from the US to the UK. I also have a Transferwise account and Transferwise is always better. I often will have 2 windows open at the same time and line up a transfer on both the HSBC and Transferwise sites to see which will give me more and for sums between $5k and $10k Transferwise is always tens of £s better than HSBC.

When I had to transfer over £100,000 for a house purchase then HSBC was better.

phoenix3 May 18th 2019 3:49 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 
Durham lad.
Thank you
was HSBC better because of the larger amount you needed to transfer for the house purchase ?
Thanks.

durham_lad May 18th 2019 4:21 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 

Originally Posted by phoenix3 (Post 12685495)
Durham lad.
Thank you
was HSBC better because of the larger amount you needed to transfer for the house purchase ?
Thanks.

Yes, I made a special request asking for the “dealing desk rate” as advised by Pulaski on this site many times.

phoenix3 May 18th 2019 4:31 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 
Thank you very much. I will look into it.
😊

zdenka May 18th 2019 7:29 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 

Originally Posted by durham_lad (Post 12685492)
When I had to transfer over £100,000 for a house purchase then HSBC was better.

Does transferwise still do the first transaction free of charge? Not sure if there are any additional conditions but it might be a good option when transferring a big chunk.

I know that when you transfer funds from Europe to Canada, the banks must report any transaction over 10K to the tax office and they will require you either pay tax on that amount or prove that it had been previously taxed (not sure about the details). Is that the same in the UK? At what point (amount of cash) do the banks start asking questions about the source?

durham_lad May 18th 2019 7:36 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 

Originally Posted by zdenka (Post 12685547)
Does transferwise still do the first transaction free of charge? Not sure if there are any additional conditions but it might be a good option when transferring a big chunk.

I know that when you transfer funds from Europe to Canada, the banks must report any transaction over 10K to the tax office and they will require you either pay tax on that amount or prove that it had been previously taxed (not sure about the details). Is that the same in the UK? At what point (amount of cash) do the banks start asking questions about the source?

I can’t recall if the first transfer was free.

I have transferred $10k to $15k many times and Transferwise provides a drop down window to choose where the funds are coming from. When buying our house I had to provide a paper trail and that included, for me, recent brokerage statements and then transaction history showing the money going from my brokerage to HSBC USA and then between my HSBC USA and UK accounts.

phoenix3 Jun 19th 2019 11:42 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 
Hi, thank you to all who advised us, we opened the premier account today.

I asked about the dealing desk rate and was told there is a rate that is approved for 30 seconds at a time, over email or text, for transfers over 20000 GBP. Is this the same thing?
30 seconds doesn't seem like a long time to work things out?
Thanks

durham_lad Jun 20th 2019 2:11 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 

Originally Posted by phoenix3 (Post 12700472)
Hi, thank you to all who advised us, we opened the premier account today.

I asked about the dealing desk rate and was told there is a rate that is approved for 30 seconds at a time, over email or text, for transfers over 20000 GBP. Is this the same thing?
30 seconds doesn't seem like a long time to work things out?
Thanks

The thing to do is have a Transferwise transaction set up ahead of time in a browser window, which will show you the exact pounds and pence you will get with your transfer then ask for the same amount in dollars to be transferred with HSBC, and if the pounds and pence quoted are less then cancel the HSBC transfer and click submit in the Transferwise window. I've done this plenty of times and it is easy to do.

ETA
HSBC USA Premier customers now get free wire transfers so you can choose to wire the funds to Transferwise and get the money same day in your UK account if HSBC Canada offer the same free wires. (You can always choose the wire option even if it costs a little extra)

phoenix3 Jun 21st 2019 11:20 pm

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 
Thank you very much Durham Lad!

Pulaski Jun 22nd 2019 3:22 pm

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 

Originally Posted by phoenix3 (Post 12700472)
Hi, thank you to all who advised us, we opened the premier account today.

I asked about the dealing desk rate and was told there is a rate that is approved for 30 seconds at a time, over email or text, for transfers over 20000 GBP. Is this the same thing?
30 seconds doesn't seem like a long time to work things out?
Thanks

Yes, that sounds like a dealing desk rate, so something close to it - a dealing desk rate is only valid for a few seconds, as is the rate offered by most on-line FX brokers: they offer you a rate and you have a few seconds during which you can accept it. Just like share prices, the exchange rate floats continuously throughout the day, literally every few seconds.

zdenka Jun 23rd 2019 9:10 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 
CIBC has some kind of promo going on now too. This keeps on popping up on facebook.

https://www.cibc.com/en/special-offe...r2hKdTFdPD_BwE

UkWinds5353 Jun 23rd 2019 10:41 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 
We are waiting to see if the exchange rate between the States vs UK become equal. At that point it will be time to make some moves. Brexit is a real deal breaker. And although I don't support Boris Johnson, more than likely he will opt for a hard Brexit at the end of this process. Which is not only filled with uncertainty but also a lot of possible unforeseen damage.

Pulaski Jun 23rd 2019 1:18 pm

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 

Originally Posted by UkWinds5353 (Post 12701843)
We are waiting to see if the exchange rate between the States vs UK become equal. At that point it will be time to make some moves. ....

You are way off base. It is a common fallacy that an exchange rate "means something". It doesn't, is is just a ratio of value, the number of apples someone is prepared to swap for your oranges. It is pure economics 101 - supply and demand in action, and is a function of two different demands - those for US dollars, and for GBP.

Over the past 18 months or so, the USD has climbed about 10% against the EUR, so we can roughly discount that from the USD-GBP rate, in other words the USD has probably risen about 10% even if the demand for GBP is constant. In other words, the pound might not have fallen, rather the dollar has risen. Of course you might argue that the Euro has fallen - there are almost an infinite number of ways to compare and explain exchange rates. :nod:

So maybe the pound will slide further (though I doubt it, no matter what happens with Brexit, hard, soft, or aborted), or, as I expect, it will bounce up in the short term as the biggest factor bearing down on the pound is "uncertainty", and investors hate uncertainty! :nod:

Mike Gas Jun 29th 2019 7:32 am

Re: EXCHANGE RATE
 

Originally Posted by Pulaski (Post 12701862)
You are way off base. It is a common fallacy that an exchange rate "means something". It doesn't, is is just a ratio of value, the number of apples someone is prepared to swap for your oranges. It is pure economics 101 - supply and demand in action, and is a function of two different demands - those for US dollars, and for GBP.

Over the past 18 months or so, the USD has climbed about 10% against the EUR, so we can roughly discount that from the USD-GBP rate, in other words the USD has probably risen about 10% even if the demand for GBP is constant. In other words, the pound might not have fallen, rather the dollar has risen. Of course you might argue that the Euro has fallen - there are almost an infinite number of ways to compare and explain exchange rates. :nod:

So maybe the pound will slide further (though I doubt it, no matter what happens with Brexit, hard, soft, or aborted), or, as I expect, it will bounce up in the short term as the biggest factor bearing down on the pound is "uncertainty", and investors hate uncertainty! :nod:

Yes markets do not like uncertainty but Brexit could well drag on for several more years FX markets are the hardest to predict and most so called experts are very often wrong


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