Transferring USD to UK/GBP

Feyou123

Hi, wondering if anyone had any recent experience transferring USD to the UK without losing £££ in the process. I have sold vested shares which are held in a USD account in Hong Kong. Plan was to transfer the proceeds to a USD borderless account with Transferwise. Unfortunately, due to the new rule that the USD Transferwise account needs to be named 'Transferwise FBO account holder name' the holding bank in HK does not accept the transfer - both account names must be identical. If I simply transfer the funds into my UK GBP Barclays account (with conversion into GBP) it looks like I'll lose a lot of £££ in the process. Has anyone tried sending USD from a non USD country (e.g. Hong Kong) to a UK USD account (e.g. with Barclays) and then transferred to a USD Transferwise account to let them do the conversion into GBP? Is it worth it? How much do I stand to lose in fees? Thanks

londoninvestor

Feyou123 wrote: »

Has anyone tried sending USD from a non USD country (e.g. Hong Kong) to a UK USD account (e.g. with Barclays) and then transferred to a USD Transferwise account to let them do the conversion into GBP? Is it worth it? How much do I stand to lose in fees? Thanks

SWIFT intermediary fees are a bit unpredictable, but a slightly pessimistic guess would be $50 per transfer, so $100 total. Plus whatever your HK bank charges you for sending USD out. (I don't think Barclays charges to send the USD out to Transferwise, but check that too.)

Transferwise charges 0.5%ish I think for converting USD to GBP.

You don't mention the total amount you're talking about, but these fees could still work out better than letting a mainstream bank do the FX conversion for you.

Feyou123

Thank you. It’s in excess of $100k. My other concern was whether there would be any issues transferring from Barclays USD account to Transferwise, if anyone’s ever done that, let me know.

eDicky

For that amount the exchange rate becomes more important than the transfer fees, as you're probably aware.

Have you tried requesting the HK bank to convert the USD to GBP before sending it to Barclays UK, and negotiating a preferential rate for that amount with a lower spread than the ~3% that Barclays would impose?

You might look at Fineco bank UK, who provide USD account details in your own name to receive directly, then their exchange rate is close to the interbank rate.

Feyou123

Thanks, Fineco looks like a good solution (the bank in HK doesn't convert into GBP). Many thanks!

sal_III

HSBC also offer easy access to "currency account" in USD in your name, and given it's origins might "play" better with HK banks.