Transferring US$ to UK Bank

seaweed5254

Hello,

I've bought some stocks in the US via our company. If i want to sell the shares, then it will be sold in dollars and can only be sent in 3 ways : via wire transfer to a bank, wire transfer to a financial insitution other than a bank or $ cheque delivered to home address. What is the cheapest way of doing it. I think they are charging $10 to do a wire transfer. But how about the exchange rate of the banks ? How can i check their current exchange rate ? I have Barclays, A&L, and Nationwide.

Thanks.

seaweed5254

anyone, please?

eslick

it will normally be the bank rate but was they pay by a wire transfer you might be hit with bank charges. If they let you transfer them to iii.co.uk, you can then sell them but iii convert it pounds for you. you will have to open an account with iii but they dont charge that much for trading. iii also use the bank rate.

seaweed5254

thanks ! Do i need to open a dollar accout with iii.co.uk ?

seaweed5254

hi eslick. i just phoned nationwide and i was told that they do not charge here for the transfer since the sender would have already converted into gbp. is this correct ?

markbodega

Seaweed

At the very least you should compare the exchange rates offered by your banks in the US and UK with those of a currency specialist.

On average you'll save up to 4% on the exchange rate and you'll also avoid paying unnecessary bank charges often levied both sides of the pond! In addition to saving you money they can also keep you up to date with what's happening to the exchange rates and offer you a variety of alternatives depending on what you're trying to do. Some also offer an online international money transfer service - it just depends on what you're looking for.

Which company you use depends on the amount of money you'll be bringing back to the UK. Martin has written a great foreign currency guide (in the banking and saving section) which makes everything clear.

At the end of the day many of our clients use us to repatriate investments so you're right to shop around and compare the rates offered by your bank to those offered by currency specialists.

Hope this is useful.

Mark Bodega
Director - HiFX