Best UK Account To Receive USD

Radicalrooster

Hi all!
I have recently accepted a job for a US company where I will be working remote in the UK (I am a UK resident).
I have a Halifax current account and they seem to charge fees for receiving foreign transfers and their own currency conversion can differ to the 'standard' rate.
Looking into this myself, one option was to open an account with an account with someone like TransferWise. The idea being I can then 'hold' the USD and move to my UK Halifax account when the rate is in my favour. However if I then transfer this money to my Halifax account, then surely I'll end up paying fees anyway?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to the best way I can receive a USD salary paying as little in fees as possible and benefiting from the best conversion?

PRAISETHESUN

There are a few recent threads on similar subjects to this, so I'd have a quick search and see what see you can find. I can give a positive vote for Wise though, having used them in the past. I wouldn't recommend using them to hold money for any substantial period of time as they lack FSCS protection - just use them to get paid in USD and send immediately to your Halifax account at the much better conversion rate. Fineco is another one that comes up regularly and seems well received. Revolut also works, but they have a very poor reputation for customer support - they work fine until there is a problem but when something goes wrong (ie. they freeze your account for no well explained reason) then that is the least of your worries - I personally would avoid them.

Outside of that, a USD account with a UK bank such as HSBC might be another option, although as you've already discovered they don't offer the best conversion rates or the lowest fees.

Radicalrooster

PRAISETHESUN said:

There are a few recent threads on similar subjects to this, so I'd have a quick search and see what see you can find. I can give a positive vote for Wise though, having used them in the past. I wouldn't recommend using them to hold money for any substantial period of time as they lack FSCS protection - just use them to get paid in USD and send immediately to your Halifax account at the much better conversion rate. Fineco is another one that comes up regularly and seems well received. Revolut also works, but they have a very poor reputation for customer support - they work fine until there is a problem but when something goes wrong (ie. they freeze your account for no well explained reason) then that is the least of your worries - I personally would avoid them.

Outside of that, a USD account with a UK bank such as HSBC might be another option, although as you've already discovered they don't offer the best conversion rates or the lowest fees.

Thanks so much for your reply - I'm reading through the MSE forums now on similar topics.

A Wise account does seem the way to go to receive the USD, but I suppose my outstanding question is... When I transfer that money to my UK Halifax account, will I be hit with the £7 charge for payments over £100 plus Halifax's own poor conversion rate?

Or does Wise convert USD to GBP for me?

Thanks!

PRAISETHESUN

Let Wise do the conversion - receive your USD into your Wise USD account, transfer from USD to your Wise GBP account then transfer from your Wise GBP account to Halifax. Wise will charge a small fee to do the transfers but overall you are much better off due to the greatly improved exchange rate. And as you'll be receiving GBP into your Halifax account, there will be no fees to pay on that end either.

Radicalrooster

PRAISETHESUN said:

Let Wise do the conversion - receive your USD into your Wise USD account, transfer from USD to your Wise GBP account then transfer from your Wise GBP account to Halifax. Wise will charge a small fee to do the transfers but overall you are much better off due to the greatly improved exchange rate. And as you'll be receiving GBP into your Halifax account, there will be no fees to pay on that end either.

This is starting to make sense, thank you!

My last question - You talk about moving USD from a Wise USD account to a Wise GBP account.

Does this mean I need to setup 2 Wise accounts? One in USD and the other in GBP?

PRAISETHESUN

Radicalrooster said:

PRAISETHESUN said:

Let Wise do the conversion - receive your USD into your Wise USD account, transfer from USD to your Wise GBP account then transfer from your Wise GBP account to Halifax. Wise will charge a small fee to do the transfers but overall you are much better off due to the greatly improved exchange rate. And as you'll be receiving GBP into your Halifax account, there will be no fees to pay on that end either.

This is starting to make sense, thank you!

My last question - You talk about moving USD from a Wise USD account to a Wise GBP account.

Does this mean I need to setup 2 Wise accounts? One in USD and the other in GBP?

Pretty much - you open a Wise account and within that account you have balances with various currencies. You can convert between them at your leisure and then transfer to an external account in whatever currency you've chosen.

colsten

You need just 1 Wise account. Inside it. you have 'pots' for your different currencies, and you can easily move money between pots. You can see the exchange rate before you move the money.

I would also recommend you fully verify your Wise account before you use it first time. This should avoid any delays down the line.

Radicalrooster

colsten said:

You need just 1 Wise account. Inside it. you have 'pots' for your different currencies, and you can easily move money between pots. You can see the exchange rate before you move the money.

I would also recommend you fully verify your Wise account before you use it first time. This should avoid any delays down the line.

Thank you for confirming - That's amazing!

I'll go right ahead and set this up - I guess I then give my employer the details for the US 'pot' of my account?

PRAISETHESUN

Yup - give them your USD account details and they should be able to transfer you USD as if you had a domestic US bank account.

And I also agree with @colsten about fully verifying your account ASAP once opened.

Radicalrooster

PRAISETHESUN said:

Yup - give them your USD account details and they should be able to transfer you USD as if you had a domestic US bank account.

And I also agree with @colsten about fully verifying your account ASAP once opened.

What a world we live in! I had no idea this was a thing.

Thank you so much for your help and advice!

julian_arg

I recommend Wise as well, always had great service from them