Advice Requested: Transferring Pension Funds from Bank of America (US) to UK

Hi. I am a current BofA customer and I use Transferwise regularly to move funds from the USA to the UK. An ACH isn't the same as a wire, I don't believe. I have transferred several thousand dollars per transfer, and it is, as noted above, the cheapest option at Transferwise. I've been using them for almost three years with no problems whatsoever.

I'd avoid dealing with a bank check, because once you get it you have to deposit it here, and they'll either negotiate a rate for you or it'll take for-ev-er to get access to the funds.  The few times I've done that the exchange rate I got was less than ideal.

If there is some sort of cap on how much you can transfer each time imposed by BofA on ACH withdrawls (of which I'm unaware) you could always do a few smaller transfers. (?)

Hi. I am a current BofA customer and I use Transferwise regularly to move funds from the USA to the UK. An ACH isn't the same as a wire, I don't believe. I have transferred several thousand dollars per transfer, and it is, as noted above, the cheapest option at Transferwise. I've been using them for almost three years with no problems whatsoever.

I'd avoid dealing with a bank check, because once you get it you have to deposit it here, and they'll either negotiate a rate for you or it'll take for-ev-er to get access to the funds.  The few times I've done that the exchange rate I got was less than ideal.

If there is some sort of cap on how much you can transfer each time imposed by BofA on ACH withdrawls (of which I'm unaware) you could always do a few smaller transfers. (?)

I fully agree.

I think one of the main issues the OP has is the lack of a US phone to validate setting up an ACH or similar. How do you deal with BofA from the UK?

Whenever we need to call our bank in the US we use Skype which is free to use since it is a 1-800 number.

Thanks.  Tax was withheld at source by my 401k provider.  Problem now is transferring funds from BoA to my UK bank when a US mobile number is required for SMS authentication purposes.  This is a pretty significant gap in BoA process that freezes out BoA customers living overseas.   

Tax withheld is not the final tax.  You will still need to file a US tax return during 2020.

I never have to put  in anything, other than the amount to transfer and the payee (me). It could well be that when I first set it up a couple of years ago I had to have a number, but I don't recall that. I certainly don't have to do anything with BofA on these transfers, Transferwise debits the account and transfers the money.

I have Callcentric for my US phone. I used it while I was living there and I can take it wherever I go. It's $2.95 a month and if you don't want to mess around with an ATA to hook an actual telephone up to, you can get text messages by logging into the CC dashboard.  CC can't do texts overseas yet (can't forward to a UK number) but you can send and receive texts "In the USA" by using the dashboard. It's pretty handy, as long as the internet is up! I have also used it to forward to my house phone here, and my daughter's cell when we are traveling. Again, they can't forward texts internationally, but the calls come through ok.

I fully agree.

I think one of the main issues the OP has is the lack of a US phone to validate setting up an ACH or similar. How do you deal with BofA from the UK?

Whenever we need to call our bank in the US we use Skype which is free to use since it is a 1-800 number.

+1 for TransferWise.  They've been excellent so far.

They take funds by ACH debit from my US bank account (for a fee currently $30 - ish, but about to increase to $37 - ish).  At no point did I have to have a mobile number (US or UK) to set up the ACH debit process.  I think they sent a small transfer one time to prove it was my account - I had to confirm how many cents they'd deposited.  Plus, on the first ACH debit I had to supply my bank login credentials - not sure if they're held by TransferWise (but I'm not paranoid about stuff like that).  I transfer less than $5K every month.  When I asked the bank what the limit is for ACH debit, they said there isn't one.