AbdnQuine

I've always used Paypal in the past, we have bank accounts in both countries and I just send money to/from the separate linked Paypal accounts. However, it's a large sum of money I'll need to send this time, but I'll need it fairly quickly after it lands in our British account. What's the cheapest most secure way? Thanks for any help.

MidAtlantic

There are numerous threads on this.
Using a money transfer specialist is best, although for a very large sum some suggest that your bank may do a competitive deal.
These are the commonly suggested transfer specialists: xe.com; WorldFirst; Transferwise; TorFx. I have used TorFx and found them to be excellent.
You may find this helpful also: Foreign Exchange Companies to get Best Currency Exchange Rates

mrken30

People seem to be using transferwise recently.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-5...-863397/page3/

ollylonsf

I have used transferwise. It's great since it's quick and easy. I think the rate is 0.5%. Looking at the front page of the website, to move £10,000 from GBP to USD would cost ~£50. You'd get net, $15,350.75 with an exchange rate (pre-fees) of 1.54275.

Don't know how that compares to other providers, but the process is really simple.

uk_grenada

Thats very expensive, i have a us dollar account with lloyds offshore in the isle of man. It is funded by using the cheapest fx broker on the day, or occasionally by taking us cash over, which weirdly using the leading travel money specialists seems to sometimes do even better. Money is then transferred anywhere american free, the only fee may be a 20 dollar routing bank charge if one is needed. Clearly you can save or lose fortunes by when you actually xfer the money. NB its perfectly legal and ok to wander around with large wads of cash so long as you declare it when asked and can prove the origin (statement from a/c.)

uk_grenada

You can always get cash for less than 1 cent below the live rate, for advice on companies use martin lewis 's money saving website for advice.

ollylonsf

Interesting. Big fan of Martin Lewis: I spent a while trying to find a similar consumer-advocate in the US but with no success. Any thoughts?
[Apologies for the minor thread divergence OP]

mrken30

Suze Orman show , not even close

Pulaski

It might be "perfectly legal", but it is not at all sensible. Quite aside from the risk of being robbed, there is something called civil forfeiture which anyone would be well advised to research before they decide to carry large amounts of cash into the US, or carry it around once in the US.

In short, civil forfeiture amounts to a law enforcement agency removing your cash on grounds of "suspicion" (which means whatever the law enforcement agency wants it to mean) and you having to sue to get it back!

LeavingLondon

We sold our house recently and transferred the sums via xe trade. They were really competitive and very quick!

lansbury

Same in the UK. Once stopped someone with £150k in cash on him at Heathrow who decided he didn't have to explain to myself or customs the source of the money. So I confiscated it. It was late on a Friday afternoon and he missed his flight and had to wait to Monday to go to court to claim it back.

MidAtlantic

Try Clark Howard: www.clarkhoward.com

ollylonsf

Thanks. So what sort of fees/load did you pay on the house funds transfer? Is transfer Wise's 0.5% fee at mid market rate punitive?

Pulaski

I have used xe,com and still have a customer login with them, but everything I hear suggests that Transferwise is probably 1%-1.5% better than xe,com at the moment.

samiam1066

Open HSBC premier account and transfer the amount for free.