Hi everyone

I've just signed up with XE Trade after seeing the comments on here and am about to do my first trade.

Does anyone have an 'on average' timescale for moving funds from the UK to the USA?

I'm assuming the process is
UK bank to XE UK account via EFT
XE UK to XE USA via wire transfer
XE USA to USA account via EFT

(ok for USA read USA/Canada!!)

Is 2 weeks a likely timescale?

Many thanks

Paul

2 days more like ... my pal send me pennies to help me now and again and it takes 2 days to get to my account

I can't remember exactly how long my first trade (UK -> US, back in March/April) took now, but it was only a couple of days. It was speeded up by my UK bank offering the new Faster Payment Service EFT for the transfer to XE/CustomHouse's UK account - if your bank doesn't do FPS that bit might take a few days. Once XE had received the payment, the transfer was in my US bank account within a couple of days.

My first XE trade US -> UK took a few days longer but that was mostly due to Chase's left-hand not knowing what the right-hand was doing...

In my experience, UK to US via EFT has been very quick, at most 4 business days.

FYI I just did a US - UK transfer. Placed trade on October 5th - arrived in my UK account today October 17th.

On a side note, what exchange rate do they use?

The rate at the time you click on the button to execute the transaction?

Or at some later time when the funds are transferred?

I know when I have made currency conversions at the bank, I knew at the time exactly what rate the exchange would be made - is it the same on XE.com, before you commit/give the go-ahead?

If the rate ever stabilizes closer to $1.50, I want to make an exchange, but haven't used XE before so wanted to know ahead of time what to expect.

It's the rate that they quote you when you click the button to "book" the trade. When you do that you are committed to coming up with the readies to pay for the trade within a certain timescale - they make this very clear - so I should imagine that they actually do the FX exchange at the point you "book".

Bear in mind that to set up a XE account for trading you have to provide some proofs of identity by uploading scans of your passport etc to their secure FTP site, and you can't trade until they've reviewed and accepted this, which usually takes a day or so to complete. This is a one-time requirement, so if you haven't already signed up with them you'd best do this ahead of when you think you'll want to trade.

Thanks for the advice, I realized there was a set-up process, but that clarifies things. Now I just have to get my lazy/busy arse in gear and do it.

Thanks for the info everyone.

So far I've been very impressed with XE. Their customer service has been very responsive, including upping my transfer limit.

If transfers take a couple of days I will be extremely impressed!

Paul

+1 another fan of XE here (only go UK > US via EFT):
thumbup:.

I've used XE a couple of times recently to transfer funds from UK to US. Turnaround was a couple of days each time. No hassle at all and I would use them again.

Only took a few days for us too

I've found their processing times pretty crap for the free transfers US->UK, which I guess is OK since it saves me the fee. It usually takes them 3-4 days to withdraw the money from my account, 2-3 days to process the transfer and then another 3-5 days to get the money. My most recent one was booked on 10/9 was sent to the UK on 10/14 and I'm waiting for it to arrive.

Wow it must be really hit and miss! My husband used the free transfer 2 weeks ago and it only took 2-3 days.

Maybe it depends on who you bank with?! Ours was done from Lloyds TSB to Wells Fargo.

It would seem XE are faster at UK -> US transfers than vice versa. I suspect that has more to do with the general backwardsness of the US banking industry compared to the UK's than XE though.