Exchange rate and commission fees for US dollar accout between Santander and HSBC

PingPongSet

I consider opening a US dollar account from either of the two banks below:

hsbc.co.uk/international/currency-account/
santanderinternational.co.uk/banking/bank-accounts/gold-bank-accounts

I want to find out the exchange rate and commission fees charged by both.

Are there links to both exchange rate and commission fees used by both? Or can anyone please post it if you have the account?

For example, as a comparison, what is the rate of us/uk today?

Santander doesn't charge commission free

"Our Foreign Exchange service offers commission-free rates whenever you need to change currency."

londoninvestor

PingPongSet wrote: »

For example, as a comparison, what is the rate of us/uk today?

Many sources, but this is one I habitually use:
https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=GBP=

In general you will find the banks are uncompetitive with their exchange rates. "Commission-free" is nothing special and is arguably an actively bad thing, because it means they'll quote you a single price without disclosing which part is the market rate, and which is the markup.

It would be worth looking at the currency conversion services here:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange/

Alternatively, you could hold your dollars in an account with a provider that gives more competitive exchange rates, such as Revolut, Transferwise or Fineco. But none of those has FSCS protection. The former two don't have deposit protection, and Fineco is covered by the Italian scheme.

You'll find all these accounts discussed more extensively on the "Budgeting and Bank Accounts" board here.

PingPongSet

londoninvestor wrote: »

Many sources, but this is one I habitually use:
https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=GBP=
.

I know there are many resources for these, but I want to know the exchange rate and commission fees both banks charge. So I can decide which bank to open an account.


Without FSC, I think it is risky.

atush

With HSBC it depends on the amount you are transferring, The higher amt means a better price than a lower amt.

steampowered

Exchange rates and commission should not be a consideration here.

Unless we are only talking about small sums, you should only be paying USD into a USD account.

If you are using your bank account to convert currency you are going to be getting a bad exchange rate.

Don't use the banks to convert large sums of money. You will be much better off using a currency broker like HiFx - you pay them £ from your £ account, they pay $ into your $ account.

PingPongSet

steampowered wrote: »

Don't use the banks to convert large sums of money. You will be much better off using a currency broker like HiFx - you pay them £ from your £ account, they pay $ into your $ account.

This is a good point. Do you know any good broker for UK that provides good rate?

steampowered

PingPongSet wrote: »

This is a good point. Do you know any good broker for UK that provides good rate?

https://www.hifx.co.uk/ is well known

GiddyInvestor

I find currencyfair.com very good with generally about 0.25% cost I think. For major currencies I understand transferwise is cheaper.