HumanTorch

Hi

Anyone found out a quick and cheap way of transferring funds from one account to another.

UK Account (Pounds) to a US Account (Dollars).

The banks charge loads and have rubbish exchange rates - I have found a few online dealers that offer better rates and no charge but can they be trusted - anyone used one of these or found another way of transferring that works.

I want to transfer around £15k first and then a few £k each month.

Hope you can help.

Manc

The UK uses pounds?

US is Dollars?

well bugger me, no wonder they refuse to accept my Drachma's.

AdobePinon

Damn! I'd forgotten about those. What kind of interest did you make after... let me see... 25 years?

BTW, I think that Manc is trying to say 'Use the search function' at page top right.

Nylon

We did the same a couple of weeks ago when the exchange rate was 1.98% and made a killing just by transfering £££ to $$$$ in preparation for our move. A wire transfer is easy, fast and affordable.

antjen

another method is to convert your pounds into a money order cheque in dollars, i did this with my UK bank, and for sizeable amounts they give you the business rate - which at the time worked out to .10 cents extra for every pound.

Ant

Lilywolf

I had the same query a few weeks back, so far best bet seems the wire transfer. See link below for more answers

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=276848

Bob

There are already loads of threads on this subject that have come up recently, you'll find loads of good info about XE.com etc with a quick search, or even looking over the last couple days of the US lifestyle forum...

superpat

I used XE successfully recently. Got a great rate - planning to use them again when we sell our UK house.

Cheers,

Pat

sibsie

I'm thinking of giving XE a test drive with a couple of thousand Euros. How long did it take them to complete your transaction? I shouldn't be, but I'm still reticent about using XE.

Benny Boy

Here is a quote from another website re charges. It seems that a Paypal account is the key. Might be worth checking it out www.floridadays.co.uk

"So I use paypal herer in the UK - I can load my paypal account with £, takes about 3 days to hit the paypal account but there is no charge. I can then add my US account to PayPal and withdraw finds from my account to the US account, again no charge".

BritGuyTN

except paypal is shady as shit

BritGuyTN

link for xe transfers

https://www.xe.com/fx/

Benny Boy

Just tryin to help. Thousands use it.

Bob

unless your a premium member, there's a limit on how much you can transfer a month...

superpat

I used BACS to transfer the currency from my UK account to XE, then wire from XE to my US account. It took the regular 3 days for the first bit, then I had the money in my US account the next day - so 4 days in total.

I could have done it quicker with CHAPS (rather than BACS), but there was no great urgency for the money that would have made the extra 30 quid or so worth paying. Overall, I think the experience was a little better than a regular SWIFT transfer - you get a better rate, and a bit more visibility into where your money is at any given point in the process. I transferred the proceeds of a car sale from the UK to the US using SWIFT in late 2003 and it took nearly a month (instead of about 3-5 days) for the money to arrive!

(BACS = the 'usual' mechanism for a domestic transfer in the UK; CHAPS = the 'quick' mechanism - same day - like when you buy a house; SWIFT = the 'usual' mechanism for international transfers)

If you're thinking of using it, then get the account setup done ahead of time - you have to fax them ID, bank statement, all that anti-money laundering crap. I think it took about a week from opening the account to having it active and ready to trade.

Cheers,

Pat