Best way to send UK £ to US$?

xetrade.com is simple and cost-effective once you have an account set up. Registration requires ID and takes a couple of days...

I used xetrade.com until recently. However I can now send money direct from my HSBC account more cheaply, the new service commenced at the end of January 2008. I think it has been (sort of) forced on the banks by an EU directive so I suspect that all the big high street banks will have to provide a similar service.

On HSBC it appeared totally unannouced, in the "make a payment" section of my online banking there is now a "Send Money Overseas" section. I only found it because I found the EU directive while wandering about the web doing other things and went and looked.

just being nosey

is that to move money to only EU countries or worldwide ?

thanks

I used xetrade.com until recently. However I can now send money direct from my HSBC account more cheaply, the new service commenced at the end of January 2008. I think it has been (sort of) forced on the banks by an EU directive so I suspect that all the big high street banks will have to provide a similar service.

On HSBC it appeared totally unannouced, in the "make a payment" section of my online banking there is now a "Send Money Overseas" section. I only found it because I found the EU directive while wandering about the web doing other things and went and looked.

I checked when I posted above, it seems to be worldwide, it certainly let me select USD with a destination of the USA.

How much do they charge for this?

Chris

I *think* it's £8 though it might be less. It's certainly cheaper than xetrade.com is now.