Best USD to GBP exchange?

BritRael

I've had around 65k USD (salary payments) sitting in an offshore account for around 6 years. It quickly sunk like a brick, so I didn't exchange it as I hoped that it would come back up. With the current rate at around 1.63 (yipeee!!!! ) I would like to change it to GBP.

Two weeks ago I applied to XE Forex (after seeing recommendations on here)for an account, but despite sending in the application form using their secure e-mail (twice) and receiving confirmation of receipt, all I've got back from their new account department is an e-mail telling me that they are still waiting for the form!?? grrrr.

So...could somebody please recommend another one to me?

Many thanks.

nickmoul

Crown Currency exchange, But ring them. For the amount you've got you should be able to choose your bank and get commercial rates. Check out https://www.dailyfx.com for live rates. Check out several sources.

Best of luck.

PM me if you want further help.

Nick

mvagusta

I've never tried them but Hifx seem to get alot of good reports as they are used by people emigrating to Australia/New zealand and Canada

http://www.hifx.co.uk

Could be worth checking out

tradetime

I don't know if I am missing something here, sure someone will correct me, but why don't you just transfer the money to your UK account electronically, doesn't that garner interbank rates?

MadSage

I was thinking the same thing. One of the companies I work for are based in the US and pay me in dollars every month, directly into my Halifax current account, at the current exchange rate.

Too bad I've not done much work for them this month... and if only they paid me today instead of 3 weeks ago, I would have received £180 more! doh!

runciblespoon

It's simple. Just now, Citibank's GBP to EUR rate is 0.80675199EUR/GBP. Mid-market is 0.79004. That means to transfer £1000 at Citibank I get EUR1239.54. At mid-market I get EUR1265.76.

A broker won't get mid-market, but it'll be closer. UKForex for £1000 have a rate of 0.8015EUR/GBP. That means I get EUR1247.60. They say mid-market is 0.7895 (so it's moved a little bit in the last few mins).

That's not a recommendation - I haven't used them - it's just a broker slightly more willing to give prices on the net (but you may still get a better deal elsewhere so it really is worth ringing round).

Generally the more you transfer the better the rate will be. If I want to move £100,000 UKForex is giving a rate of 0.7945 which means EUR125,860.00. Citibank would have given me EUR123,954.00. A simple phone call would have saved me almost EUR2,000.

Have a read of this thread and this thread for more details.

Someone's also mentioned:
http://www.compareforeigncurrency.com/
which looks interesting, but I haven't tried them.

The downside: as far as I'm aware forex generally has no protection schemes, so if your broker goes bust when holding your money there's not much you can do except queue up with the other creditors. So make sure you pick a reputable broker.

BritRael

Many thanks for the replies. I'll check out the sites.

As for the question about simply paying into a GBP account, the reason I opened a USD account in the first place was because I found having a USD salary paid into a GBP account was not good as the exchange rate was very poor.
It is not the same as say taking foreign currency out of a Nationwide account overseas (which I do regularly) where they do actually give you 'the current rate' (which I have checked within a couple of minutes on XE.com). Paying money in in USD is also subject to various 'inter-bank charges' which when you enquire about it, is difficult to get a straight answer as to where the cost comes from i.e. "there are several banks involved in paying in USD..we don't charge...it's the others...". hmmm.

tradetime

BritRael wrote: »

Many thanks for the replies. I'll check out the sites.

As for the question about simply paying into a GBP account, the reason I opened a USD account in the first place was because I found having a USD salary paid into a GBP account was not good as the exchange rate was very poor.
It is not the same as say taking foreign currency out of a Nationwide account overseas (which I do regularly) where they do actually give you 'the current rate' (which I have checked within a couple of minutes on XE.com). Paying money in in USD is also subject to various 'inter-bank charges' which when you enquire about it, is difficult to get a straight answer as to where the cost comes from i.e. "there are several banks involved in paying in USD..we don't charge...it's the others...". hmmm.

Thanx for your reply, guess I was indeed missing something, should have guessed really the banks would find a way to gouge :rolleyes:

lectureral

I have used HIFX a couple of times recently - very simple and efficient, I found.