Hello,
I'm an American student studying for the next few years in the UK. I receive all my loan money in US dollars from the States and every year I have to painstakingly transfer the money into my Barclays UK account. I receive my loan cheques in the States in one lump sum of around $17000. I looked into doing a wire transfer from my bank account in the States to my Barclays UK account but the exchange rate is insane. If I transferred under the bank's rate it would cost me nearly $700 more than the market quote (not including the transfer fees). Bank of America has a worldwide ATM deal with Barclays where there is no international charge for pulling money out of my US account. Not to mention you get the current market exchange rate from the cash machine. What I used to do is pull £200 out a day and deposit the cash into my account at the bank. Because of the £200 daily limit this process can take a couple of months to do. Is there another way to make a full transfer and avoid the horrible exchange rates that the banks offer? Any help would be appreciated.