C_C

Hello all,

I need your advice on this and your experience on whether doing a bank transfer between a UK bank account and a US bank account is possible IF the account holder is no longer in the UK to go to the branch and ask for it in person.

There's some money that is expected to come into our UK account AFTER we have already moved to the US. In case we are not able to speed up the payment (which is likely) what are our options for getting this money sent to our US bank account?
We both use online and phone banking and we've been banking with Natwest here in the UK, if that's of any help.
I've looked at their website, FAQs, even tried googling it, but haven't been able to find an answer.

Thanks in advance!

NatashaB

You could use a currency broker such as HIFX or currencyonline.com to transfer the money across. You would probably get a better rate from them than your bank anyway. I used to have to go into Barclays and fill in a form to move money from UK to US, there was no option to do it over the phone.

C_C

Thanks! I was thinking about that.
Any idea what their fees are?

NatashaB

No fees (with currencyonline anyway), you just register and send them some scanned documents to provide identity, then you can go online and request a quote/see rates. They give you their bank details so you can do a bank transfer from Natwest to their UK bank (citibank). Then they transfer it on to your account in the US. I have only done one transaction with them so far but I requested the quote and transferred the money on FRiday and it was in my account this morning. My husband has used HIFX in the past who were also good.

C_C

Thank you, that's really useful!
I'll contact them

lansbury

I have been using currencyonline who are part of HiFX since 2008 and can highly recommend them.

While their bank account is in London, so easy transfer from your UK bank they send the money from their New Zealand office, using Bank of New Zealand, working on NZ time. Living on the US west coast I find the money leaves NZ on the date arranged, which in fact is 3pm the day before my time. It has always been in my US bank account before noon on the agreed date. Hope that makes sense when you read it.

meauxna

My experience is really old, so take it with a grain of salt, but I dread to think what could have happened to us...
DH had to set up permission to do this -in advance- of leaving the UK. If we had left it to take care of until we were over here, someone would have been flying yet again.

NatashaB

I paid a UK cheque into my US account today. Not sure what rate they will give me and they warned me they didn't know when it would clear - but if all else fails that is also a possibility.

Duncan Roberts

I use HSBC in the UK and the price difference between them and a broker has always been negligible. I just sign on to online banking during specified hours and do it all online. Just tell them which account to take it from, where to send it and how much. They give you an instant quote and you can chose to OK or decline. See if Natwest has something similar. The only restriction they put on it is you can only transfer $10,000 without doing it in person. That's not really a problem for me!

lansbury

I used NatWest and you have to phone them for foreign transfers and their rate is at least 5 cents below currencyonline. So I order from currencyonline and log into NatWest and transfer between UK banks. As currencyonline allow 2 days to pay and the £10000 is same day transfer you could order up to £20000 worth of dollars that way.

FlatDog

I'm with FirstDirect in the UK, and BofA in the US. I just pickup the phone to FD and request the transfer and it is taken care of. Really easy. But as noted above, be careful at the $10k mark, split into multiple smaller transactions if needed.

C_C

Thanks everyone!
All this is really helpful. I've been completely ignorant as any international transfer I've ever done has been through the bank in person.

suburbanmum

When we lived in the US previously (we are about to move there again) we just sent a secure electronic message to our UK bank (via online banking) with the necessary information and they did the rest. We bank with Smile and I don't think in the almost 10 years I've banked with them I've ever had to call them. Everything is done online and generally very efficiently (unlike my previous experience in the US with Bank of America who we wont be using this time).

MsElui

i use xe.com a lot.
First i 'book' the trade - ie stick in the amount i wish to buy or sell and get a quote of what that I will end up with. once im happy with the amount i 'book it'
i then send the amount to them for free by internet banking from my lloyds or first direct account - it gets to them same day. I have to confirm by email when its done, and they confirm back to me later in the day when they have made the trade. it usually arrives in our us bank account the next day. It costs $12.50 for a wire fee but thats it - and i know exactly the rate im getting and what that is before i agree.

rallybug

I was using my bank (Lloyds) to do my transfers to feed my Wells Fargo account before I move over, but followed someone's recommendation on here and signed up to the Post Office international transfers.

Lloyds took 3 days and cost £20 - the Post Office was free and was there next day

When I do move over, I'll be adding my mum as an authorised signatory on my Lloyds account, just in case I need anything done.