Incoming wire transfer fees

Sorry for yet another question about transferring money from the UK to US...

I need to (regularly) transfer money between my UK account and US account to make payments on a student loan and credit card. My husband works for my UK bank, and we get free wire transfers. However, I just learned that my US bank charges $30 for incoming international transfers!

Does anyone have any experience of using an on-line only bank to pay their US debts that might not charge such a high fee for incoming transfers? Do I have any other options? I know MoneyCorp will refund bank charges, but I wanted to transfer slightly less a month than their minimum. Thanks!

Try XE Trade.  There is a lot of info on the boards here, and I've been using them for almost a year.  It's an easy and super cheap way to tranfer money. 

Ellen

Dunno?  I just wired money UK to US -- paid £20 here in the UK to send the wire, and then my US bank took $12 for the privilege of receiving my deposited funds.  Good thing I don't do it that often!

Thanks, ladies. The trouble is that no matter how I get the money to the U.S. (xe, wire, etc.) my U.S. bank is still gonna charge $30 to receive the funds.

The best thing might be to suck it up until I visit the U.S. again, and then open an account at a transfer friendlier bank while I'm there. If anyone knows of one (less than $30 for incoming transfers), please let me know! 

My US bank charged me $12 for the incoming wire -- it's Regions Bank.

They way I got around that was with Paypal.  We set up a UK paypal account using our UK bank.  I then set up a US paypal account with my US bank account. I transfer pounds sterling to my U.S. paypal account, convert it to dollars. Once there I withdraw it from my U.S. account and it goes straight into my U.S. bank account. Never had my bank charge me for that.  I don't know how much you are looking to transfer at one time but my limit is (I think off the top of my because I just have a basic acccount) $500.  I only transfer money to pay off my credit card and I seem to get a good exchange rate.

Thanks, ladies. The trouble is that no matter how I get the money to the U.S. (xe, wire, etc.) my U.S. bank is still gonna charge $30 to receive the funds.

The best thing might be to suck it up until I visit the U.S. again, and then open an account at a transfer friendlier bank while I'm there. If anyone knows of one (less than $30 for incoming transfers), please let me know! 

Does your bank charge for incoming electronic transfers (EFT)? My US bank (HSBC) doesn't. I *think* that EFT is the same thing that businesses use for direct deposit of paychecks, and usually banks don't charge for that--they tend to encourage it, actually.

You might want to check into it, because XE allows you to use EFT for deposits into US bank accounts.

Thanks, Elynor. I'll definitely double check that, I appreciate you pointing out the difference to me. I thought that having a husband who works at a bank might make transferring money easier - wrong!

Thanks for reminding me about Paypal, whisper. I thought my transfer limit might be a little high, but $500 sounds about right. It's certainly a fall back option. Cheers, ladies! 

I've been using World First.  It's £10 per transfer if you do it regularly.  My UK bank doesn't charge me because I'm wiring it to a World First account with the same bank (which World First tries to accommodate.)  My US bank charges less than a dollar.  It's so much easier and cheaper than Paypal.