Moving Fiance's Money from UK to US

[SandyKay 5]

Hello VJ-ers!

My foreign fiance will be making his final move to the United States from the UK at the end of this month, and we have been trying to figure out the best way to move his money along with him. He would be moving an amount in the vicinity of £10k, and thus far we haven't quite found a way that minimizes the fees for such a transaction. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this?

Thank you!

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Transferwise

Transferred approx $21,000 in February and a smaller amount another time. Worked like a charm.

[Lstanick15 9]

I transferred $5000 recently to try and beat the currency exchange rate and it isn't getting any better so wanted to get the most of the current exchange rate. I sent it via my bank (Halifax - you Fiance should know them) to my fiances bank. They only charged a small fee from each bank, safe and secure and he received it the following day.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

You have to consider the exchange rates offered and not just fees or commissions when you research. Copied from a new article:

While high street banks usually apply an exchange rate which is around three or four percentage points worse than the interbank rate - the rate at which banks sell currency to each other - a foreign exchange broker will usually keep this margin below one percentage point. This could mean a difference of £3,000 or £4,000 on a £100,000 transaction, for instance.

[cookiemonsta 9]

I couldn't agree more with Nich-Nick! i have been using trasnferwise to send money from UK to USA account, they only charge the mid market rate and include their fees. They are without doubt the cheapest way to transfer.

GBP to USD is not going to rally for a while so make small transfers often and that should average out over long term.

[mindthegap 2,590]

Another fan of transerwise here - very good