Revolut for moving money internationally

Ali_Q

Hi everyone.

I have been living in Vietnam for more than 4 years and am moving back to the UK in a couple of weeks. My UK bank (HSBC) has been extremely unhelpful during my stay here so I don't want to pay fees to transfer my money back. I also have more than the $5k limit Vietnam allows for carrying cash out of the country.

A friend recommended Revolut suggesting that I'd be able to transfer the money in from my Viet account no problem and then be able to use that money in the UK.

Does anyone have experience doing this? Is it legal?

Thanks for your help

PRAISETHESUN

It's your money - so unless there are laws in Vietnam preventing you from transferring your money overseas then you are free to do so - completely legal from the UK's perspective as long as you can document the source of the funds (eg. payslips, etc).

There are plenty of options for overseas money transfers - I usually recommend Revolut or Transferwise. Both offer low/fee-free transfers and very good exchange rates (some "free" transfer companies mark up the exchange rate so it seems like a good deal but actually isn't, keep that in mind). Otherwise check here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange/

eDicky

Do you have a verifiable UK (or elsewhere in Europe) address to use when signing up for a Revolut or other transfer service account? In what currency are your funds and how do you propose to pay them to a Revolut account, by debit card or transfer from bank etc?

PRAISETHESUN

eDicky wrote: »

Do you have a verifiable UK (or elsewhere in Europe) address to use when signing up for a Revolut or other transfer service account? In what currency are your funds and how do you propose to pay them to a Revolut account, by debit card or transfer from bank etc?

@OP - eDicky raises a good point. A quick look suggests Revolut doesn't support VND, so it might be a bit more problematic to find a good deal depending on the currency you need to send (USD will be fine however). The address problem will presumably be sorted once you move back to the UK. You might also want to look around locally for alternatives - I suspect there won't be a great deal too many, but it might be worth a look.

colsten

PRAISETHESUN wrote: »

It's your money - so unless there are laws in Vietnam preventing you from transferring your money overseas then you are free to do so

You must, however, declare cash of €10,000 or more (or the equivalent in another currency) if you take it between the UK and any non-EU country.

I can't see what timescale this limit applies to - best to ask if the total is over the limit.

https://www.gov.uk/bringing-cash-into-uk

eskbanker

colsten wrote: »

PRAISETHESUN wrote: »

It's your money - so unless there are laws in Vietnam preventing you from transferring your money overseas then you are free to do so

You must, however, declare cash of €10,000 or more (or the equivalent in another currency) if you take it between the UK and any non-EU country.

I can't see what timescale this limit applies to - best to ask if the total is over the limit.

https://www.gov.uk/bringing-cash-into-uk

Surely the whole context of this thread is how to transfer the money other than in cash form, but in any case OP had already identified that they'd fall foul of the lower limit on taking cash out of Vietnam, so the higher UK limit on bringing it in is moot:

Ali_Q wrote: »

I also have more than the $5k limit Vietnam allows for carrying cash out of the country.

Ali_Q

Thanks very much for all your answers, I really appreciate it.

If Revolut doesn't support VND then I'll have to find another way. Might just try and sneak out the money in cash. It' not that much more.

colsten

Ali_Q wrote: »

If Revolut doesn't support VND then I'll have to find another way. Might just try and sneak out the money in cash. It' not that much more.

Picture yourself with a wad of VND at a UK bank or currency exchange. Good luck is all I would say.

dj1471

None of the popular brokers can receive money from Vietnam. Revolut however is a full current account so could receive a transfer from a Vietnamese bank, it's correct that they don't support VND however. Probably worth checking what they'll do if you send a currency they don't support (most likely convert it to GBP at the interbank rate). You'll have to pay the Vietnamese bank to make the transfer and probably pay Revolut something for the currency conversion (depends on the amount, it's 2% above a set limit).

Other options:

• Get a quote to send cash from a Western Union store to your UK bank account. They're actually competitive for international bank transfers (at least when I'm looking at sending UK to Vietnam).
• Open an account with HSBC Vietnam and transfer "internally" within HSBC. This is fee-free but they load the exchange rate, not sure by how much.

jonnygee2

If Revolut doesn't support VND then I'll have to find another way. Might just try and sneak out the money in cash. It' not that much more.

I don't think this is overly sensible, given Vietnam is a fairly strict country. How much more is it?

Still if doing this, if it's in VND I would convert it to dollars while you are there, or possibly straight to GBP if you can find a good rate (after 4 years I'd imagine you know how to locate someone that can help with this!). The exchange rate in the UK will be terrible.

zerog

colsten wrote: »

You must, however, declare cash of €10,000 or more (or the equivalent in another currency) if you take it between the UK and any non-EU country.

I can't see what timescale this limit applies to - best to ask if the total is over the limit.

https://www.gov.uk/bringing-cash-into-uk

It applies per entry to the UK.

In the US and Australia, the relevant limits also apply per entry, but it is illegal to avoid the cash reporting requirements by making repeated trips carrying less than the limit, or by splitting cash between several travellers so that each of them can avoid the limit, even if this is difficult to enforce. I don't know if it is illegal in the UK/EU.

Repeated trips to Vietnam, or some other countries, in a short space of time may trigger a targeted UK customs check. You may be met by officers when stepping off the plane. Obviously, nobody except the personnel involved know exactly what triggers an alert or what they would like to check for.

colsten wrote: »

Picture yourself with a wad of VND at a UK bank or currency exchange. Good luck is all I would say.

Obviously you would exchange it to USD or GBP in Vietnam first. In fact if you exchange it to Scottish and Northern Irish banknotes (make sure you know which ones are blacklisted from the Northern Bank robbery!) you will get a rate better than any broker could offer you.

Also - US$5000 worth of VND is only about 250x 500K notes, so about 3cm high. In the UK, Thomas Exchange Global will happily exchange it to GBP with a spread of only 6%. For this sort of amount, they only require one form of ID and not even any documentation regarding the source of the cash.