Transfer Money from US to UK Account

Hello! I remembered seeing a post one time about someone asking a similar question, and a reply from someone saying that they had transferred enough money to put a down payment on a house in the UK.  I'm looking to do something similar soon, and was looking for any tips if anyone has done it recently.  I've usually used Transferwise for smaller amounts, but this would be a larger amount.  I'm contacting my US bank too to make sure there isn't a withdrawal limit that I might exceed as it can get convoluted!

Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thank you!

Amanda

Hello! I remembered seeing a post one time about someone asking a similar question, and a reply from someone saying that they had transferred enough money to put a down payment on a house in the UK.  I'm looking to do something similar soon, and was looking for any tips if anyone has done it recently.  I've usually used Transferwise for smaller amounts, but this would be a larger amount.  I'm contacting my US bank too to make sure there isn't a withdrawal limit that I might exceed as it can get convoluted!

Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thank you!

Amanda

For large amounts it's worth contacting all the major forex companies directly for a quote, you may well be given a preferential rate.

A transfer that size will trigger the Fbar requirement if you have managed to stay under the threshold thus far.

I regularly use Transferwise for sums up to $15k, money arrives in my UK bank same day if I wire the money to TransferWise in the morning.  I’ve also done $15k transfers on consecutive days without a problem, but I agree that with a sum of, say $50k, it would be worth asking banks for the “dealing desk” rate and comparing.

The year we bought our house here I not only triggered FBAR bit also FATCA when I filed our IRS return. That was because of the stupid accounting the IRS uses. I transferred the house money to our checking account then put it in our savings account for a while until the house purchase was completed. This meant it was double counted for FATCA purposes so needed reporting (no extra tax just more hassle filling out forms) I should have transferred the money direct to our savings account and then direct from there to the lawyer for house purchase.

When we did this 6 years ago we got quotes from a couple of sites, and did the largest transfers we could, but it still took several transactions and multiple transfer fees to get it done. It also took some time,  setting up the account and verifying identity and proving the source of the funds for anti-money laundering regulations. Allow plenty of time to get it done, weeks not days.

I used OFX when we purchased our home in 2019.  They gave me a quote based on the total amount I expected to transfer which was better than what was posted on their website.  I made several transfers.  I would email my contact at OFX who would send me the terms.  Then I'd send a wire to OFX who in turn wired the converted funds to the GBP account.  My US bank didn't charge me for wires so I didn't have any extra fees.  The initial transfer took a bit of time to make sure all of the details were correct and they asked questions about the purpose of the transfer.   But after that it was simple.   The entire process would take 2-3 days.   My US bank would send the wire within minutes of me requesting it so that helped to expedite things.

I just looked at Transferwise and OFX this morning to transfer a relatively small sum.  OFX's regular rate was just marginally better than Transferwise.

You could also look at Oanda.  They also had competitive rates but I decided to go with OFX instead.   

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the helpful suggestions. I have looked at a few forex/currency converter banks but I haven’t come across OFX yet. I will definitely check them out soon. We plan to go look at the house next week and working out mortgage details this week. Some excitement since the wedding was delayed from May to September due to COVID. Really need some good news!   I’m also trying to make sure that I’m up on some of the legal points with forex so I don’t get tripped up on anything.

Now I have to head over to a different sub forum for repatriation/visa questions because works wants me back in the US by November for a year before they will let me go.  My visa/residency permit is good through 3 January 2022 but won’t have time to switch to FLM(R) this year before work pulls me back to the US. Life sure isn’t easy with love being from two different countries!

If you don't mind sharing, what did you end up finding or doing? I'm going to be having to similarly tx funds, deposits,  e.t.c,  - not immediately -  but in about 6 months so I'm in research mode.

This seems like the logical place to ask this too about transferring money to the UK, is there any magic to reducing the hit of the exchange rate? Or do I just try to clock it on some day the rate drops?

I know missed a good window when the £ went so low against the $ post Brexit, but I wasn't in a position to move any huge amount of money then. When I sell my house I need to move the released equity to the UK to buy a house, so that will be a pretty good chunk of change. 

Related question, did you US-UK transplants move any pension money to the UK from the US or did you leave it in the US?

This seems like the logical place to ask this too about transferring money to the UK, is there any magic to reducing the hit of the exchange rate? Or do I just try to clock it on some day the rate drops?

I know missed a good window when the £ went so low against the $ post Brexit, but I wasn't in a position to move any huge amount of money then. When I sell my house I need to move the released equity to the UK to buy a house, so that will be a pretty good chunk of change. 

Related question, did you US-UK transplants move any pension money to the UK from the US or did you leave it in the US?

The exchange rate is actually still better than it was just after the result of the Brexit vote although trending downwards at the moment and not nearly as good as it was. There's no way of predicting what will happen but you can actually set alerts on some of the sites so that you will get an email when it reaches the level you're interested in.

The exchange rate is actually still better than it was just after the result of the Brexit vote although trending downwards at the moment and not nearly as good as it was. There's no way of predicting what will happen but you can actually set alerts on some of the sites so that you will get an email when it reaches the level you're interested in.

+1

My wife and I are dual US/UK citizens so we left our retirement money (IRAs) in the US.  As a USC we can’t invest in UK funds as they would be taxed punitively by the IRS as passive foreign investments, even if we sold our Vanguard.com shares and bought the equivalent ones in Vanguard.co.uk.  Note that Roth IRAs are tax free in both countries and that ISAs in the UK are taxed in the US even though they are tax free in the U.K.

Pound weakening pretty decently at this time......back under $1.30?