Siobhan1987

Hi everyone,

I now live permanently in the US after recently obtaining my green card, but I still hold some savings in the UK. I had (now reached maturity) two ISAs and some regular savings, and these have just been sitting there for the past year. At this point I'd like to bring them over so that I can either put them in a CD or invest them in some mutual/index funds.

I have three questions:-

1) What are currently some of the best ways to pull over between $15-20k? Obviously I'm interested in as few fees as possible and a good exchange rate.

2) The pound has fallen dramatically. Should I wait to bring this money over? Should I do it now? Should we even be trying to predict anything? Interested in your opinions.

3) Are there any tax issues involved in this transfer? (UK taxes were paid on this money years ago, it's not earned income anymore)

Thanks in advance!
-Siobhan

nun

Predicting currency changes is next to impossible......if you want the money in the US just move it there, don't worry too much about exchange rates.

There won't be any tax on the movement of the money, but any ISA gains after you became a US resident are taxable in the US also cash ISAs are taxed interest accounts and a stocks and shares ISA probably as a PFIC.

lansbury

To move it use a currency broker such as transferwise.com or World First worldfirst.com.

Pulaski

This! Anyone who claims to know what exchange rates will be next week, never mind next month, is guessing. Even the banks with their teams of economists, analysts, and FX dealers can't predict with any certainty what will happen to rates next week - if they could they would make a fortune trading currencies .... but they make little if any profit at all trading currencies, ... so draw your own conclusions!

chris23

You cant guarantee what the exchange rate will be like next week, but you can make an educated conclusion. Its unlikely to get dramatically better than where we are now in the mid 1.20s I wouldn't expect a return to 1.30s for some time so if you will need it in the next few months don't worry about the exchange rate too much. With the amount your transferring being relatively low you wont loose out on much with a small fluctuation in rates.

If you need it, then forget about the rate, but use an FX company, i've used TorFX before and they were better than a bank rate.

LouisB

What sort of ISAs? You said reached maturity, so not cash ISA then?

Seems the US tax rules are not simple, if it is stocks and shares then there may be complications.

Ignoring the ISA aspect, pick a day when the rate seems best and transfer it, simple.

It's very hard to know what will happen with the rates. One thing you can do is transfer some of it on several different days over time, this will smooth out the rate risk a little, expecially if you pick good days. Watch out for fees though, this might negate the benefits. However, long term who knows, it could go up or down significantly.

Probably too late now but if you plan to transfer x £ to $ on some date in the future you can lock in the fx using a fx future contract to hedge the risk of changes. Not that many do, most people just take a chance on it