howievirginia

Hey its great to find a place with fellow Brits! Its kinda comforting to know this is here. Anyway, I have been living in Virginia for a year now and would like to ask you guys your recommendation for the best way to transfer the funds from my house sale from the UK to the USA. I hear about forex Hifx but I have never dealt with these people before and wonder if its a safe way to go about it. So if anyone has experience of a good firm and can reassure me it would be so good. Thanks for all help forthcoming. Howie

meauxna

Howie: your hot tip of the day is---
use the 'search this forum' box at the top right side of the message list column. You will find a million and one messages of comfort.

lisa67

suggest you leave a bank account "open" in the Uk...even if it doesn't have much money in it...

Ray

Most here use www.xe.com

BritishGuy36

As a related comment, you should know that under some circumstances, you are liable to uncle sam for capital gains tax on the sale of your UK property - even if you are not liable to the Inland Revenue for same.

ITsWhatIDo

I have a UK Citibank account with a linked $ savings account. I can then transfer cash as and when I want into $ at 1 or 2 cents above the exchange rate of the day, so if £1=$1.80 you shoud get $1.78 in your account. Theres no fees to transfer and I don't usually get charged anything to withdraw cash when i'm in the USA. Although this is only $500 a day, so for your example this doesn't really apply.

Ray

I hope your not spamming ....

Beausale

I've heard of spamming but don't know what it is really so actually couldn't do it.
I own a home at The Villages in Central Florida- was just trying to help !
Michael is a great guy....I know it's nice to be confident where money is concerned. I certainly wouldn't pick anyone from a googled website or yellow pages.

Ray

I hate the Villages ..million of 100 year old on golf carts
terrorizing the streets...

mellybrown

lansbury

I have dealt once with HiFX, and consider them to be untruthful.

They say that they will be no fees at the receiving end, this is not true. I have a contract to transfer a fixed sum each month, they say the wire fee my bank charges to receive the money is not going to be reimbursed by them. Also I have had $15 deducted by an intermediary bank through which HiFX have passed the money and they have only refunded this once. So far they have failed to answer e-mails requesting a refund for that deduction on the second payment, nearly a month now ago.

The exchange rate may be better but if they do not abide by their no receiving fees promise, once you factor that money into account their exchange rates are worse then the people I normally use.

howievirginia

I would like to thank everyone for their kind info as it has been a great help. I now feel a lot more confident about transfering my money. I will probably use xe.com as it seems popular. The tip about keeping my bank account open in UK seems very sensible. I hope I wont have to give Uncle Sam any cash as I sold my house before I arrived here, but if I am due then please let me know. I look forward to being on here reguarly and I hope I can help others some time too.
Thanks for all your help again.
Cheers
Howie

BritishGuy36

Well that clarifies things, in your first post you didn't say that you had already sold you house, only that you wanted to transfer the proceeds to the US.

If you sold your house before you became an LPR, you are not liable to the IRS for CGT on your UK property - end of story.

Also investigate UKForex.co.uk for your cash transfer, they give equal or better rates than XE and also are easier to set up, a lot less paperwork required (they do the bulk of the checks electronically).

howievirginia

Thank you very much for your help. Your information has been really great and I feel much more confident about the process. I hope you all are having a great time in the USA. Cheers Howie