MadRad

Wondering if it's just me, but the last few transfers I've made have taken significantly longer to get across the pond than before. Has anyone else noticed this?

GeoffM

Depends what you mean by slow! IIRC I did a transfer on day 1 and received it on day 3, a couple of weeks ago.

MadRad

Wow, that's good! It used to average out at about 5 days or so, but the last few transfers have taken at least 10 days.

Duncan Roberts

All my transfers have taken about 10 days. I've been doing them monthly for a year.

GeoffM

I was surprised at figures of 10 days so I double checked:
10:34am PDT on 13th August: setup transaction
(shortly afterwards) transfer from Lloyds to XE (faster payments (2 hours))
09:18am PDT on 14th August: email from XE to say transaction sent
I don't have my HSBC dongle with me so I can't check when it actually arrived at HSBC but...
16th August ACH payment from HSBC(US) to Wells Fargo arrived.

I think XE deposit in the HSBC US business account by ACH. I then do an ACH payment to my WF account. Including that final step still only took 3 days! There must be something different about the methods used if you two both say 10 days. I know the first time I did a wire from XE to HSBC but that still only took 3-4 days total.

Sheepdip

Mine have usually been a couple of days. Did one this morning so we'll see how that goes.

I also just noticed that NatWest now do an international transfer through their online banking service. Hadn't noticed it before and it gave very similar rates to xe but had a 10GBP charge.

MadRad

Weird. I've always used the ACH method at both ends, so not sure why it's taking so much longer than before. It doesn't seem to matter how large or small the transfer amount is either.

King Gimp

Mine used to take 6 to 8 days - USA to UK

I just set up my first UK to USA transfer - 5 days gone so far and nothing doing.

scrubbedexpat099

Mine normally take 3 days, UK to US.

rpjs

Yes my last transfer US->UK was like molasses - here's the timeline

Aug 18th - Trade booked and payment details submitted
Aug 21st - XE take payment from US account (Chase)
Aug 23rd - XE declare trade "complete"
Aug 30th - Funds arrive in UK account (First Direct)

Not very impressed! Much slower than I recall it ever being before - although I guess the UK August Bank Holiday on the 27th didn't help.

GeoffM

Maybe OP ought to clarify which direction the money is going, which might make a difference! Also which banks (not using XE but eg Lloyds wire transfers to the US take 2-3 days longer than Santander).

avanutria

I did one a couple of weeks ago (UK to US); sent the order on a Monday morning (still business hours in UK) and the funds were in my US account by Wednesday afternoon. I also transferred the funds from my UK bank to UKForex immediately.

Sheepdip

Well I can't complain. Money is in the account (UK to US) so that's less than 24 hours.

HarryTheSpider

I may be being a little but ignorant here but...

I use Xoom.com and it typically takes 18 minutes for the money to go from my Citi checking account (registered in NY) to my Barclays account in the UK.

Duncan Roberts

Do you pay for the transfer? I use the free XE service so it's not done via wire transfers.