MidAtlantic

From the BofA website:

FAQ: Does Bank of America have an IBAN number?
The United States does not currently participate in IBAN. Therefore, Bank of America does not have an IBAN number.

Pulaski

Try the Routing Transit Number (9 digits) plus the account number (probably another 13 digits, add leading zeros to make it 13 digits if necessary) in the IBAN field.

No US banks use IBANS, at least not yet. That said, an IBAN is only a country code + sort/RTN/branch number + account number. It's not exactly rocket science.

Fatboyslick

Yes, I know, hence me asking what people have used instead.....

....been told an ABA number works in its place...will see if it works

Pulaski

The "ABA number " = the RTN that I referred to above, and is specific only to a bank or bank/state, not to a specific account, as an IBAN is

mrken30

Has anyone used hifx to move money?

vulcan

Did anyone try Transferwise. If so how did it go?

Pulaski

Use the BE search function to look for references to TW, of which there are many. IIRC Lansbury is the leading advocate, and I don't recall any bad experiences.

scottyvisa

Nothing but love for TransferWise, works a trick for me and great rates

lansbury

They are as good as the rest and easy to use, especially for smaller amounts, up to £2,000 I believe, which you can pay with a debit card.

It isn't a currency broker but a peer to peer service. That brings about the two drawbacks to using them, if you considered these drawbacks. One, as it is peer to peer you get the rate on the day they do the transfer, which maybe more or less than the rate on the day you booked the transfer. You can select how much of a fluctuation is allowed from zero up, but that can add to the delay in the transfer taking place. Two, it isn't as quick as a normal currency broker it can be 2 to 3 days.

Also they do not do forward contracts which maybe a problem for a few people, although I doubt most. While the exchange rate is low I use transferwise to transfer my UK pensions monthly. When/if the rate goes back up I will switch back to forward contracts with World First to lock in the good rates for a year in advance.

petitefrancaise

I'm going to keep tagging this info into posts about moving money.....

Wells Fargo US will not necessarily give you the market rate when receiving money not in dollars. I'm assuming other banks are the same. What does this mean? If you transfer £ from your UK account to your US Bank, you will get whatever exchange rate they offerwhich is generally worse than using a currency transfer company. In the case my WF manager told me about, it was 4% under market rate which cost his customer thousands of dollars. Find out in advance what your exchange rate will be if going down this route. Better still look at setting up an account with one of the companies recommended on this site.

durham_lad

I used to use hifx to transfer money and was very pleased with their service but in November 2011 I received the following email telling me that they no longer could provide service to clients that are resident in the USA. (your profile says you are located in Oregon)

mrken30

That's interesting. On their website they advertise
"Whether you're an expat living in the US, a business trading overseas or anyone else that needs to make international payments we could save you time and money."

Pulaski

I think they mean someone living in the US temporarily, who has a UK address they can use as their registered address. ..... Which is to say the least, "a bit shady", and probably not how the law sees it in the US regarding providing services to customers resident in the US.

durham_lad

I agree. My situation was that I didn't have a UK address.

I would think that it would be easy enough to find out by simply applying for an account. They may have changed their policy since they dumped me in 2011.

lansbury

They were the first company I used when I moved over in 2006. Like durham_lad I got the email saying no longer able to deal with the US. Never had a follow up email saying they can now.

These companies are licensed by each State so it isn't a case of dealing with the US, but being able to deal with Oregon etc. Somewhere on their website World First has a copy of all their State licenses, but they don't have 50.