Jambodj

Hey,

Saw a few threads about transferring money but not exactly what i was looking for. We are selling our UK property and looking to bring the money to the US (Texas). There are so many options but i spoke to someone at TorFX and they couldnt transfer to Texas.

Does anyone have any recommendations of companies that will be able to do this or the best way to do it?

MidAtlantic

That is probably because they are not registered in Texas. They certainly did transfers for me to GA.

Transferwise is often recommended.

This list will give you several options to consider.
https://moneytransfercomparison.com/

Jambodj

Thank you! These sites make you sign up to everything to get a quote, i shall await an afternoon of sales calls

What is a reasonable commission you have seen? Is it a flat fee or %?

MidAtlantic

Many say no fees but, of course, they gain income from their margin on the exchange rate.

Transferwise are more transparent in that they always use the mid-market rate, then charge a fee.

You have to take account of fixed fee plus margin to make legitimate comparisons and, even then, with the exchange rate constantly moving it is virtually impossible to exactly compare like with like.

Maybe if you checked Transferwise and WorldFirst, both of which are often recommended here, you would get a good comparison.

Tillymin

I've been very impressed with WorldFirst. They've always sent the money within a couple of hours of me sending them the £££s.

MarylandNed

I use it. The nice thing is that they make the transfer on the receiving end look like it came from a local bank in the local currency - so the recipient doesn't get charged international or foreign currency fees. I use it for paying for foreign vacation rentals.

rpjs

I've found XE very good. They do impose a limit on how large a transaction you can make, but if you need that raised for a one-off significant transaction such as sale of house proceeds you can usually arrange that with them.

Jambodj

This is all great, thank you so much for your recommendations.

lansbury

Which everone, or combination of the two, results in you receiving the most amount of dollars.

Usually that is transferwise who give the spot rate and charge 0.5% as a fee. If you go with a broker who doesn't charge a fee, anything 0.5% below spot rate on the margin and you will be worse off. With a very large sum you might find a broker with that small a margin.

One other thing to consider. Transferwise only hold the offered rate for 24 hours, with World First you can set the date the rate is held to. This comes into play as you have to get your funds to them and that can either result in a charge from your bank, or take several days.

Giantaxe

I thought with Transferwise you set things up so that they can pull funds from your bank rather than you having to take action to transfer money to them?

lansbury

No in the UK you send the money to them. Bank transfer is free, debit card or credit card there is a fee.

Giantaxe

Ok, interesting. So you (i) schedule a UK to US transfer with Transferwise, (ii) they give you details of where to transfer the funds to from your UK bank; and (iii) you have 24 hours to complete the transfer to them to get the rate they gave you when the transfer was scheduled? So yeh, the time window to get the money to them seems like a risk factor using them.

lansbury

That is correct. My UK bank is NatWest who allow online transfers of a maximum £10k a day, so I keep below that amount. If the 24 hour time limit is missed you get whatever the prevailing rate is when they do the transfer. Which could be more or less than it was. Certainly with NatWest an online transfer is a matter of minutes, so below £10k no problem.

MidAtlantic

It doesn't just look like it, that is actually what they do. There is no international transfer, so no wire transfers as with some other providers.

chawkins99

The way TransferWise works, there are never any 'international' transfers.

You send your UK money to TransferWise' UK bank account. That money never leaves the UK. Instead, TransferWise translate it using the live exchange rate to US $ and sends the equivalent US $ from their US bank account to your US bank account.

They rely on the expectation that US-UK transfers will balance out UK-US transfers.

IOW: the money you sent to them in the UK is used to fund other peoples transfers from US-UK.