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Transfering Money to the US

Transfering Money to the US

Old Jan 28th 2014, 11:30 pm
  #16  
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Originally Posted by Pulaski
Check with each one (web site) they do transfers all day, every day. At least some you can send a wire to, and given that Nationwide is primarily in the house financing business, they must have some way to move larger amounts, .... or is it an account prohibition?
I think due to anti money laundering you are heavily restricted on transfers via BACS to a limit per day otherwise I would be paying the same amount to transfer it to the company for them to move it to the US as I would send it direct.
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Old Jan 28th 2014, 11:44 pm
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Originally Posted by Lanyu
I think due to anti money laundering you are heavily restricted on transfers via BACS to a limit per day otherwise I would be paying the same amount to transfer it to the company for them to move it to the US as I would send it direct.
It has nothing to do with anti-money laundering regulations. Some banks may have a policy on daily withdrawals, but restricting daily withdrawals would have no significant impact on money laundering activities, and there is no such regulatory limit in either the UK or the US. There are some reporting requirements in the US for banks to report large international wires to FinCEN, but the process is entirely transparent to bank customers.

Last edited by Pulaski; Jan 28th 2014 at 11:46 pm.
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Old Jan 29th 2014, 1:21 am
  #18  
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Originally Posted by Pulaski
If you hold your GBP because you want to speculate that the GBP will rise against the USD, be prepared to share your gain with Uncle Sam.
Really? I was planning on keeping a small lump sum in the UK for precisely that reason.
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Old Jan 29th 2014, 1:35 am
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Originally Posted by markonline1
Really? I was planning on keeping a small lump sum in the UK for precisely that reason.
Take a look at this thread, posts #16 onwards, but do note JAJ's caution in post #27, about scare mongering, and I also think the risk of a modest FX gain being identified, and a penalty levied, is pretty small.

Last edited by Pulaski; Jan 29th 2014 at 2:05 am.
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Old Jan 29th 2014, 1:55 am
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Cheers mate, I'll take a look. Think I might transfer my money over sooner rather than later too LOl
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Old Jan 29th 2014, 6:34 am
  #21  
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Originally Posted by LeafPeeper
Thanks Britsimon, interesting that the online quote was for a limited amount and much worse exchange rate. Was there any flat rate fee attachtheed to the 1.65 you were quoted?
In your second post, making you pay 1.70 per pound is very high but 1.64 seems quite good and the fixed costs look small.

Thanks Lanyu, I bank with Barclays, I haven’t contacted them yet, I have my banking and mortgage (Woolwich) with them. I might be naïve but I’m always hesitant about giving the heads up about my plans to interested financial parties until it is definitely going ahead, just in case, not paranoid, well, maybe a little!

Good points floatsy and Pulaski, looks like forex will usually be the way to go.

Are there any tax implications to transferring a large sum (£150,000) to the states? Would hate to have a chunk taken from us.
Just to clarify. My recommendation is to use a Forex broker and call them to get a good rate. The online rate is for people that want to move small amounts of money where the exchange rate isn't a huge issue.

The Santander rate, whilst good compared to some methods still isn't as good as Forex (moneycorp in my example). The difference for the 150k you are talking about would be about $2000.

The exchange rate is constantly moving. The rate you see quoted on the news is the interbank rate which you can see at the link below along with the spread they deal with(tiny) .

http://www.fxstreet.com/rates-charts/interbank-rates/

Moneycorp had a very small fee for each transaction 10 quid I think.
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Old Jan 29th 2014, 10:27 am
  #22  
 
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Originally Posted by Britsimon
..... The exchange rate is constantly moving. The rate you see quoted on the news is the interbank rate which you can see at the link below along with the spread they deal with(tiny). .....
No, the rate quoted in the news and on financial web sites is the "mid rate", about which there is always a spread. As you noted, for interbank trades the spread is very small, because even a bank selling to a bank wants to make a profit.
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Old Jan 29th 2014, 9:06 pm
  #23  
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

That's good news Pulaski. My wife is American and we have an account in the States in her name, we tried to get me added but no go as we're in England. The funds will be from the sale of our property so will go straight into our account here then will transfer a couple of weeks before we travel, leaving a bit in our account here.

