Cheapest way to receive a lump sum from USA?

Lit_Up

I have rented an apartment to some Americans for four months, they are paying me the rent upfront (over £10,000 sterling).

What is the cheapest way to receive this money? Paypal? Bank Transfer? They have an American bank account.

My bank (nationwide) has this in FAQs:

Receiving payments
As is the case when sending payments, receiving payments from EEA countries normally takes one working day.
Our Agent Bank will convert payments into sterling at the current rate of exchange, if the payment has not already been converted. Although we will not charge a fee for receiving payments, the payment may have a fee applied if another Agent Bank is involved.

I'm a total newbie to this - any help appreciated.

Best,

Lit Up

grumbler

For the cheapest way see
http://www.fxcompared.com/Content/money-transfer-from-USA-UK-above-3000-amount-16000
http://www.mycurrencytransfer.com/money-transfer-to-UK/16000-USD

Also, https://www.currencyfair.com/ is worth checking is it's not listed at the above sites.

BonkersBonkers

Cheapest or best?

Nationwide will charge no more than £12 to accept a payment from USA.

However you will have no say in the exchange rate.

Lit_Up

So if they're sending me £12,000 how much would show up in my account?

boo_star

Lit_Up wrote: »

So if they're sending me £12,000 how much would show up in my account?

Negotiable, I imagine.

Amounts over £10k usually are.

Lit_Up

What do you mean by negotiable? I don't want to 'negotiate' to get my money. It's mine!

grumbler

For a bank transfer, by default expect to lose about 3% on the conversion as against the interbank rate. Even more at Paypal.

Or you can ask the Americans to convert $->£ over there at their cost and to transfer ££ instead.

Lit_Up

grumbler wrote: »

For a bank transfer, by default expect to lose about 3% on the conversion as against the interbank rate. Even more at Paypal.

Or you can ask the Americans to convert $->£ over there at their cost and to transfer ££ instead.

How are they going to transfer in £ when the currency in their account is $?

Sorry for the basic questions... I just need to give him clear instructions on what I want and how to make it happen.

JuicyJesus

Lit_Up wrote: »

How are they going to transfer in £ when the currency in their account is $?

Sorry for the basic questions... I just need to give him clear instructions on what I want and how to make it happen.

They would convert it at the sender's end, at their own exchange rate.

The process could go one of three ways:

1) Sending account is $, receiving is $. No exchange spread.

2) Sending account is $, receiving is £, payment sent in $. No exchange spread at sender's end, receiver's bank converts the funds to £ at their rate. May also be a fee from the receiving bank for receiving a non-sterling payment.

3) Sending account is $, receiving is £, payment sent in £. Conversion is done at the senders end to £, no exchange spread at receivers end.

There is also option 4:

4) Use an FX company. Sending account sends $ to the FX company who then send £ to the receiving account. Might be cheaper, might not be, but it does add an element of unreliability to it since there are obviously more parties to the transaction.