Receiving USD from a US bank

Debutante

I appreciate this subject has been discussed many times but given the fast moving world of online banking etc I would to ask for help.

I am about to be sent a significant legacy which is currently with a US bank in America. I am aware that using my high street bank would not be competitive and have so far narrowed the choice down to two routes.

One is to use Wise and I have found it easy to open an account with them which I have divided into one in GBP in the UK and the other in USD and appears to be an actual USA a/c. I have stuck a £100 in and played around converting it back & forth between the two a/c's. Wise say they offer a fair rate which is the difference between the buy/sell spot rates (I presume real time).

The second is to use Currencies Direct who presumably might be able to buy at spot and beat the Wise rate but they will obviously charge something.

The whole decision is in some ways made a mockery of due to the daily movement of the GBP/USD rate - this has 'cost' us a large amount in the recent pound rally.

The one problem I can foresee is to fall foul of money laundering regulations. The cash is with a major US bank and they know the genuine provenance.

My questions are: Does anyone have any strong views re Wise vs Currencies Direct ?
Is there anything I need to do in advance to prove the money is legit ?

Many thanks for any advice
Paul

PRAISETHESUN

It's quite likely you will need to document the source of the funds. You probably won't be able to provide it in advance, but having it up your sleeve for if/when you get asked for it will speed up any investigations if your accounts get frozen.

I've used Wise for a few years and generally not had any issues with it. They offer a competitive rate and they are transparent about their fees. You might be able to get a better rate if you shop around though, particularly for larger sums. Just make sure you receive the USD payment as dollars, and don't let the sender do any of the currency conversions themselves.

lon_don

The whole decision is in some ways made a mockery of due to the daily movement of the GBP/USD rate - this has 'cost' us a large amount in the recent pound rally.

A bit off topic but the GBP rally ended almost 2 months ago when cable hit 1.34. It's now back down to ~1.26-1.265 (while 2024 low was ~1.235 in April) so it shouldn't be that bad for you.

Voyager2002

A couple of thoughts:

Firstly, for a large sum of money it might be worth contacting your usual bank and seeing if you can negotiate a reasonable exchange rate.

Secondly, are you planning to invest some of your inheritance? If so, it might be simpler to keep it in dollars, since many shares and securities can be traded in USD.

gt94sss2

The first thing for the OP to decide is whether they want the funds in sterling or US dollars when they receive it or if they want to convert it at a later stage. 

There are bank accounts in the UK where you can hold a USD balances if they don't want to in GBP now - for instance hoping for a more favourable exchange rate in future.