Best bank account for transfer of USD

VickyLeigh1983

Hello!

Newbie here. I'll shortly be working overseas on a rotational basis, for a US company who will be paying me in USD into a US bank account (that they are setting up). I will be looking to transfer most (if not all) of the money across to a UK bank account to pay bills etc whilst I am away and obviously looking for the most efficient and effective way of doing this (exchange rates etc)... 

Any advice is welcome!

Thanks in advance

sausage_time

Wise is always worth checking out.  While they were pausing the creation of USD bank account details you can still wire USD into the GBP details and benefit from their FX rate.

VickyLeigh1983

Thank you, is Wise FSCS protected? Ideally want to make sure my £ is safe

eDicky

VickyLeigh1983 said:

Thank you, is Wise FSCS protected? Ideally want to make sure my £ is safe

No, but no need to leave your GBP with them for any length of time, just transfer to your regular bank(s), having benefited from decent exchange rate.

VickyLeigh1983

eDicky said:

VickyLeigh1983 said:

Thank you, is Wise FSCS protected? Ideally want to make sure my £ is safe

No, but no need to leave your GBP with them for any length of time, just transfer to your regular bank(s), having benefited from decent exchange rate.

That makes sense, thank you!

Totally new world for me...

sausage_time

More information on receiving USD:

https://wise.com/help/articles/2935927/how-do-i-use-my-gbp-account-details

The key point is to send in USD and allow Wise to do the conversion.  This is likely to be better than allowing your US bank to do this (but definitely worth checking).

Separately, f you will be abroad as part of this engagement make sure you have a credit or debit card with good FX rates for purchases (and ATM if you ever use cash).   I do have a Wise debit card but I tend to rotate my USD out of Wise as soon as they arrive.

Noodleman

I’ve been following with interest. I work in the UK for a US company and have received shares in USD. The share portal is through Fidelity.
I have a GBP Wise account (have tried to open a USD account too, but as mentioned elsewhere these are not being processed), and when I enter the Wise details onto Fidelity to try and transfer across USDs, I get the following error:

“This SWIFT code is for a bank located outside the US. US dollar transactions require a US intermediary/correspondent bank. The 5th and 6th characters of the SWIFT code must be U and S.”

For Wise, the 5th and 6th characters of the SWIFT code are GB. Hope that makes sense. Does anyone have any ideas how to resolve this?

TIA.

WastedWords

I regularly receive dividends and share proceeds from a US company using Fidelity portal to an HSBC USD currency account using the UK BIC and IBAN with no charges. Gives FSCS protection.
From there to HSBC GMA for exchange or further transfer elsewhere for better rate. T212 are currently competitive.

sausage_time

Noodleman said:

I’ve been following with interest. I work in the UK for a US company and have received shares in USD. The share portal is through Fidelity.
I have a GBP Wise account (have tried to open a USD account too, but as mentioned elsewhere these are not being processed), and when I enter the Wise details onto Fidelity to try and transfer across USDs, I get the following error:

“This SWIFT code is for a bank located outside the US. US dollar transactions require a US intermediary/correspondent bank. The 5th and 6th characters of the SWIFT code must be U and S.”

For Wise, the 5th and 6th characters of the SWIFT code are GB. Hope that makes sense. Does anyone have any ideas how to resolve this?

TIA.

That's seems particularly restrictive of Fidelity (and lets them set the FX rate for non USD transfers).  Other brokers I have used allow USD international transfers (Schwab for example). 

HSBC (see above from @WastedWords) seems a good workaround.