dollars cheque - whats the easiest way to get this into an ISA

despo

Hi,

I've just received a cheque for just over $8000 as payment for shares I held in my USA based company following a buy-out. whats the easiest and cheapest way to convert to £'s? I would like to put it into ISA's - can I do this as is or do I need to convert to £'s first?

Thrugelmir

despo wrote: »

Hi,

I've just received a cheque for just over $8000 as payment for shares I held in my USA based company following a buy-out. whats the easiest and cheapest way to convert to £'s? I would like to put it into ISA's - can I do this as is or do I need to convert to £'s first?

You'll need to take it to your bank and get them to process it.

Depending on the bank the cheque is drawn on it could take several weeks to clear.

Porcupine

I've never seen an ISA in a non-Sterling currency, so you'll have to convert it.
(There are things you can put in S&S ISAs denominated in dollars, but I think you can only buy them with Sterling)

You can just pay the cheque into your bank, but they'll probably charge a fee for cashing the cheque and then a poor exchange rate.

One route is to open a Citibank US Dollar current account (which is free). I think they will let you deposit the cheque for free too. Then you have the cash in USD in a bank.

Next question is how to convert into sterling. You can open a Citi sterling savings account and do a transfer, which will convert it . The load on the exchange rate is about 3% from interbank. There should be no other fees to convert. Then you just BACS out your sterling to wherever you like.

Alternatively, you could try a foreign exchange broker like HiFX, Foreign Currencies Direct, Moneycorp or Currencies Direct. You'd have to open an account before they will give you a quote, and whether $8K is worth their while I'm not sure. It might be - worth asking. In general a broker should give a better rate than a bank.

A final option is to keep the money in Citi and just transfer a chunk whenever the exchange rates look good. You might make a better rate that way. The rates could do down just as much as try could go up, so there is some risk involved.

dc

I would hold on to the dollars at the mo as the dollar is getting stonger day by day, 7% up on sterling since the beginning of the year. Was $ 1.68 to the pound now nearer 1.56, also doing even better against the Euro ( up 10%).

Beats an ISA

nelster

Thought I'd post my experience of Dollar Cheques.

I have paid into Bank of Scotland, they gave me 1.545 (xe.com rate was around 1.5) and took £5 commission on a $700 cheque.

Avoid Lloyds TSB, they were offering 1.66 (!) and a £15 fee.