cheapest way to buy dollars when we're not there

a2lette

i'm an american living and working in the UK, getting married to an englishman next summer in the US.

we've got wedding deposits and bills coming in that we need to pay soon, but won't be over in the states again until the holidays. i've got banks in both the US and UK, but doing wire transfers or anything like that with a high-street bank seems hugely expensive with not a great rate.

we were looking at using something like one of these companies:
https://www.currency-express.com/currencyexpress/

http://www.worldfirst.com/individual/index.htm

but don't know anything about them, and whether that's the right route to take. any thoughts or recommendations?

also, as we have a little flexibility in when we can pay the bills (by a month or two), are there any sites that will let us prepay and they make the trade when it reaches a certain rate?

thanks in advance for your help!

LondonCanuck

Go to Citibank and talk to them about a USD / GBP account. Very good value.
When you go to the just tell Citi and they will convert your card to dollars and you don't get any charges! When you get back, same goes!

If you want to transfer a large sum of cash, have a look at https://www.xe.com/fx/

There's quite a large thread in the "Anything else money saving" section on trnsferring cash.

HTH :wave:

pin

Citibank is a good idea, however I think there is a requirement you have a minimum balance of something like £2,000.