chrisandjulie

Alot of people must have done this, so where gives you the best exchange rate to transfer a few thousand pounds?

cranston

XE.com are very good for small amounts.

lansbury

Then of course there is HiFX who have a forum on this site and an advert at the top of the page

BritishGuy36

ukforex.com is my company of choice.

All 3 mentioned here are good, from what I've heard. UKforex was very easy to set up though....which swung it for me.

Hellopaul

If you're near London and want to change a few hundred/thousand in cash, then by far and away the best place to do it is the crappy little tourist souvenir shops on Oxford Street. Unbelievable, I know, but the last time I needed to take a few hundred dollars, I got the best rate by far (it was something like 1.66 compared to everyone else's 1.63). That's including phoning around the specialist currency exchange places (I didn't metion to them that I'd be changing such a small amount). The high street banks were, as usual, offering rubbish rates.

I was very suspicious, but a friend of mine who'd been working a lot in USA last year used them all the time. And it worked out perfectly. The guy wouldn't budge on his rate one cent - normally I haggle the rate. The one I used was about where Poland Street meets Oxford Street, on the South side. But I think they all probably do very similar rates. There's an Abbey/Santander bank & cashpoint a few doors away to pull out your UK£ beforehand.

It's useful to know that even places like First Choice and the Post Office are open to haggling.