How to move money to UK?
 

Hi

I know this has probably been asked before but we are thinking of moving back and have no UK bank accounts open. If we sell the house here and want to transfer the money back to the UK how do we do it? I've looked at the HSBC account but it seems that you can't access it until you arrive in the UK. How did anyone else manage this? I suppose the other option is to leave the money in an account here and then physically open a new account when we arrive in the UK and arrange to have it transferred by HIFX or something? Loads of things going round in my head and just trying to clear up some of the logistics of actually moving back.

Hope someone can help clear my mind:confused:

JO

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

The way we did it in Feb (moving our savings across) was to get my sister to open a ING acct in her name (in the UK) transfer the money to her Smile acct, then she transferred it to her ING, so we never missed out on any accumulated interest, in fact we gained 'cos they had a special offer on new deposits.

Then in the UK we opened accts with HSBCand opened an ING attached to that. Then my sister transferred the money from her ING into her Smile, then from there to our HSBC and the we put it in ING.

However, knowing what we know now, I'd have opened an HSBC acct here first, as International transfers are free between branches. Doing it the way we did cost us UKP90. We're back in Oz, but have kept the UK accts open so when we move to the UK again it will be easier.

If it were me I'd leave it in Oz as it earns more interest (having said that, the mortgage rate is lower in the UK) and tax is not auto deducted as in the UK.

Pull it out of Oz en mass when you need it. This way will cost you about $20 for every transfer of a max of $20k at a time (with most banks) but depending how much you've got you'd still be way ahead, especially if you go the HSBC route.

Should have added, you have to trust your sister,,haha

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

Thanks for that, we have an Ing account here in Oz so maybe it would be good to just put it in there and keep the current a/c open here too for transferring it back to. Do you think we should open an HSBC Oz account then and an HSBC passport account so that we can transfer cheaply when we want to in the UK?

Jo:confused:

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

I'm not sure what the HSBC Passport acct is. Mainly I was going on what we were told in the UK by HSBC, that basically international transfers are free between HSBC accts, otherwise it was a charge of UKP21 per transaction.

HSBC is the only bank I've heard of doing this service so I don't think you'd have much to lose by opening an acct here. I do recall that they had their own ING type product as well.

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

Hi FPM,

Thanks for the advice. I found the HSBC passport account on their website, it is an account you can open from here for when you arrive but they charge you £50 for the privilage. I also can't work out whether you can actually use it to transfer money into before you arrive in the UK.

Thanks again

Jo:)

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

In that case if you can survive a few days upon arrival and have the paperwork, I'd open an HSBC acct here, then a totally separate one in the UK. Both would be free then yeah?

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

We are planning a return to the UK (after 20 years in Oz) in Early March I discovered this amazing information resource/site and noted the problems with opening a bank account in the UK.

So we have decided to apply for a HSBC passport account, has anyone actually done this?

I found the online application form very frustrating it asks some daft questions.

It asks about your address in Australia and your employment etc and your monthly income and expenditure – no problems there

But it asks the same for the UK and insists that you answer the questions I mean how do I know what my outgoings will be. We have a bit of money and as a result will have some interest income but it has no options for that. If you put in unemployed it insists that you must be a student.

In the end I entered N/A as college and a fictitious start and end date and put zero as expenditure. Makes you wonder if anyone actually try's these forms.

Anyway has any one had success with the Passport account and if so how long did it take before you heard back from the bank?


Cheers




Dave

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

Have you thought about opening a bank account in the Channel Islands or Isle of Man? They are integrated with the British banking system and are used to dealing with British people overseas.

Then you just ask your bank to send the funds to your sterling account by wire transfer - real simple.

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

I would echo that JAJ, we have a Nationwide International account in the IOM which we set up years ago when we lived in Canada, its very simple to set up, the rates are usually reasonable and the customer service is faultless. It is tax free whilst overseas and they automatically change the account over when you move back. Thoroughly recommend.

www.nationwideinternational.com

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

The main thing that made it easy for me was that my UK driving licence is still in the address of my parent's house where we were staying. Had that not been the case I would have been pretty stuffed. My Mum had to open an account, (something about pensions not going into the Halifax anymore )she's lived in the same house for 35years been married to the same man for 45yrs, and she still had merry hell trying to open an account because the utilities were all in Dad's name. She even knew the people behind the counter!

Loyds were very unhelpful to her apparently. I can't remember where she got an account in the end, but she did say the questions were daft about incomings/outgoings, plus they wanted a committed savings amount. Duly told Loyds to get stuffed (not that my Mum would tell anyone to get stuffed :D )

I can't fault HSBC, they were helpful, no stupid questions, all done. Needless to say, Mum was speechless about the fact I walked in with no account and walked out with one (and let me tell you, making my Mum speechless is no mean feat ;) )

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

The drivers license thing is interesting I have my old green UK license with my mum & dad address on it, I was issued with a replacement pink one in a new address but I wonder if the green one would do?

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

I've never heard of the HSBC passport account but the way we did it was to open a HSBC Premier acccount (if I remember rightly we had to open it with at least $75,000 US) and then all transfers and services are free and no limit on amount of times you can transfer money. Hope this helps. Don't think it's a specific US account although last time we were in england and I was at our local HSBC they didn't seem to have a clue what the premier account was and looked at my card as if i'd just made it!!! Good luck!

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

Our account was turned into a Premier because we had more than GBP50,000 in it. Maybe that's where I'm getting the free transfer thing from?

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

JAJ has a sound suggestion. Try Abbey International - they are based in Jersey and will provide you with Visa cards and cheque books, but I think that you need £5000 to open an account.

Burt ;)

Re: How to move money to UK?
 

Turns out my Mum & Dad have been receiving (for 20 years) statements for a Woolwich account of mine that has remained open (balance 2.98) they have never mentioned it to me in all that time.

Hopefully I can resurrect that now, it would solve a lot of problems.

Dave