antjen

as im just starting out in my whole visa process, looking ahead to when i move - what is the easiet and cheapest method of transfering large amounts of money (i.e. home sales) from uk to america?? - how has everyone else done this and what sort of charges are involved?? - thanks!!

Anthony

mstracy

Personally, I use www.xe.com for larger amounts (>£1000) and use wire transfer from my bank for anything smaller. You get a good rate from xe but you have to pay wire transfer fees twice so it's only a good deal if you have larger amounts. I used them when we bought our house in the US and had no problems and a good rate of exchange (well for the time anyway, shame we didn't wait a year or so).

Mark

antjen

what sort of fees percentage/fixed fees? shoud i expect to pay for this services at the banks?? - thanks!

Ant

mstracy

I put through a dummy transfer on xe.com for £1000 and it would deposit $1766.94 in to my US bank (although the rate is updated every 30 seconds so this is only aproximate today) this includes any transfer fees incurred by xe. The fees to add to that would be £25 for the bank transfer to the originating point (xe's bank in the UK).

To transfer from my UK bank directly in USD the rate is not so good and would incur the £25 transfer fee plus a $15 receiving fee as the transfer is CHAPS and not EFT but is easier and (supposedly) faster as there is only 1 transfer.

Mark

Roland Perry

In message <[email protected]>, antjen
<member7684@british_expats.com> writes
    >as im just starting out in my whole visa process, looking ahead to when
    >i move - what is the easiet and cheapest method of transfering large
    >amounts of money (i.e. home sales) from uk to america?? - how has
    >everyone else done this and what sort of charges are involved??

I have found that my High Street Bank is the best. Just wire it to your
American Bank. The fees are entirely swamped by the exchange rate
fluctuations, and I've always got a very good rate compared to the
"headline tourist" rate.
--
Roland Perry

flobber

Check out www.ikobo.com. It's true, you can't transfer very large amounts of money at once. I think 5000$ is the maximum amount you cand send/receive, although apparently you can e-mail [email protected] to increase this limit even further. Other than that the service is ok and I would recommend it. I use them and I haven't had problems yet. I hope I won't be having any in the future.

Stewart-Day

Some users of iKobo don't seem to be too happy. See the forums at www.nopaypal.com . (Caution: The language in those forums is sometimes very strong!). Also, the last I heard was that MasterCard can no longer be used when paying for money transfers via iKobo. If that is true, it is certainly a bad omen ....

flobber

Well there are opinions and opinions at paypalsucks. They're not all bad you know, and frankly I think people have a tendency to put down every new company which emerges, for the sole reason it's new, and hasn't had time to establish a name for itself.
About Mastercard, it's true they don't support them anymore, but that's going to change in a short while.
You might wonder why I'm defending them, I'm not, but people who don't really know what they are talking about and post for the sake of posting, just piss me off ( I'm not talking about you of course ). Anyway, I am one of those people who stand by their choice, and so far my experience has been good. These are the facts!

sibsie

Speak to your US bank. I managed to negotiate the commerical rate which was far better than XE. The charges were really low too.

I transfer a monthly amount from the UK into the US and my bank here always gives me a rate over the tourist rate.

You may need to speak to someone higher up the food chain in your bank, as lots of clerks don't realise that there is more than one exchange rate.

flobber

Yeah, someone higher up huh? Also, some oiling of the proverbial machine wouldn't hurt either (if you know what I mean :wink: ).
Maybe it's an option in your case, actually transferring money from the USA to UK is quite easy since both countries are more than covered by money transfer companies (online or off). You can even use the INfamous paypal(sucks) OK, that was harsh, but I'm also entitled to an opinion, just as everyone else.

stone

I recommend you www.ikobo.com. My brother is in USA. I use ikobo to transfer money to him each month. He can use I-card that ikobo mailed to him to withdraw money from VISA ATM machine. It is convinient and fast. And we have never meet problem.

flobber

Yeah, I use ikobo for receiving money as well. Worked just fine until now. Really like the card they send you; not the actual card, the way I can use it to "rip money out of a hole in the wall" (ATM) Good thing they cover my country, since paypal for example didn't!

thinker

It's not I-card. Maybe you want to say iKard. At least you gave the name of the company as it is:ikobo. I don't want to be sarcastic, but I am using iKard system from ikobo for quite some time and I never heard of I-card . Maybe you are a new customer and didn't use that Visa electron card they send to you when you receive your first amount of money.

Anyway, ikobo works well and as flobber send PayPal sucks and ikobo rules because it covers my country!

flobber

Hehe, thanks thinker. I'm glad we agree on this. And yes, it's I-Kard, actually it'a visa electron card, and it's quite useful if you don't have a bank account or some other credit card (my case)

stone

Sorry, I made a mistake. It is I-kard. I think It is really convenient. If someone has an I-kard, He can go anywhere.