Best & Cheapest way to transfer money between US and UK bank accounts
 

Hi there, looking for some assistance regarding how you have found the easiest and best value way to transfer money from USD in a US account (HSBC in my case) into GBP in a UK bank account?

Obviously the banks can do it - at a big fee!

Any other recommendations / advice?

Re: Best & Cheapest way to transfer money between US and UK bank accounts
 

There are many threads on this. Current experience is that Transferwise is very popular, but there are many others. I use them regularly for GBP to USD and have had no issues.

If you want to do more research this may be useful: https://moneytransfercomparison.com/

Re: Best & Cheapest way to transfer money between US and UK bank accounts
 

That is true for small to medium size amounts, but if you're transferring $50-$100K+ then the banks can be very competitive, even beating the on-line remitters, so long as you ask the bank for "a dealing desk rate", which will get you access to the commercial rates used for large customers.

Re: Best & Cheapest way to transfer money between US and UK bank accounts
 

I have to sell USD/buy GBP for our business several times a year, usually around $100K each time. I make a point of comparing our bank rate with a couple of online FX brokers and transferwise (the latter for interest only). Despite talking to our bank's relationship manager, the rate they offer us does not make up the for the credit risk of transferring the money outside our bank. That might say more about the (small) size of our business, but our bank seems happy enough to lose out on the FX business rather than offer us a competitive rate ie it isn't always easy to get a 'dealing desk rate'. For info, the Transferwise rate was close to the online brokers, but not quite as good.

Re: Best & Cheapest way to transfer money between US and UK bank accounts
 

:confused:

I would suggest that the credit risk of using an on-line broker would be greater than the credit risk of keeping your transfer transactions "within the banking system" in all but the poorest third world countries. In other words, I believe that the risk of an on-lin broker going belly up and taking your funds down with it is greater than that of a bank failing and you losing your money. :unsure:
Transferwise is an on-line broker, isn't it? :confused:

Re: Best & Cheapest way to transfer money between US and UK bank accounts
 

Yes, credit risk of going outside our bank is greater so i would accept a worse rate from our bank. But the rate they offered was so bad, in my estimation it did not make up for the reduction in credit risk.
Yes, transferwise is an online broker. We don't use it for our business, i was including it as a comparison

Re: Best & Cheapest way to transfer money between US and UK bank accounts
 

OK, thx, I understand now. That makes sense. :)