chicagoblue

I am in the process of setting up an XE trade account to transfer money from my account in the US to an account in the UK. Once it is set up, what is the best (cheapest!) way of moving money into my XE account, and then from there into my UK account? I've read other threads that suggest that if everything is set up correctly, you can avoid incurring any extra fees for wire transfers etc. Is this true? Thanks.

cranston

If you moving GBP to USD then choose the EFT (electronic funds transfer) option. You pay them GBP via BACS in the UK for free and they will deposit your USD for free in the designated bank account.

I find it takes 3 working days for a transfer to complete.

They are very good but others will recommend UKforex if you have larger amounts to transfer (GBP6,000 plus or there abouts).

BritishGuy36

UKforex give you better rates than XE, can verify you online and send you a letter with a code to punch into their website (just to confirm your address) then you are good to go, a lot less hassle setting up than XE.

Elvira

Hm - whenever I've done a comparison check, the rates were much the same...

zargof

As has already been said you can transfer money from your US account via EFT which is free. To send the money to your UK account you have two options: wire transfer, which takes about 1 week and will cost you 12 pounds, or a bank draft, which will take over two weeks, but it is free. Basically bank draft is equivalent of a cheque, so if you have some back in the UK who you can send the draft to, and they can pay it into your account. This is cheapest way if you are not worried about the timeliness of your transfer.

Also, you can try to use the bid feature of XE, where you can gamble on getting a better exchange rate that what they offer with a basic trade. If you are sensible and patient you can usually get an exchange rate of two or three cents better that what they'll offer with a basic trade, and this can make a significant difference if you're transferring a large amount of money.

zargof

The OP is xferring US->UK and you can't use BACS. I spoke to someone about them offering this a few months ago, and they said they were looking into it, but I haven't heard anything else since.

Longy

Are you sure this isn't a problem with your bank? I have transferred to XE via BACS many times.

Forget that - sorry managed to misread the posts twice!! This is only the other way round.

BritishGuy36

They are always "much" the same...but the slightest difference can turn into a lot of difference if you are sending enough cash over.

zargof

Are you talking about from the UK to US, or vice versa? I know you can transfer *from* a UK bank via BACS, but I don't think you can transfer *to* a UK bank via BACS.

Longy

Yeah I misread it twice, sorry

bromleygirl

Not to hijack this thread but if I wanted to transfer funds from the UK to the US is it better to buy travelors checks and physically deposit them into my US bank account or transfer funds electronically using XE etc??

Elvira

That's an easy one.......... XE Trade definitely.