Logistical questions about moving back
 

Hi everyone,

Just signed up to this forum as I am in need of advice and would be extremely grateful if anyone had good advice for me.

I'm a British citizen who moved out to the US for work 2 years ago and intend to return to the UK within the next few months. While I have no issues around accommodation, healthcare etc., I do have these two questions:

1) Any recommendations on the cheapest way to move boxes of personal items across the Atlantic? In particular, I have a lot of books and the options from UPS/FedEx I've found so far seem to only involve air freight with prices in the hundreds of dollars per box. I was hoping to ship them off via sea at a lower cost but have not found a non-commercial company to do this. Alternatively, does anyone know of a reasonably priced relocation company that can be recommended?

2) Any tips on the most effective way to convert foreign earnings (in my case USD) into GBP? All the retail banks offer an exchange rate that is far from the market rate.

Thanks a lot in advance for any help.

Re: Logistical questions about moving back
 

How many boxes and how big? Have you considered "excess baggage" with the airlines? Most give you 2 free bags, but you can actually take 8 bags for a fee. Sometimes a very full/stuffed duffel bag at excess baggage rates is cheaper than UPS, Fedex, etc.

There are dozens of foreign exchange services like xe.com and others. I'm sure others will advise (I haven't used them myself).

Re: Logistical questions about moving back
 

I use xe.com to transfer between my UK and US accounts, the transfer is debited directly from my US account and credited to my UK account; just be sure to select "credit by ACH/ direct credit" and NOT by wire, otherwise your bank will slap you with a wire fee. xe.com now belongs to Western Union

Re: Logistical questions about moving back
 

+1

I also use xe.com and am satisfied with it.