Buying a ring

M4RKM

Nationwide Credit Card.... that's a good option..

or, and i've looked at this in a bit of detail... get a FairFX card (https://www.fairfx.com) and you get a great rate, and also the transaction rate on $ is 0...

if you load that with a credit card, it will be charged at a cash advance rate though most probably...

neilbond007

1.483 is a pretty poor rate. you'd get something like that on a credit card (and wouldn't have to worry about carrying cash).
I'm in the process of emigrating to the US so am looking at transferring large amounts over. I'm using this website to compare rates -
http://sendmoneyhome.org/Content/searchresults.php?countries=GB&destinations=US&amount=10000&submit=Search&submitted=true
some of these are bank account to bank account so won't be of use, but some say "bank account to cash) so might be!

good luck either way!