USD to GBP bad exchange rate avoidance

AviatorEGHH

Hi,
I have a UK based company that receives payments in USD. My plan at the moment is to receive the payments into a UK based USD business account. Then use the USD account to transfer to 'Transferwise' for a good exchange rate (USD-GBP) and then eventually receive the money in my UK business GBP account.

The problem -
With my USD account there is no internet banking or phone banking for third party transactions and therefore I cannot use the bank account unless I am in the UK at a branch. I am however often out of the country for extended periods meaning my US dollars are trapped.

Does anyone have a better way of doing this?

There must be a simple way. I just hate using the terrible bank exchange rates.

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks

agrinnall

Is there anyone else in your company who is in the UK more than you who could do the transfers, or is it a one person company? Otherwise the only thing I can think of is to try to find a bank that offers a USD account with internet or phone banking, but I don't know how easy that will be. You could perhaps try looking at the offshore banks in Jersey/Guernsey/Isle of Man.

firefox1956

Might be too simple an answer..........
Can whoever pays you in USD simply not use Transferwise ??
Or am I missing something ??

AviatorEGHH

Agrinnall,

Thanks, yes this is one possibility. But it does put that person out. True though, that would work. I am hoping to find a more instant and easy solution.

AviatorEGHH

Firefox,

This is theoretically possible but not so easy to get the company in question to spend the time registering on transferwise. Also if I'm being picky, I lose control of the exchange rate given at the time of the transfer or as I am sure you well know, exchange rates can be preferable at different times/days. So if possible I would like to keep control.

grumbler

AviatorEGHH wrote: »

...My plan at the moment is to receive the payments into a UK based USD business account. Then use the USD account to transfer to 'Transferwise' for a good exchange rate (USD-GBP)

Don't forget that each $ transfer to Trasferwise will cost you a (flat) fee.

eDicky

agrinnall wrote: »

You could perhaps try looking at the offshore banks in Jersey/Guernsey/Isle of Man.

Yes, these are much more likely to have complete online facilities. Santander Jersey does (or did),.My account had a USD debit card, which could be used to pay TransferWise.

grumbler wrote: »

Don't forget that each $ transfer to Trasferwise will cost you a (flat) fee.

TransferWise charge a percentage of the amount you're converting, but even for larger sums when the bank fee will be relatively lower than theirs, the interbank rate usually makes it cheaper than having the bank stiff you with their rates.

But do TransferWise accept a USD payment and transfer from a British bank?

AviatorEGHH

Thanks, I'll look into the Jersey / Guernsey banks.

TransferWise is the best I've found so far even with their fees.

eDicky

It may be worth pre-registering for a Revolut business account, which could provide totally free transfers in the same way as personal accounts do:

https://business.revolut.com/

AviatorEGHH

eDicky,

Genius! Pre-registry done.

This could be the key. I've never even heard of Revolut!

Thanks a lot!

AviatorEGHH

There isn't actually much info on the Business side of Revolut yet, however if the business accounts run similarly to the personal accounts, it seems you can only transfer to your Revolut account from another account in your own name. Therefore I still wont be able to receive payments to my Revolut account from a third party (ie.contractor), meaning I still have to have another USD account somewhere in order to be able to exchange.

Hopefully Revolut will address this problem on the Business accounts.