I have tried and cannot find an answer to this one anywhere. At least, not an answer that is specific to my circumstances.
I regularly receive payments in US dollars and need to get this into the UK in the most cost effective way. I am interested in a resource where I can compare the various different buying rates offered by UK banks. Or, alternatively, if anyone has a better idea for getting this money into the UK.
Many thanks in advance.
Francis
If you have an address in the U.S., or are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, one of the cheapest ways would be to get a HSBC Bank USA checking account, and go to your local HSBC branch here and get the USD
1,000/day maximum worth of GBP. No fees if you're at an HSBC-owned ATM, and the exchange rate is about 1% more than the interbank rates reported on major currency exchange rate web sites.It is certainly not the easiest way, but you said you wanted the most cost effective way and I doubt that there is one that is better (God knows I have looked).
A citibank account? no need to have a US address, and no need to mess around with withdrawing money lumps at a time.
Jim.
Regular? Business? Discuss with your account manager. Find a friend who gets a better deal on foreign cheques/transfers than you (perhaps with another bank) and suggest they try to match it. Be nice and they will. Don't forget to add charges into your accounts.
Do you know what exchange rate they use is?
The Citibank account has a *monthly* service charge of USD 20 if the average daily balance of your Citibank accounts is less than £2000. The annual interest on that amount through ING Direct would be £100, so when you take that into account, it's not really free.
They said about 1% from interbank when I asked them, but I have no experience if this is accurate, and haven't seen it in writing.
The UKP account with no service charge also takes dollar deposits without any transaction charges, you don't need the dollar account.
Jim.
A point I missed. I'll have to look into this more.
If its small amounts under 30 use halifax its free and i guess like the others a percent or so above the actual rate
Just an update:
I phoned HSBC today and after 2 calls and being on hold 20 minutes they took my number so that a local branch could call back. I did not get a call back.
I phoned the Bank of Scotland (my current bank) to ask about their charges, etc, and they said they'll send me some information. I figure I'll get round to calling some other banks in the next few days to see if they can send me similar information.
I will post more when I have it.
Thanks to all who answered.
regards
Richard
Bank of scotland are negotiable. Have a chat with your account manager. ;-)
I really haven't had time to progress this at all (although I speak to bank manager on Thursday (BOS) about it).
Meanwhile, I just got money sent to me via ACH from the USA. I was converted into sterling before it arrived in the UK (which I was not counting on) and the exchange rate seems to have been about 1.97 as opposed to 1.8something that BOS would have given. Am I a fool to have expected the exchange rate in the USA to be the same as here (i.e., that the USA bank (Wells Fargo) would convert to stering at the same rate as BOS would convert from dollars)? If this is not the case then is it always better to convert here as opposed to before money enters the country?
regards
Francis R. Brightman
mogga wrote:
In message , Francis writes
It would seem the remitter has made a mistake here and has asked his bank to send the Sterling equivalent of US$X, whereas he should have said 'send US$X'.
So what has happened is that US Bank sold him Sterling.
If he had sent US$ then in UK, BOS will have bought dollars off you.
In general, the two rates are not the inverse of one another, but you cant generalise. Why not remove the risk and invoice in sterling?
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