Transferring money from the US to the UK

Daneel

Hi,

I am stuck between two companies telling me opposite things, and don't know how to proceed.

I have USD in a trading account with Morgan Stanley in the US. I have a USD denominated account with Citibank in the UK. I want to transfer funds from MS to CB.

Morgan Stanley tell me they need a ABA rouning number for a correspondent bank to pass the funds through that Citibank should be able to give to me. Citibank tells me the destination account is a UK bank account, so no ABA routing number is required, and they won't supply me with one.

The end result is, I can't transfer my money.

Can anyone tell me who is right and how to resolve this?

Thanks!

dj1471

An ABA number is the US equivalent of a sort code. Your Citibank account doesn't have one because it isn't a US account.

You need to make it clear to MS that you want to make an international transfer, not withdraw the money into a US account. They may not offer that as a service.

Daneel

Thanks. I've made that crystal clear, but they haven't budged. MS insists it's needed to send the funds as USD, if I want GBP, they can do it without. I'll ask to talk to a manager.

Jimfinlay_2

Hi,

I've recently been told about Neteller. I've noticed you can add banks account both domestic and international.

My question is, has anyone used this to transfer monies from the U.S. to the UK?

Archi_Bald

Neteller is more expensive than most. Best to use a comparison service such as https://www.fxcompared.com/ to find the best deal on the day

Jimfinlay_2

Thanks for the reply - are these similar to Neteller in the fact you can add multiple bank accounts?
My problem has always been with my account in the U.S. as they will not setup a wire transfer without me being in one of their branches. With the service that Neteller proved this would eliminate that problem

Caladan

Daneel wrote: »

Hi,

I am stuck between two companies telling me opposite things, and don't know how to proceed.

I have USD in a trading account with Morgan Stanley in the US. I have a USD denominated account with Citibank in the UK. I want to transfer funds from MS to CB.

Morgan Stanley tell me they need a ABA rouning number for a correspondent bank to pass the funds through that Citibank should be able to give to me. Citibank tells me the destination account is a UK bank account, so no ABA routing number is required, and they won't supply me with one.

The end result is, I can't transfer my money.

Can anyone tell me who is right and how to resolve this?

Thanks!

Citibank will (almost certainly) have a correspondent bank in the US that they use to handle US payments. Morgan Stanley want the ABA for the correspondent bank (who will then forward the funds to Citi).

Simply put it works like this (BOTU is a made up name, as far as I know):

Citibank has an account with Bank of the USA (BOTU) that it uses to handle international payments from the US.

Morgan Stanley sends the money to BOTU with instructions stating the final destination for the funds (for example Citibanks account in the UK). At this point Morgan Stanley is no longer involved.

It's then up to BOTU to forward the funds to their account in the UK, and then finally apply them to Citibanks UK account.

In this way - Morgan Stanley is not actually sending money internationally themselves, they're sending it domestically to another US bank, hence wanting the ABA.

~Disclaimer~
Open to being corrected on this, this is my understanding only

Edit: Feel I should add - When making an international payment from the UK, although this correspondent bank stuff still happens in the background, consumers don't usually need to know or care about it and just state the final destination. The US is a bit archaic when it comes to banking.