Send Back to US or Keep in UK

indieangler

Hello,

I'm currently working and living in the U.K. but I'm an American citizen. I keep most of my financial accounts back in the U.S. and send a little money every paycheck back to stash away in savings. I have a small chunk of money saved up over here, in the U.K., about ₤6,000 or a little more than that. I'm wondering whether now is a good time to ship the money back home with the USD to GBP exchange rate or if I should wait and watch the rate and try to send it back when it would be more profitable. I'm not sure quite how much the rate changes from day to day and if it would actually be worth my time to hold off on sending right away. I thought I could put it in a savings account over here to gain a little interest but I don't want to end up waiting too long and missing out on the better exchange rate.

Anyone have any thoughts on this and what the US dollar is going to do over the next few weeks to few months time? I'm open to options, thanks for any help you can provide!

someone

Firstly, make sure you check all the tax issues that apply to you

Secondly, the rate has slipped a bit over the past month so time could be runing out to get a dead good exchange rate.

Thirdly, only send the money back to the states if you plan on spending it in $. If you plan to move to another country you could find you have lost money

Scr00ge

indieangler wrote: »

Hello,

I'm currently working and living in the U.K. but I'm an American citizen. I keep most of my financial accounts back in the U.S. and send a little money every paycheck back to stash away in savings. I have a small chunk of money saved up over here, in the U.K., about ₤6,000 or a little more than that. I'm wondering whether now is a good time to ship the money back home with the USD to GBP exchange rate or if I should wait and watch the rate and try to send it back when it would be more profitable. I'm not sure quite how much the rate changes from day to day and if it would actually be worth my time to hold off on sending right away. I thought I could put it in a savings account over here to gain a little interest but I don't want to end up waiting too long and missing out on the better exchange rate.

Anyone have any thoughts on this and what the US dollar is going to do over the next few weeks to few months time? I'm open to options, thanks for any help you can provide!

Intresting... I am in exactly the opposite situation... I am working in the US but have to move back to the UK in about 18months, so I am interested in the opposite of what you are asking!! My personal throughts are that if you can get a rate of about $2 to the GBP, then you should take it - I don't think it will change much more from that. However, I would suggest keeping the UK account open for future. I plan to do the same with my US account, but I need to check whether this is allowed.

How do you think is the most efficient way of making the transfer? I have looked into the bank-to-bank wired transfer, but each bank seems to make a charge on this, and I don't think the exchange rate used is particularly good. There also seem to be a few third party money transfer companies which, on the face of it, seem to offer better rates. Any thoughts?

indieangler

Very interesting, indeed! I'm assuming I'm a much happier camper with the exchange rate that I get going home. I currently just do bank-to-bank wire transfer when I send money back every check. There is usually about a $20-$25 fee on the US side and about a ₤20-25 charge on the UK side as well (something like those numbers). I've never looked into sending it any other way. I'm finishing my college degree online through an American university and have to pay for classes every 6 weeks so I usually just suck up the transfer fees and some back every month.

Regarding the actual bank transfer rate, I assumed the bank would use the standard rate that the exchange was currently worth and didn't differ much from it but maybe that's not right at all. I'd like to get a full $2 per ₤1 but I'd probably settle for anything $1.95+. I'm just not sure if this number will be going up or down any time soon. I plan on spending most of the money in the US, not the UK, that's why I'm sending it back there.