Transferring money to the UK from abroad

scotincanada

Hello Money Experts!

I live in Canada, but I'm paying off my student loan in the UK.

My question - what is the most cost effective way to transfer money from Canada to the UK (i.e. avoiding money transfer fees, exchange rate fees etc), either directly to the student loans company or into my UK bank account, for me to then pay the student loans company?

For ease of use, I currently use my Visa CC to make automated money transfers from my Canadian account to the student loans company, but the bank nails me with a 2.5% conversation rate, which effectively adds an additional 2.5% on the entire amount of my loan.

I asked my bank about making transfers from my Canadian bank account to my UK account, but they said I would still pay 2.5% in addition to having a higher transfer fee than the Credit CC)!!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated?

grumbler

I think you'll struggle to make it cheaper than 2.5% unless you do it in one big lump sum.

"I currently use my Visa CC to make automated money transfers from my Canadian account to the student loans company" - this is something really exotic for a CC card by UK standards.

ETA: there are a few cards in UK that don't charge currency conversion fees for abroad transactions. If you find such card in Canada, send it to your friend/relative and ask them to withdraw cash and either to pay to the loan company or to deposit it to your UK account if you have one.

scotincanada

Great tip Grumbler, thank you. I'll look into the UK cards that don't charge a currency conversion rates.

Sincerely,

grumbler

A UK card won't help you. You need a similar Canadian card, not a UK card.

For UK cards (just as an example) see Martin's article: Cheap Travel Money: Top cards for spending abroad

scotincanada

Perfect. Thanks

Daedalus

Are you making voluntary contributions?

If so I wouldn't. If you want to pay it off, save the money and pay it off in one lump at sometime in the future if you wish. No point paying to pay off a debt you don't need to pay.

Voyager2002

Why has no-one mentioned currency brokers?

I am sure that many of them are excellent, but have only used one. Custom House (part of Western Union) is based in Vancouver, and for transfers that are both from and to a bank account they offer a no-fee service with tighter exchange rates than I have ever seen offered by a bank. Their web site is at xe.com

Dabooka

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Why has no-one mentioned currency brokers?

Do you mean apart from the response that DID mention currency brokers?