Just looking for info from experienced money transfer-ers. Good and bad...who to use and not to use. I'm looking to transter sums of between £2k and £6k at various times.

many thanks in advance.

For that size, you probably want to consider bank to bank wire transfers.

Used Interchange FX -- https://www.interchangefx.co.uk/ -- and was very happy. Their service was really personal and helpful. Wire transfer would have cost a LOT more and would have been at worse rates than what I got through them.

thanks elmcity...I checked them out earlier and they looked quite good. Always good to get good feedback though before you trust someone with your hard earnts!

I'm looking at transfering between £35k and £40k in the next few months. Will Interchangefx be my best option too? I assume this is much cheaper than doing a wire transfer through the bank.
Thanks, Maggie

I am also looking to transfer about 90,000 pounds to my wife's account in America and am wondering which place would be the best to go through. Also, since this is about 180,000 dollars, will se be taxed on this? And will it look bad for my interview that I transferred this huge amount of money to her account (like I paid her to marry me or something)?

I used InterchangeFX to transfer approx £85,000 GBP into my wife's dollar account in two separate transactions. Interchange were excellent, give very good rates and everything went through with no hitches or problems of any kind.
I would definitely use them again.

From all the money transfer/exchange companies Ive seen, www.xe.com generally give the best exchange rate and have really good feedback. I've set up an account with them (though haven't used them yet since I'm still in the UK) and have friends who have made numerous transfers (small and large amounts of ££££s).......each of my friends speak highly of their service. I for sure will be transferring my money with them when I make the move once my visa is approved.

thanks everyone so far! Always good to hear from others. Don't know where I'd be without VJ

I use interchange for larger amounts, but CitiBank for smaller amounts cuz they dont charge and give the best rates

How does transferring money by paypal work. I would like to transfer some and would like to send it to my BIL paypal from mine then he can bank deposit it.

Any help on this would be appreciated!

Paypal absolutley kill you when transferring money with their charges!
Set up an account with Interchange, CitiBank, EX or any of the others that are mentioned and you wont regret it!

Had anyone used or heard of these, they say its only $4.99


www.xoom.com

When Amy is ready to move here, she'll have about 3,500 GBP saved up, translates to a little over $7,000 USD.

Would the best course of action be for her to transfer this money electronically before she gets here via this service?

Could she do it to my own account that I have now, and then I could transfer that money to her after we get married and she sets up her own account? Cause she obviously wouldn't have her own US bank account till after that.

"When Amy is ready to move here, she'll have about 3,500 GBP saved up, translates to a little over $7,000 USD.

Would the best course of action be for her to transfer this money electronically before she gets here via this service?

Could she do it to my own account that I have now, and then I could transfer that money to her after we get married and she sets up her own account? Cause she obviously wouldn't have her own US bank account till after that."



She could do that. Alternatively she could set up an account with XE (or other exchange company) and then transfer the money over after shes moved over and opened up her own US bank account. This is exactly what I'm going to do as its advisable to leave one bank account open in your home country (its a good way for family to transfer money to you).

How does that work, exactly?

Since Im with XE, when I set up my account I did it with the primary bank account being my one in England. This would be where payments will be coming from. Then, when youre ready to move money over, you put in the details of the destination bank account (which will be the one that I would have set up once I have moved over) and then money gets transfered over.....its all done online. Of course, your fiancee can also transfer money over whenever she wants to your bank account using this method.....she would just put the destination bank account as yours. I'm also planning to keep a chunk of money over in the UK rather than transfer all of it in one as this way I can make use of a high interest UK savings account.....then just transfer it when I need it.

Which UK bank do you recommend for high interest rate savings in sterling?

So you can set this up in advance? I have yet to look at the other sites but always use XE for quick conversions when im trying to convert £-$ in my head. I may have to transfer some money ahead of my move so I really need to be looking at this now.

Yep. I'm moving over in the summer (hopefully) and thought I would get the ball rolling, so set up my XE account last month.
As for high interest savings accounts, I know that Abbey have an eSaver Direct which has 6.40% AER......generally though, the best rates are the 'online savers/esavers' within each banking company. If you only want to invest £3000 or less a year, then Alliance and Leicester have a 12% interest account (Premier Regular Savings account).

OK, just filled in all my details for InterchangeFX. They are closed until after boxing day so I will await a phone call soon after. They seemed to be the best option for what I want.

I am looking to transfer small amounts to start with probably around $200 at a time, just enough to allow me to pay payments on my UK credit card. How much charges would I incur doing this and is it worth it for such small amounts. I would of course be saving to transfer larger amounts to hopefully accumulate enough to pay it all off but initially I gotta start small.

Any advice??

Thanks

if you plan on doing smaller amounts, then im not sure if companies like interchange will even take it...i was told the minimum transfer was £500.
I would definitley recommend unsing Citi Bank (as this is what i have done to transfer small amount of cash over several times a month since the summer.
http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking...p;merchant=citi
They sell it as a Savers Account but in essence it is open to anyone who wants to be able to access cash at cash points in UK and USA. They dont charge anything for the transfers (Interchange charge £15 - this is fine on one-off big sums, but regular low transfers will get stung by this charge) and they have as good an exchange rate as anywhere.
Definitely worth a look!

Try XE.COM, I used them today to transfer £20,000 to my wifes account in the US. It takes a bit of setting up but once it is I find it really quick

One problem I ran into with transferring large sums (£5000 and up) was that my bank required me to authorise the transfer in person at the branch. This meant that I had to transfer the money to the exchange company for them to hold until I am able to set up a bank account for it in the US.

Thank you!!

No Worries!

