We are due to move to Georgia in early January from the UK.
The Dollar is getting stronger and I have read this is because there is a growing expectation Trump will win.
Do you think I should delay sending some money over, or get onto it now?

Are you a professional currency speculator? Honestly I wouldn't worry about it. There will be some volatility whatever happens next month.

Best thing to do is perhaps split the money up and send some now and some later, that way you average out any changes.

Quote:

..we found on average that the US dollar appreciates by 4.15 per cent a year during Democratic presidential cycles and depreciates by 1.25 per cent a year during Republican cycles – a difference in average annual exchange rate returns of more than five per cent.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/business-...xchange-rates/

And, doesn’t the dollar usually go up in value after a presidential election? Whoever wins?

If it changes it won’t be by a whole lot, and it could go either way regardless of who wins the election. In any case right now the election is a toss up and will likely remain so until election night or beyond. Best advice is above, if it is a large amount split it into several transactions so that you average out the exchange rate.

Banks will automatically report all individual transfers of $10,000 or above to US government authorities but don’t worry about that, it’s routine and you won’t know anything about it. Thousands of people do such transfers every day. Some might split into amounts below $10,000 to avoid reporting but multiple transactions less than $10,000 in a relatively short time frame is more likely to become an issue versus simply transferring a single or multiple lump sums in excess of $10,000. Either way the reporting will be transparent to you, and unless you have some major red flag in your background no one will care about your transfers.

I personally let go of exchange rates about 5 years ago and just transferred money as needed. It is freeing.

50/50 is probably the way to go, thanks.

Do you already have a visa / green card / certain way to move here? I would not move cash till it is certain.

it also really depends on if you are looking at a material amount. If it’s a few 1000 not a big deal if your selling a house and moving 100’s of K it could be a bigger difference…

I had a USD account with Citi bank before I moved here, so was able to convert to USD at better rates and then transferred it all when I moved. You could do similar with Wise or similar.

+1

Not so much fun though. Some months the swing during the month is enough to pay for a tank of gas.

Once upon a time 5/- (shillings for those not old enough to remember) was called a dollar because there was $4 to £1. When I moved here in 2006 it was $2 to £1, the dollar is always getting stronger.

My youngest son, who is a professional currency broker, tells me to have in mind an amount I need from UK pensions each month. If I can get that be happy. Following that advice I have managed to beat IRS average exchange rate for all but one year of the 18 I've been here.

I’ve been very fortunate a couple of times since moving back. We sold our house in the USA well before we moved back when the exchange rate was about 1.6. We moved back in 2016 and bought a house so the collapse of the pound post brexit was very advantageous. Similarly when the Liz Truss non-budget crashed the economy and the pound I also took the opportunity to move over a lump sum.

Mostly we just transfer money when we need it and don’t attempt to time the rates.

January in GA. If it's Atlanta or further north, make sure you bring your coats.

As for the money, transfer when required, in the grand scheme if $50+/- is a big deal to your then you're not going to like living in the US much anyway.

When we moved and had to transfer a large sum fairly quickly I was aware that the rate was better than it had been for a while and so went for it quite contentedly. The rate at the time was 400 / £ - and this has become a sort of benchmark, without speculating or worrying about it too much (pensions will go at the prevailing rate anyway, nothing I could do about that). So when the rate dropped to about 330 after the referendum I refrained from transferring any significant amount; after a couple of years the rate climbed back up over the 400 point so I have been quite relaxed about further transfers. So I keep one eyelash only on the rate and no more!

Yaris, or F-350?