Converting Dollars to Pounds

Shiverinjimmy

Hi there. My name is James and I'm from London. I am very ignorant when it comes to money and so just have a question regarding the most cost effective way to regularly (every1-4 months) convert my dollars into pounds.

I regularly make US Dollars online through my job but currently am withdrawing them through to my Sterling Neteller account which charges a 2.5% conversion fee and has a terrible exchange rate so am looking for a better alternative.

If the ideal way to convert the Dollars was through the creation of a particular bank account at a particular bank, through a company like the post office, through a particular method of being sent the money like a cheque or through a more manual forex-trading type manner (as you can tell I really don't have a clue what I'm talking about) then that's fine, I'm open to any suggestions, I just may need some explanation of how to go about doing what-ever you may recommend.

I have checked 'Thomas Exchange Global' and they seem have good exchange rates though I'm pretty ignorant of which fees I should be looking at or if they actually even do what it is that I require.

I looked into Citibank too thinking that by creating a US Dollar account I may be able to minimise the conversion costs but I am unable to create an account there due to not making over £20,000 a year.

Overall I don't mind waiting and/or having to do some work to get the best rate I can, I'm just trying to figure out what it is that I should do.

Also if there is no good way to regularly convert dollars to pounds I'd be happy to hear of a way to convert one large dollar amount into pounds instead.

Thank you for any help
Best of luck

malik999

I would contact hifx and see if they can assist you

Shiverinjimmy

Thanks for the advice I'll take a look at their site.

mrposhman

HiFx conversion rates are good for sums greater than £5k but pretty poor for sums lower than this.

Banks pay a better rate to transfer smaller sums but do tend to take a bit longer. You could always try and open a US bank account with a US bank. I didn't have to send my IRS tax number to open it as they take withholding tax from any interest earned on the account anyway.