It came up in another thread, in the past few days, that there is a potential tax consequence for leaving non-US currency in an account if the exchange rate moves in your favour
Do you mean if we left sterling in our account in America, is that even possible?

Thanks for your help, much appreciated
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Old Jan 29th 2014, 10:17 pm
  #24  
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

If you shop around please keep an exchange rate website open when you get quotes to see what their embedded fees are, I would be interested as I will be transferring a large amount soon as well.

I have used both Moneycorp and XE. I switched to Moneycorp when XE raised their fees but that was years ago. Moneycorp tends to keep a 0.60% fee on large transactions (my largest was 157,000 GBP), this is based on 10 separate transfers I did in 2012. When I left XE, they had raised their rate to approx 1% but this was on smaller exchanges so I'm curious what they charge for a large move.

I will let you know what I find out if I call around. Good luck!
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Old Jan 30th 2014, 11:20 am
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Originally Posted by LeafPeeper
Do you mean if we left sterling in our account in America, is that even possible?
No, it is not possible. US banks do not offer GBP accounts in the US. A few banks, such as HSBC and Citibank offer off-shore GBP accounts. Until a year ago US banks were prohibited from paying interest on non-USD accounts, consequently non-USD accounts were effectively prohibited. I am not aware of any bank that has leapt at the opportunity to offer interest bearing GBP accounts since the prohibition on paying interest was lifted, and given the cost of updating their software, and the niche nature of foreign currency accounts, I doubt if most US banks ever will.

In short, you will send you FX broker your GBP, and the broker will credit your (wife's) account with USD.
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Old Jan 30th 2014, 7:24 pm
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

i was the person who mentioned a 25k limit for transfers but that was the problem with the UK bank lloyds. they wouldnt let me send more than 25k to XE per working day. XE would be waiting for my larger sum to accumlate to my desired total before sending me the dollars. NO issue with XE - its LLoyds who are the losers. Im now going to use first direct instead who have no limits on me sending my own money to where i want to within the uk.
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Old Jan 30th 2014, 8:01 pm
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Originally Posted by Pulaski
The banks are able to compete, they just choose not to, like the traditional phone companies continue to milk their remaining customers with international calling rates ten times the rates offered by Vonage and the discount international phone companies. Both banks and phone companies are taking advantage of customer inertia, to charge high fees.
Excellent point
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Old Jan 30th 2014, 9:17 pm
  #28  
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

I have been trying to clarify something along these lines for a few weeks....we are getting our l1a/l2 visas at present and anticipate and end of feb move to houston. We are in the process of selling our uk house at present, but it will be a fine line as to whether we can complete before our feet land on USA soil. Does the timing of when we complete/the money reaches our bank and the timing of when we land in the USA on the visa, have any impact on taxes due from us in the USA?
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Old Jan 30th 2014, 9:44 pm
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Originally Posted by LucyWoodhead
I have been trying to clarify something along these lines for a few weeks....we are getting our l1a/l2 visas at present and anticipate and end of feb move to houston. We are in the process of selling our uk house at present, but it will be a fine line as to whether we can complete before our feet land on USA soil. Does the timing of when we complete/the money reaches our bank and the timing of when we land in the USA on the visa, have any impact on taxes due from us in the USA?
No. So long as it was your primary home, and the gain was not more than $500k, the gain is tax free in both countries.
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Old Oct 11th 2014, 11:20 pm
  #30  
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Default Re: Transfering Money to the US

Lanyu,
I understand that Nationwide uses an Agent Bank for the exchange. Do you anything about the fees charged by the Agent Bank?
Nationwide's pdf (available online) about SWIFT transfers says that the Agent Bank charges a fee and it can be substantial.


Originally Posted by Lanyu
Not sure who you bank with in the UK but if you are with Nationwide it might be worth contacting them and asking about a Swift transfer when I use to work for them they use to offer very competitive rates being a building society and not a bank. They can also tell you the rate for the day and its valid until a certain time every day I think its either 1 or 3 as the rates constantly change. this is going to be my first port of call when I come to do mine
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