Wibblypig

That wouldn't surprise me. My face must have been a picture when I asked about 'direct debits' at the bank and was told 'NO'

Qube

Do both bank accounts need to be in the same name for the transfers to work (I know this sounds like a silly question...). Eg, if I sign up for an account, can I transfer money from one of my accounts here to one of her accounts there?

Duncan Roberts

No. You do have to set up payee and payor names and associate accounts to them but you can transfer between anyone.

Phil999

I did a UK to US on Saturday and the money was in my US account by Tuesday. Excellent service.

I was charged £12 by xe and $15 by HSBC to receive the wire.

MsElui

its a lot quicker now that the uk do the instant electronic transfer thing. When i first started doing uk to us transfers in 2007 it took about a week because the trabsfer from my bank account to their in the uk would take a few days. Now i can do that instaantly it really does mean its just a few days that i get the money in the us.

i send from my personal account in the us and its drops in my husbands account in the us (as i didnt have an account in my own name when we set it all up and i cant be arsed to change it now).

Duncan - how does the us->uk thing work - do you do an instruction and then they pull it from your us account:? I wanted to send money back for a few mnonths now but just didnt know how to approach it and that could make a lot of difference.

Duncan Roberts

I have it debited from my US account and then send it via ACH/EFT to my UK account. I have my US account and UK account (Using IBAN and SWIFT code) listed as my own accounts in XE and then just set the trade using those. It takes ages but it's free. The last one was booked on 10/9, sent out by XE on 10/14 and received on 10/20.

Yorkieabroad

I've had an xe.com account for a year or so but never used them as they can never match the rates from First Direct. From the sounds of it, they can't match the speed either. I did a UK-US transfer (First Direct - Wells Fargo) Monday at 3.55pm UK time. The money was showing as pending in my WF account 20 minutes after I confirmed the rate with FD (may have been earlier, but that was when I noticed), and was available for withdrawal Tuesday morning. FD's rate was 1.3cents better than xe.

dunroving

Does FD have a charge or commission, though?

caleyjag

I've been using xe.com for four years now to send US$ to the UK.

It's been very effective. I highly recommend it.

I'd be interested to know if people have found alternatives with better rates.

Yorkieabroad

It depends on the volume and (maybe) the customer. I think FD are supposed to apply a #10 handling fee, but if you ask, they normally drop it. I've never paid a commision to FD, but sometimes get stuck with a $10 receiving fee from WF - doesn't always get applied, but I've never been able to work out when they do and when they don't. Even if you do pay the FD fee, its only on low value transfers (< approx#1900) that xe would become more competitive - on the transfer I did I got almost $1000 more by using FD.

PANUK

Just thought I'd update this thread with my experiences.....

I've now done 3 trades through XE. 2 transferred from the UK to the US the same day. The other took until 9.30 the following day.

All in all not a bad service :-)

Yorkieabroad

xe are also now offering another useful service...from an email from them yesterday....

Quote
The newly developed Bids feature allows you to exercise more control over the pricing of your transactions. You can use Bids to specify your preferred exchange rate (desired rate) or your fall back rate (minimum rate). The system will then monitor the market 24/7 for you, filling your order immediately and notifying you if your specified rate becomes available.
Unquote

Very handy...

jukes

I have used HiFX, anyone compared them to FD or XE?? Which was better value? I will need to transfer approx. £2000 per month from UK to USA account.

Yorkieabroad

Not compared them HiFx to xe for a while....I opened an account with them same time I opened with xe - about a couple of years ago. The first few of times I did a comparison, there was little to choose between XE and HiFX, and FD always won hands down. At 2k/month, fees are going to be more of an issue, so FD may be priced out vs the other 2

Meryl

Xe as been a lifesaver for me; I use it twice a month to transfer money back to my UK account. I normally do it 10 days in advance just to be on the safe side.

Any time I've had to call them they have been super helpful, I'd highly recommend them.