nathan barley

Has anyone used Paypal to transfer funds between their US and UK checking accounts, and what were the incurred costs like compared to wire transfers?
What were your experiences?

I'm trying to figure out a cost effective way to move money back to the UK when needed, that doesn't result in a $30 fee for each transaction.

bromleygirl

This is a good question. I shall be moving back to the UK and my ex-to-be will need to send me child support each month.

Which is th ebest way for him to do this?? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

BritGuyTN

just use www.xe.com

no costs involved

bromleygirl

So if there are no costs - how do they make a profit?

How would it work? Could he send it as pounds directly to my UK account?

britchick95

Paypal won't actually let you have two accounts in different countries, trust me I tried.

rincewind

You can and I have.

All you have to do is open an account for your US bank under paypal.com

Then open a second account for your UK bank under paypal.co.uk

You will need two different e-mail addresses, one for each account.

I use it to transfer funds as well as ordering from my site and using eBay.

xe.com is free though. I checked it out after it was mentioned in another post. May give them a go soon.

nathan barley

XE charges for wire transfers (about $18). Bankers Drafts are free.

Anyway, to the other poster, my wife has a Paypal US account, and I just set up a UK account using my UK switch card.

This should let me pay off my overdraft, without getting shafted on fees for wire transfers. I'm not sure if I could just mail a bankers draft or regular check to my bank (HSBC UK), and request they deposit it for me, I don't know if they'd do that without someone present to deposit it.

Rockgurl

I have been transferring money between USA and UK with Paypal for 8 months and it costs relatively little and has been very reliable. Only problem is that they just wrote to me and the cumulative amount of what I have transferred now exceeds £5000 and the want to verify my UK account. They wanted to call me at home in London but of course I am not there so I am going to have to call them and sort this out. I presume this is a security measure to stamp out money laundering. I find using Paypal quite awkward, and at first found it rather difficult to understand. It's quite a rigid system and is not explained very well. However, once you've figured it out it works very well. I couldn't have done without it.

britchick95

You can as long as you have an actual residence in the UK, but my parents live here, not there anymore, and I asked Paypal how to go about doing it so you can set up a bank account in the UK from the US and they said that you couldn't. But that was last year, maybe it has changed now, hopefully it has!!!

bromleygirl

So am I right in thinking that my ex-to-be could send me child support as $'s to my UK Paypal account and then could I transfer the monies out of Paypal as pounds into my UK bank account?

In regards to bankers drafts - would he need to physically go to his U.S. bank each month and buy an international bankers draft and then post it to me? - is this how it would work?

I know I sound pretty naive about sending money but I've not really had much of a need to do it the whole time I've been here.

What would be the best, least costly to send a regular monthly payment to the UK in dollars that then needs to be converted to pounds?? Any help would be really appreciated as I need to make sure that this is in place before I leave.

bromleygirl

Have you thought about having a UK offshore bank account say through HSBC etc??? Maybe you could transfer funds to it and then pay your bills from it as well.

Rockgurl

He wouldn't even have to send it as dollars. He just sends it as pounds and they convert it automatically. You can see how much you're sending when you send it in UK and US funds. You just need to open two different accounts with a different bank account for each.

bromleygirl

He can set up his own account here in the U.S. and I can set up my UK account so that's not a problem.

The problem is that we have agreed on a dollar amount and this is what he wants to send. I know he will not be happy if I tell him that each month he has to convert it before sending. Can he just put in the dollar amount and tell Paypal to send it as pounds?

Rockgurl

Yes

bromleygirl

Thanks so much - this will solve a big issue.

So I just want to make sure that Paypal is completley free then for him to send and for me to recieve??