LucyWoodhead

We're expecting to relocate to Houston early 2012, just waiting to confirm relocation terms then a 2-4 month wait for L1 visa to come through. Been doing research today re tranferring money there and as such spoke with HiFX.

I was surprised that if our house doesn't sell until after we've arrived in the USA (enirely possible), HiFX will be unable to transfer the equity. Im not sure why this is. Anyway, he said we'd have to either use our bank or a similar company to theirs based in USA. My understanding is that banks are not the best option due to fees and poor exchange rates. Can anyone recommend any USA based foregin exchange companies?

Also, in the UK an individual is protected for up to £X held in any one bank - is it a similar set up in the USA? If so, if we were transferring circa £170 000, would we be better opening accounts at different banks and spreading the risk?

Im not sure I can face the time pressures of the money going directly to buy a house over there, plus we may need to wait a few months to get a small mortgage in any case. So it seems better to simplify things and concentrate on selling everything in UK before buying in USA.

Thoughts/advice on this would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

Bob

XE.com is the other one that people recommend.

The problem you're finding is the new laws that are coming into affect in the new year, regarding what banks and currency houses have to do with filing information to the US, so a lot of them are just not bothering to comply, thus not offering the service any more.

Banks will generally either offer a worse rate, or higher fee's, but if you are talking about a substantial amount of cash, you could probably negotiate this in advance.

The US, banks generally are protected per person for up to $100K though that might have been extended to $150K. If a bank does go under, the money is usually returned quite quickly, but that does not mean it will, as technically they have 100 years to do so. There is a list somewhere that was posted on BE that you could probably google that lists a bunch of banks that have failed or are close to failing, those banks often get bought out but a requirement for them being bought is usually having the debt cleared first.

Depending on what status you have in the US will also influence any tax implications and tax filing requirements.

Also, it's generally a really shit idea to buy a house in the US when you first move here, far more sensible to rent for the first 6-12 months as selling a house is much more expensive in the US.

LucyWoodhead

Thanks Bob...will look into XE....

The pressure we have to buy a house sooner rather than later is basically down to schools. I dont want to my 2 kids to have to move schools once they've started somewhere new there, so we're going to have to make some quick decisions on arrival and make sure we're temporarily renting in the same school zone that we want to buy a house in. (and then buy as soon as our UK house has sold and potentially after we have a good enough credit rating for a small mortgage).

Dont panic - we have spent time in The Woodlands, Houston before (personally, over a year of my life has been spent there on lots of holidays) and I have family who emigrated there 30 yrs ago who can advise on some things, so we're not totally jumping in the deep end. Spent a month in the summer looking at different neighborhoods too, so narrowing it down already.

Thanks for all the advice you're posting on here, I hope when I have experience it all I too can do the same for others. Its such a minefield of info out there.....!

Jordan Tilley

It may be worth checking out the forum page below:

http://exchangerates.britishexpats.com/

Free transfer fees for British expat members. If you are also looking for a US bank account there are a number of different options, look for a bank that will allow you to open an account without you going to the States first. This will ensure you have everything ready in advance.

Good luck!

mrpriceisright

seems the banking reg changes in the US are creating problems with the uk forex companies. I just had an unpleasant experience with HIFX.co.uk, after creating an account and being assured on the phone that a sterling to USD transfer was ok (a week ago), booking a transaction and arranging to transfer funds, I received a call from them saying they would have to cancel the transfer and would return the funds as they are no longer doing US transfers (this within 24 hours of telling me it would NOT be a problem). As the funds were coming from a solicitors office in the uk, you can imagine how difficult it was to call them and explain that the wired funds they had arranged were coming back to them. I've used ukforex in the past and was delighted with their service but they also no longer handle US transfers.
Now I plan to use XE.com, I believe many other posts here have mentioned them.
The other option worth looking at would be a bank with US branches. My sis-inlaw who comes over from time to time has a UK HSBC account and has opened a US dollar HSBC account, and plans to transfer money to it for future trips. I believe the exchange rate is better than the usual interbank rate, but probably not quite as good as the forex companies. Lloyds may have something similar.

Yorkieabroad

Bob - I thought FDIC used to be 250k per person per insured bank - am I out of date?

Yorkieabroad

Lucy
If you have a First Direct account in the UK, hold on to it (in fact, hold on to any UK accounts you have) and check with them on transfer rates when your house sells. For larger amounts they have always been the most competitive for me.
Good luck with the move.

Bob

That was temporary...it might still be, but I don't know for how much longer if that is the case. Previous to banks going tits up, it had been $100K

Yorkieabroad

Checked it out on the website - 250k was introduced as a temporary measure in 2008 with a Dec 2013 expiry, but it was then made a permanent limit last year, with a provision for 5 yearly inflation adjustments. There is also something on there about non-interest bearing accounts possibly being eligible for unlimited insurance - so that maybe explains why even the worst of our accounts doesn't go down to zero interest - just very close to....like 0.01% - always wondered why they bothered with that....