SB - Paying US suppliers in $

Chippy_Minton

An associate is looking for a cheaper, quicker and more reliable UK £ to US $ transfer facility to pay US suppliers.

He has to settle the US company's account in US $ not UK £, so has to "buy" $ currency and arrange for it to be transferred across, paying all send and receive charges.

There is a published currency exchange rate at www.oanda.com. This gives a daily business rate (not a high street rate) which is an indication of the exchange rates available and much better than that offered by his current business bank, Royal Bank of Scotland. E.g. today the oanda rate was $1.7794, and RBS $1.7568.

He is thinking of using www.worldfirst.com, which offers cheaper rates than RBS, and with no charges for transactions over £10K/$18K.

The big BUT is, can he trust this company "Worldfirst" with the money he sends to them, and what assurances are there that Worldfirst will pay his US supplier?

If anyone has any experience of Worldfirst, or can offer cheaper alternatives, I'll pass on the information.

Thanks.

Robin00

There is an extensive thread on exchange rates buries on here somewhere! I think Worldfirst are fairly new, you might want to try:

Currencies Direct
HiFX
Foreign Currency Direct (us!)

R/.

frequent

HSBC have great US$ account
Can pay suppliers world wide in US$ and recieve payments. £40 a year plus fee's as you use (T/T etc)

http://www.ukpersonal.hsbc.co.uk/hsbc/personal_banking/current-accounts/foreign-currency-accounts

davidr54

I've used World First twice and had very good service both times.
I just got a sense when I was talking to them that I trusted them and went with my intuition!
D.R.

Robin00

Just make sure you're getting a decent rate! You can follow the interbank rate at http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/currency/default.stm and should certainly be within a cent of this if you are doing large and/or regular transactions.

Chippy_Minton

Thank you, Robin00, frequent and davidr54 for replying. You've given me some useful information.