dbr84

Hi all,

I'm wondering, are there any limits on how much (or how often) I can send money between my US and UK bank accounts?

Are there any tax implications or other points to note if I'm routinely making transfers?

It would mainly be sending money from US back to UK.


Thanks

Bob

No.

Anything over $10K gets reported automatically.

If the money is your own, there's no tax, but there might be tax/IRS forms to notify them of assets such as FBAR/FATCA for accounts out of the US.

dbr84

10k in one hit I guess? What if you transfer say 3 lots of $5k over 6 months?

Bob

Anything on a pattern, or funky, will be reported. It's just a money laundering reporting process, nothing to worry about, but trying to avoid it, will become a problem.

dbr84

Fair enough, sounds good. I'm not planning to send huge amounts just good to know.

Chapdawg

Sorry to hijack the thread , but what is the easiest safest way to send money to the UK?

PayPal I've used, is that the way to do it??

Pulaski

No, and no.

Any more questions?

Pulaski

Paypal might be convenient, but not cheap.

An FX broker, such as Transferwise, or WorldFirst would be cheaper, and other competitors such as Xoom, and xe,com are not much more expensive. Bear in mind that to open an "account" with such a broker you will have to provide similar information as when you opened a bank account, such as evidence of your address and your passport number or SSN number.

Bermudashorts

Easiest and safest? Just ask your bank to do it.

Most people are going for the best rate though, in which case a money broker is a good idea. You could try Moneycorp, HiFX, UKFOREX etc. PayPal wouldn't be my first choice.

Asg123

A comparison of rates between a bank and a broker: bank 3 cents, broker 1 cent. So it's considerably cheaper to use a broker.

Chapdawg

Thanks fellows!

Pulaski

For smaller amounts, less than say, £50,000/$100,000 the rates banks charge can be a good bit more more than 3¢. Also with a bank wire you are likely to get stuck with a wire fee at both ends, probably $25-$35 to send and £15 -£25 to receive, and vice versa, and fixed fees are going to disproportionately affect smaller transfers. If you choose carefully you can avoid one or both wire fees because the debit to your account and/or the credit at the other end are made "locally". Tip: Look out on the brokers' web forms for choices as to how to send and receive the money - it might say something such as "direct debit/credit", "BACS", "ACH", etc., which are free, as an alternative to "wire".

IMO FX Brokers are the only logical choice for smaller amounts.

southerners

Just to add my experience transferring between UK-USA. Transfer wise is really wonderful and I recommend it wholeheartedly. I find that the exchange rate always matches the Google rate, and the fee is really minimal. It costs a few £'s in losses, whereas HSBC always offered me a horrible rate and a high fee. Between UK-USA Transferwise usually takes 24hrs, in my past experiences.

MidAtlantic

Easiest? Somewhere like Transferwise is just as easy and, in many instances, easier than a bank.

Safest? I do not know any reason why a bank should be considered safer than one of the fx exchanges.

Pulaski

The thing is, money cannot exist in a vacuum, so it is always transferred from one party to another, like runners passing a baton, so conventional electronic money can't just disappear in transit (it can be different for crypto currencies).

Of course if you put actual cash and mail it, then it can get lost, but when you transfer money electronically there is always a trace of it. So in short, I have no concern about using an FX broker even for very large sums, including the proceeds of the sale of house in London.