Transferring money to UK from US. Safe exchange broker? Another method?

Asker

Hi, I'm getting quite confused and could do with some pointers. I've read the advice thing here but got more confused sorry.

I'm due a substantial amount of inheritance ($250, 000) from the US and have a cheque. It's all kosher, through lawyers etc.. Asked the banks and their rates are rubbish and it takes ages. I did some researching and found that exchange brokers are the best for rates and speed. The lawyers in the US said they'd gladly wire money instead of a cheque. (hmm, not sure if it needs to be to my name I need to check I suppose?)

I need this money within a week or two for a house purchase.

Trouble is I am reading that exchange brokers aren't necessarily safe as the money gets wired to *their* account before it goes to mine... and they could just run off with the money or something. It's an enormous amount to be taking a risk with and I don't know what to do. I read the stuff about registered vs authorised but I'm a bit worried.

Anyone know of some good reputable safe ones to try please?

colsten

For $250K, I would probably use a bank transfer as I think it would be safer and faster than using one of the currency transfer services.

If you are in no hurry and your US lawyer plays ball, you could look into sending smaller payments via someone like Transferwise.

EDIT: In either case, talk to your receiving bank in the UK before any money arrives. That way you might avoid a locked account.

eDicky

With such a substantial amount the exchange rate you get for the conversion becomes much more significant, whereas if the actual charges for the transfer remain the same regardless of the amount (ie. not a %) this becomes very insignificant.

I don't think that a USD cheque is a good idea, there will be complication, charges and time involved in trying to bank it in UK. Ask your bank about it. You will also probably be at their mercy with the exchange rate, whereas for incoming electronic transfer you could try to negotiate a rate improvement in advance for the amount involved.

When using a currency transfer service or exchange broker, it is the party sending the funds who need to sign up with them and initiate the transfer. Would the US lawyers be willing and able to do so? Perhaps if they have regular international business they already have a suitable broker account, such as xe.com or a US firm.

Otherwise, if it would be a straight bank to bank wire transfer, one of the banks, or perhaps an intermediary bank, will do the conversion. The sender usually has a choice whether to send (in this case) dollars, for the receiving bank to convert, or to have their bank convert it to pounds first and send that. So you need to find out what the US lawyers mean by their 'wire transfer', also what sort of exchange rate will be involved if they can convert it to pounds first and compare that with a rate that you can obtain from your own UK bank for the amount involved. The current mid-market rate can be seen on xe.com - the closer you can get to that the better.

The current strength of the dollar is in your favour, so you can view this as your good fortune in offsetting the cost of the transfer and conversion.

baby_frogmella

I highly recommend transferwise as they charge less than <1%, they use the mid-market exchange rate (ie 0% currency loading fee) and allow transfers up to a $1,000,000 from US to UK (excl ACH debit payments). Used them loads of times and never had a problem
https://transferwise.com/help/article/1667423/us-dollar-transfers/usd-transfers