I have used XE.com before and had an excellent experience with them. In fact I am transfering money with them again at the moment! You get the best rate and it costs nothing to deal unless you want to rush it through. I placed a review on moneysavingexpert.com. I have pasted it below. Hope this helps for any newbies to this!

Thought people might like to know my experience with xe.com. I have looked at the opinions and answers on this forum and others and felt that no one had given a good run down of the whole process or given an effective review of their experience. Please note I have no affiliation to the company other than being a satisfied customer. Hope this is helpful.

The set-up process requires identification and your signature to be provided to comply with anti-money laundering law. It feels laborious, but it is law and they have to comply. They have a secure file up-load part to their site to make it easy to get scans of your id docs and signed docs to them (or you can fax them). The set up process included the scheduling of a call for them to ask some other questions and verify id. They rang at the agreed time - one of the questions asked was about how much money I expected to trade through them. It is worth noting that this amount was the trade limit they placed on my account. However, you can request this to be raised at a later stage.

When I first logged into my account I was confronted by an array of options, each of which had a little help question mark next to it to click on if needed. My first thing was to give details of the bank that the money was going to be sent to. my account was in the US and I could use Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) which costs nothing and takes little time. If you were really in a rush (i.e. instantaneous) you could set up a wire to your account, but it costs.

I then told them how much money (GBP) I wanted to sell and it then gave me a rate of exchange and a total USD value. This rate would last for 60seconds. If you didn't like the rate you were offered or the 60s elapsed you could refresh the rate.

I got a rate of 2.045 at the time which was very competitive then. Once I had accepted the rate and the deal, It then listed the instructions of how to wire the money to them. There were 2 options: BACS and CHAPS. Essentially, CHAPS costs (charged by your bank) and is quick; BACS is free, but slow (4-5 days).

As I was in no major rush, I used the BACS method and sent the money to XE. Once they had recieved the money (GBP) and sent the money (USD) onwards via EFT, they e-mailed me to advise me to check my bank account and inform them in 2 working days if the funds had not arrived.

This was my first deal with them and I was very impressed. I was originally going to use HiFx, but they would not deal on values under 5000 pounds. XE will allow you to trade as low as you wish. My first deal needed to be 2500 pounds, and my next deal will be closer to 10000pounds. I have total confidence that it will go as smoothly. It is also worth noting that I was won over by XE's ability to try a demo of their trading site. The demo screens are the same as the ones I traded through and gave me a good idea of what I was going to have to do and that it was a relatively simple process.

Well done XE. 5/5

Once we sell our house (hopefully soon!) we are using World First. http://www.worldfirst.com/ Other VJers have recommended it and it has the similar anti money laundering setup. We called them a few times and always helpful and quick to response with pretty good rates. I will let you know once we have transfered the money.

They all have to have the anti money laundering set up under law.

Great topic Have posted the thread to my OH so he can investigate - he is much better at all that stuff than me!! We need to transfer some money soon - my gran gave us £1000 as a wedding present and we want to maybe use some of it for our honeymoon

yups, great topic, thanks all! I've just set up an XE account

my tips:
1. take a digital photo of your docs and email them to the secure server - don't bother faxing, they come out rubbish.

2. be very careful to give a full uk style phone number with all the bells and whistles - 011 44 207blahblahblah, they only dial in the number you give them

its just a shame the dollars going down against the pound oh well.

I have just transfered £5000 today through Interchange.
No problems, I sent them my proof of ID last week, money laundering rules.
Today I phoned and within an hour they emailed me the forms to sign, I signed, scanned and emailed them back. Electronically transferred the money by BACS over the internet.
They tell me the money will be transferred by the 9th and they will email me when its done.
No problems, I'm very happy with their service, they were very helpful. I will recommend them to anyone, though they do like you to transfer £5000+, any less then they charge £10-£15. This is still less than my bank would charge for the transfer so I am very happy with Interchange.
Note - They told me that the £-$ has dropped recently so I suggest people watch the rate and choose their time to exchange, especially if they have large amounts to transfer over. I will be transferring another £30,000 over the next few months, I will be watching the exchange rate like a hawk. I don't want to be caught out, I want to get the best $ for my £'s.

As an add on
I scanned my passport, a bank statement and a utility (phone) bill as evidence. Scanned and emailed as attachments, these were accepted

Ooohh - I know the dollar is getting stronger again - does anyone know if it will go back to how it was? I want to send money over as quick as poss so I can get the best possible rate!!

"its just a shame the dollars going down against the pound oh well."

No kidding. Before xmas the £ to $ rate was 2.12. Now its 1.97 Just as mustang-sally says, Im going to be watching the exchange rate like a hawk.

Well as I have bills to pay in the UK and am earning dollars, I am looking forward to having to spend less dollars for a pound.....

$1.97? We can only get $1.93 with Interchange...

Oh... and I don't have any utility bills so should I send something else?! This whole thing is really confusing... I think the visa process is easier!! Half of me just wants to mail cash over

Yep, $1.97 on xe and its still that today. After shopping around I found that xe.com generally had the best exchange rates going. I was jumping around when it hit $2.12 but foolishly didnt transfer my money. Now its dropped to $1.97 Ive potentially lost $1500

don't mean to be a doom-monger or anything, but people round by me* are saying that the dollar has pretty much finished with its >$2 days, at least for the moment.

I would have loved to have transferred all my cash when the rate was 2.11, but i didn't have any case to transfer

Haha - losing $1500?! I am barely taking that over!! Am leaving some money here for if we decide to move back in a couple of years - if we decide to stay then it comes over as well - we'll just have to keep our eyes on the exchange rate

Stay away from any currency places that employ someone called " Goose".

oh you!