Best way to send money to USA

[ddkm 0]

Hi all

I have been researching all different ways to send money from UK over to USA. Can anyone offer some experience on having done this before please, as i will likely be sending money over soon, as will my father when he sends us a wedding gift of money

Thanks alot!

[featherB 1]

This gets discussed quite a lot (unsurprisingly, as we all want to know the cheapest & best way to do it!) - most recently in this thread... have a read, there are a few good suggestions there!

[YuAndDan 153]

One option is open an account at a bank that has branches in the UK and USA, like HSBC Bank or Citibank, you can deposit money and then use ATM card at a USA branch office to withdraw.

http://www.citibank.co.uk/

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/

[weedebz 0]

depends on how much./.......I regularly use moneygram....instant and cheap and there are locations all over the place.....if I can send money to Grand Island NE it can probably get sent anywhere. there is a moneygram website with all the details.

[Linababe 0]

I am also weighing up my options on this matter too - Hopefuilly when my house sells the profit probably approx £60,000 will be deposited it my NW bank. Now I am wandering how i will transfer that amount - my fiance says I can just do a wire transfer from my bank to his bank (my fiance rang his bank they charge him $11 to recieve a wire transfer)

- i have the following concerns:

1. Will it look bad in terms of his account all of a sudden having like $100,000 in it?

2. Will it look like I paid him to marry me?

3. Will he be picked up by the IRS for tax purposes?

4. can he add my name to his account before I get there? so if there is a question about the money I can prove I sold my house in the UK.

5. Is it best for me to transfer the money into an account in USA after I arrive?

6. I thought what if I took my cheque book and once i got there and opened an account I write myself a UK cheque in UK pounds to de[posit into my USA bankl - will that make things easy? I know I will get charged in the USA

I get so confused with this exchange rate stuff and I want the easiest way possible with less hassle but then again it is alot of money that will be transfered so I dont want to loose $$ either.

If anyone wants to send me a private message on how they transfered a large amount please do so - it will remain confidential:)

I am so confused:(

any help is appreciated

Lina (UKC)

[kins 0]

I would be tempted to leave the majority of the money in the UK till you have a bank account in your name in the US. Till then just take enough dollars/travellers cheques to get you by, and remember you can still use your UK Visa/Mastercard/Switch card in US ATMs and shops.

When you have a bank account in the US I would use something like www.interchangefx.com to transfer the money over to your account. You open an Interchange account and get a quote from them on what rate you'll get for what sum of money, call your UK bank and instruct them to send the money to Interchange's bank account, then Interchange will deposit the US funds in your US bank account the day of the exchange.

I've no idea what the IRS does in this situation, but that way it's obvious that it's your money that you're bringing in, and your fiance doesn't have to get involved and worry about IRS issues.

Having said that, I have so far transferred £20,000 and have heard nothing from the IRS and don't know what happens next...

Does that help?

[Linababe 0]

Yes but if i use my uk cards in the usa i get charged damn NAT WEST BANK! LOL

Dont i have to be in the UK to ask my bank to tranfer the money to www.interchangefx.com ?

Yes it helps a little:) thank you

Lina (UKC)

I would be tempted to leave the majority of the money in the UK till you have a bank account in your name in the US. Till then just take enough dollars/travellers cheques to get you by, and remember you can still use your UK Visa/Mastercard/Switch card in US ATMs and shops.

When you have a bank account in the US I would use something like www.interchangefx.com to transfer the money over to your account. You open an Interchange account and get a quote from them on what rate you'll get for what sum of money, call your UK bank and instruct them to send the money to Interchange's bank account, then Interchange will deposit the US funds in your US bank account the day of the exchange.

I've no idea what the IRS does in this situation, but that way it's obvious that it's your money that you're bringing in, and your fiance doesn't have to get involved and worry about IRS issues.

Having said that, I have so far transferred £20,000 and have heard nothing from the IRS and don't know what happens next...

Does that help?

[Amby 490]

Neil has a lloyds tsb account and they charge him 15 quid to send money to my bank account the next day and 10 quid to send it to get there in 3-5 days. it always turns up and then my bank charges me like $10-15. that's how we always did it. as for senting money from the us to the uk I used moneygram when needed

[featherB 1]

Dont i have to be in the UK to ask my bank to tranfer the money to www.interchangefx.com ?

Lina (UKC)

Nope! I've done three or four transfers with them since I got here - I just call Interchange to arrange it and agree a rate each time, then call my bank in the UK and get them to send the sterling to Interchange by BACS transfer. Could even just use online banking to do the transfer from my UK account to Interchange.

Don't think you'd need to be in the UK to set up an account with Interchange in the first place, either - I think when I set mine up they asked me to fax them the completed application form & a photocopy of the photo page from my passport, so that could be done from the US (I didn't have access to a fax machine at the time, so I just emailed them a photo of my passport photo page!)

My guess is that using Interchange or a similar company would be MUCH better than just getting your bank to transfer the money to the US... with such a large sum of money, you'd probably lose tons getting the bank to do it. Unless your bank is better with this stuff than mine, who like to use such transactions as an opportunity to fleece customers and generally take the p*$$!

[Linababe 0]

Ok I did find out today that if i went with the bank for example todays rate and the rate from interchange I would loose apptrox $2000 which is alot of money!! so I would think the brokers would be a good thing - I just worry is it really secure?? will i get my money? Obviously quite a few ppl on here have used their services so obviously you all did get your money:)

OK I have another question - as to what I had posted in my previous post - how about the tax purposes! If all of a sudden $120,000 goes into David's (USC) bank account - will he be taxed on it??

I read somewhere that there is a limit of transfering 10,000 of the local currency?? does anyone know about that? or if there was a limit on how much to transfer??

any help is appreciated:)

Lina (UKC)