US Dollars to invest

arbster

I have a small stash (c. $7k) of USD currently sitting in Neteller, earning no interest at all. I'd prefer to leave it as dollars, as we tend to draw on it when we travel to the US, rather than buy holiday money. However, it's unlikely we'll need all of it in the next few years, so I was wondering whether anyone could suggest some way of making the majority of the funds work a little harder? Even just an interest-earning account would be preferable, but I've found that the fees for holding such accounts typically outweighed the interest, in the past. Any suggestions?

Plus

If this is investment (ie some risk you might lose money), have a look at Interactive Brokers. They're a US broker that operate in the UK, having generally low fees. They support multiple currencies, so you can wire the USD to them and it'll show as USD in your brokerage account, and then you can buy shares with it. I think if you want to buy shares in another currency (eg pounds) they'll do a cheap conversion.

You'd have to check the transfer arrangements as to what kind of accounts they'll support sending money to when you withdraw - it's no good if they can't send it somewhere that you can withdraw cash when you need to.

arbster

Thanks for the reply - I think direct investment in shares, or even ETFs, is probably a little long-term for what I had in mind. I was thinking 2-3 years maximum, which is probably not the right mindset for going into an equity investment.