Advice on converting large amount of $s to £s

EdwardBrewer

Hi,

Apologies if this has been covered in another thread, but I'm looking for advice regarding exchanging and investing an amount of $s.

A relative has left around $25000 in a will (somehat to my surprise), and not being financially minded, I wondered if anyone had suggestions for getting the best exchange rate back to £s as the money will be handed over as a cheque in $s.

Also, if anyone has advice on the safest and most beneficial place to invest this kind of sum in the UK, that too would also be much appreciated!

gozomark

safest or beneficial - which do you want ? this is an "either/or", not "and"

as for best rate, one of the forex companies is probably your best bet - several are mentioned on the forum, but i've not used any to recommend

mrposhman

I've used HiFx who I found to be very good and professional in dealing with trades.

BiggaThanBen

"the best exchange rate" - probably exchange points near Queensway / Victoria stations in London. Safest ? Can be a bit scary carrying that amount of money .. I did that several times, everything was ok

Also depends on where the money is - inside/outside of UK, I found that the majority of forex companies deal with intercountry transfers only ..

EdwardBrewer

gozomark wrote: »

safest or beneficial - which do you want ? this is an "either/or", not "and"

as for best rate, one of the forex companies is probably your best bet - several are mentioned on the forum, but i've not used any to recommend

Perhaps a happy medium if such a thing is possible; I don't need to use the cash urgently, so wherever it can accumulate decent interest over a long(ish) period (5 years+)

Thanks for your responses so far btw!

mrposhman

BiggaThanBen wrote: »

"the best exchange rate" - probably exchange points near Queensway / Victoria stations in London. Safest ? Can be a bit scary carrying that amount of money .. I did that several times, everything was ok

Also depends on where the money is - inside/outside of UK, I found that the majority of forex companies deal with intercountry transfers only ..

I assumed the OP's cash was in the states being as he quoted it in $'s which was why I suggested HiFx.

Why do you think that the Queensway has a better exchange rate than a forex company.

To the OP, for the amount of money use a forex company, they will normally have a better rate than the bank but maybe get quotes from a few if I were you. If you had less than £5k then your bank would probably be the best bet as I found that when you go below these amounts you don't tend to get better quotes with forex brokers. In fact the guy at HiFx actually told me once to just go with my bank as it wasn't worth going with them for around £5000.

gozomark

EdwardBrewer wrote: »

Perhaps a happy medium if such a thing is possible; I don't need to use the cash urgently, so wherever it can accumulate decent interest over a long(ish) period (5 years+)

Thanks for your responses so far btw!

just to clarify then, do you want to save (eg put in bank account and earn interest) or invest ( eg put in shares, and get dividends and have the potential for capital gains/losses) ? It just your first post said invest, your last post said interest

malik999

my advice. your first step is to get it into sterling so use hifx to convert it to £.
how to invest it then is dependant on you and what risk you want to take.

EdwardBrewer

gozomark wrote: »

just to clarify then, do you want to save (eg put in bank account and earn interest) or invest ( eg put in shares, and get dividends and have the potential for capital gains/losses) ? It just your first post said invest, your last post said interest

Sorry for not making it clear, as I said finance is not my area or first language; to answer your question I'm not interested in shares and gains/losses, just somewhere where it can sit with a reasonable interest rate.

BritRael

I used (after recommendations on here) Baydon Hill last year for the same purpose.

Very easy process and they did exactly what they said they would do; they quoted an exchange rate and the exact amount that I would receive. I did my bit (got my money to them within the specified time period) and they did their bit

I also applied to HiFx at the same time, but despite sending them all the required documentation (plus repeated e-mailed reminders to them) they delayed getting back to me.

Good luck.