katesbackagain

Are there any places that soften the blow when it comes to exchanging US Dollars to GBP? I don't just mean a couple of thousand, I mean a lot more than that. Do they have places that give you more depending on how much you change, or is it a flat rate regardless? I know someone who is mortified that they will lose a massive amount of money when they go back to the UK, and I thought I'd ask here to see what I could find out.

I had suggested that they keep a good chunk of the money in a high yield savings account in the US, and just let it grow. But they said that if they needed some of it for a big purchase, it doesn't really help as they're still hit with the ER.

The argument that "things don't cost the same over there as they do here so it's not as bad as they think" is not working. I think that the mentality that if something here costs $5, it's still going to be 5GBP, when in fact it'll only cost $2.50 has set in and hard for them to shake off.

TaraC

If they have a bank account in the US with an English bank, they may be able to transfer money to the UK account without a charge, although they will still have the nasty exchange rate. HSBC has this facility, as long as you have the premier account, and I'm sure the other English banks have something similiar. Even though you still have to factor in the exchange rate, it does help if you don't have to pay a fee every time. The accounts also make it really easy to transfer money online between the US and UK -- it only took three days for me to clear a transaction, which would maybe allow them to feel as though they had access to money in an emergency or for a big purchase. That way they could still keep their money in the US until the exchange rate gets better (if it ever does) and therefore soften the blow. As for the exchange rate itself, I don't know if you can get a better rate the more money you change -- we didn't hear anything about that when we were talking about a similar thing with our finance guy.

I have to say after my last visit last week that they're not so wrong about $5 equaling 5GBP. I just bought duvets, sheets, towels etc., at an outlet/mill-type place in the UK, and I would definitely say it was close to being $ for GBP.

Hope this helps.

Philgr

Use xe.com - lots of folks on here use it so you can search for other information. They will give the best exchange rate and an easy way to transfer. Can't do anything about the cost of things in the UK though!

Scout

There is no way to soften the blow of changing US $'s for UK £'s right now....that said........xe.com is who we used for most of our trades....we have never had a problem with them and they are very helpful.

Be very careful with some lesser known traders though. When Pete came over to the States he at first used another company.....they had better rates than anyone else. On his last trade we didn't get the money when expected...........called them up......they supposedly had to put a stop payment on the check because it was lost.........and we finally got it and we deposited it that day.........within a week the trading company went belly up. Looking back we know they were floating money around and our check was never lost, they were just floating. We were VERY lucky.