My wife and I will be flying out at the end of the month so we've been going through the process of getting our everything together for leaving. Everytime we speak to our banks about the best way to transfer funds we get a different answer. The last one we got was "close your account and we'll give you a cheque which you can then give to your new bank in the U.S". I may be wrong but I think that would put us at the mercy of the fees charged and rates offered by the U.S bank without any flexibility. Does anyone know of the best way to transfer funds to the U.S?

Have a look here: www.interchangefx.co.uk - I used them to transfer money after reading a few recommendations on here, and have had no trouble. They offer good rates, and don't charge extortionate fees. You can send the sterling amount you want transferred into their sterling account (by BACS transfer, or that same-day transfer whose name I forget right now!), and they will then wire the money to your account (or your wife's, or any account you tell them to) from their dollar account - it's very quick because they send the money by wire transfer, so it can be in your US account on the same day Interchange receives it into their account.

I arranged for them to transfer some more money over for me earlier this week - they gave me $1.995 to the £ - I think in theory they charge a £10 fee if you're exchanging less than a certain amount (I think £10,000), but they've always waived it for me!

Hope that helps.

There really is no definitive way. Anyway you look at it, the exchange rate is in your favor.

I would check with Thomas Cook or Lloyds. I know Lloyds has accounts in dollars and Thomas Cook has exchange branches here.

There are some good and varied pieces of advice in this thread:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=70648

Good luck with your move to the US!

Do not use a bank use a commercial currency broker such as the one FeatherB recommended or the one I use www.money.corp. Much better exchange rate than a bank, cheaper or no fees and it is done electronically and they take care of any declarations that need to be made.

If you carry cash or cheque you will (depending on the amount) have to declare to customs when you leave the UK and to customs when you enter the US.

I used a broker at UBS Financial Services to deal with my wire transfer and he gave me the market rate...no basis points withheld, no fees, no nothing. He's awesome.

B of A is still clearing the cashier's check I got from Nationwide. I deposited it last Monday and it still has not posted to my account.

I used Interchange FX too. I sent the money to them in a day which I had to pay for, but you can send them the money via BACS which takes longer but is free. They didn't charge me any fees and they transferred the money to our US account the day they received it. My own bank (First Direct) could give me a similar exchange rate, but they were going to take four days to get the money to the US.

Note that the pound weakened after the Bank of England meeting to set interest rates; it peaked prior to the decision, just like I predicted. Maybe I'm in the wrong line of work!

anyone transfer through paypal??

Except for small amounts why would you accept their poor rate of exchange.

well we have just started to look into transfering some money over...last time Chris looked it was 1.959%
HSBC was around 1.94. Plus their fee was insane. So in the brief look...Paypal seemed the better choice. Just curious if anyone has used this method. Months ago in OT someone did!

Actually what FeatherB mentioned was interesting. I think we will take a few minutes to look at that.

Look at several of those commercial brokers. Some charge a fee others a lower exchange rate. Depending on the amount you are transferring it can be much better to pay a fee and get a better rate of exchange, or a mixture of both.

I booked an transfer today with MoneyCorp at $1.99.

Neal has sent me money through Paypal before, and they have twice randomly tacked on a rather large fee, so I'm not sure I trust them anymore.

good to know.

We are looking at fairly large amounts to transfer.
Thanks for the opinions!




thanks!