Transfer savings from Australia

hairy_lairy

I'm trying to find out for my son who lives in Australia at the moment the best way of transferring money he has in an Australian bank a/c, to his UK one. He's worked and saved over there for a few years and is looking to come back to UK in the next few months, hoping to buy a house eventually. Is it best to just transfer with a bank foreign transfer or would something like Transferwise be a better option. The amount is not massive, about £7000.
Any help, be very grateful.

eskbanker

Specialist brokers are likely to be cheaper than using banks, see https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange/ for further details.

Gabeatv

There are a number of services that allow you to transfer money between accounts. Take a look at WorldFirst, they are missing from the list posted above.

PRAISETHESUN

I've had to do the exact same thing in the past - definitely would recommend to stay away from a international bank transfer from his aussie bank to a UK one as he'd get slapped with large fees and a poor exchange rate.

Check out the options in the link suggested by eskbanker. A specialist broker will almost always be cheaper. I've used TransferWise in the past and found them to be reasonably competitive.