Kinda OT...sending money to UK
 

Hi all,
I was just wondering if anyone knows of a cheap way of sending money back to my bank acct in the UK...as I still have a loan there I'm paying off (yuck!). My bank wanted $48 to send about $450...seems a bit high, but that could just be because I'm used to what it costs sending it the other way.
Thanks in advance for any replies!

All the best,

-Harry

Re: Kinda OT...sending money to UK
 

We use Swiftwire, which costs $15, regardless of the amount. Our banker in the US has the details of our UK bank account. We telephone her with the instruction and she sends the money the same day. It always arrives in Barclays same day or first thing the next morning.

For a regular transaction, it is worth meeting with your banker to work out the best method to meet your needs.

Re: Kinda OT...sending money to UK
 

There is a better way, Just don't pay it! o:) Everyone else gets away with it!

"Ameriscot" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > We use Swiftwire, which costs $15, regardless of the amount. Our banker in the US
    > has the details of our UK bank account. We telephone her with the instruction and
    > she sends the money the same day. It always arrives in Barclays same day or first
    > thing the next morning.
    >
    > For a regular transaction, it is worth meeting with your banker to work out the
    > best method to meet your needs.
    >
    >
    >
    > --
    > http://www.ameriscot.com/i130
    >
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Re: Kinda OT...sending money to UK
 

No, everyone DOESN'T do this. Most people accept responsibility to repay what they
owe to people. To not do so when you are able to so is STEALING.

Additionally, since his payments are $450, it may be tied to a UK asset that he
doesn't want to lose. Also, what if they decided to move to the UK and he has bad
credit there due to following this advice.

Master Yoda wrote:
    >
    > There is a better way, Just don't pay it! o:) Everyone else gets away with it!
    >
    > "Ameriscot" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    > > We use Swiftwire, which costs $15, regardless of the amount. Our banker in the US
    > > has the details of our UK bank account. We telephone her with the instruction and
    > > she sends the money the same day. It always arrives in Barclays same day or first
    > > thing the next morning.
    > >
    > > For a regular transaction, it is worth meeting with your banker to work out the
    > > best method to meet your needs.
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > > --
    > > http://www.ameriscot.com/i130
    > >
    > > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Re: Kinda OT...sending money to UK
 

We are trying to find good ways to send money to Scotland for the same reason, my husband has a loan there he is still paying off. We wired money one time and it cost us about $40 which was more than we expected. Most of the time we have gotten travelers checks in pounds sterling and sent them to his mother and she deposits them in his account. Last time we were in Scotland he added her to the account in case we needed her to take care of banking for us. Because of the type of account we have we don't pay a fee for the checks and even if there was one it is minimal (about $8 I think) we try and send about 6 months worth of payments at a time because it is somewhat of a hassle to get the checks because it doesn't seem to be a normal process for my bank which I find rather odd. Hope this helps and I will be checking to see if anyone has better ideas as we have about 2 more years of payments to make!

Re: Kinda OT...sending money to UK
 

Surely the loan is an account like any other so why (and I am sure someone will tell me why) you can't set up a direct debit on your internet banking site. I have probably over simplified it.

Re: Kinda OT...sending money to UK
 

Couldn't you get a loan here in the US and pay off the loan in the UK?

Re: Kinda OT...sending money to UK
 

Pulaski wrote:
    >
    > Harry wrote:
    > > Hi all, I was just wondering if anyone knows of a cheap way of sending money
    > > back to my bank acct in the UK...as I still have a loan there I'm paying off
    > > (yuck!). My bank wanted $48 to send about $450...seems a bit high, but that
    > > could just be because I'm used to what it costs sending it the other way.
    > > Thanks in advance for any replies! All the best, -Harry
    >
    > Couldn't you get a loan here in the US and pay off the loan in the UK?

How would a US loan help them to pay off a UK loan?

Re: Kinda OT...sending money to UK
 

Presumably, you would take the proceeds of the US loan and pay off the UK loan. Unfortunately, paying off consumer loans in the UK early invokes outlandish early payment penalties, and is rarely worth the bother.

What I suppose you could do is take the US loan proceeds and dump it in a UK bank account, then continue to make UK loan debits by Direct Debit. You'd only have one foreign transfer fee, and could recoup a little of the interest by keeping the bulk of the money in a savings account (may I recommend Barclay's E-savings - excellent rates). You'd have to decide whether the new loan interest payments are less than what you would have paid in additional transaction fees. I imagine it's a toss-up.