My experience transferring money from US checking to UK current account.

I thought I'd share my experience transferring money from my US checking account into my UK accounts, there have been some interesting revelations on the way.

The largest portion of my liquid funds were held in a CapitalOne 360 checking account, because they have a debit card with no foreign transaction fees and have been very easy to work with as they are online.  I've always had good experiences when I need to call and everyone has been very helpful.  It was a huge surprise when I found out that this multinational bank would not wire money out of the US under any circumstances. 

The people I'd talked to at CapOne actually suggested transferring the money into another US checking account that would wire funds (bank to bank transfers within the US were very easy to do).  As the only other US account I have is with a much smaller credit union I was rather dubious that they would be able to do what the big guy couldn't.  Well, I was surprised again when I found out my little credit union would not only wire the money, but would only charge me a flat fee of $20.00 to do so!  I love my credit union!!! 

After doing some research I decided to work with HiFX ( http://www.hifx.co.uk/international-money-transfers/ldp-hifx-016 ) because they were one of the better exchange rates, with no additional fees, that would handle the amount of money I wanted to transfer.  Most other companies were limited to transfers of $10,000 to $25,000 or so.  I had thought Transferwise would be a good option for me since you simply use your debit card to get the funds to them rather than needing a wire transfer from your US bank, but debit card transactions were limited to $5,000, or under special circumstances (I didn't ask what those were) $25,000.  I was getting rather confused and just a wee bit frustrated..... 

As it turned out, the longest part of the process was the 2 days it took for my funds to leave CapOne and get to my credit union.  I had everything set up ahead of time with the CU and HiFX so that once the money hit my CU account yesterday, it was wired to HiFX the same day (California time).  The funds hit HiFX immediately and I had an email this morning from them letting me know about it.  By early this afternoon, the money was in my UK current account and I'm pretty darn pleased with the whole process.  I was mostly relieved the exchange rate has stayed favorable long enough for me to get this done!  (I couldn't move the money until after my FLR-M application was in and I had nightmares about that rate shooting into last Summer's unfavorable range before I could get it here.)

Hopefully this will help someone else who is in a similar situation, it is very nice to be able to take a breather for a little while....

.... now onto my taxes..... 

Pleased to hear that it worked out for you.  I used to use HiFx and was very pleased with them, but a couple of years ago received an email from them saying that they were closing all accounts that were registered to US addresses.

I may well open an account with them once we are back in the UK, provided they will accept US citizens living in the UK.

Pleased to hear that it worked out for you.  I used to use HiFx and was very pleased with them, but a couple of years ago received an email from them saying that they were closing all accounts that were registered to US addresses.

I may well open an account with them once we are back in the UK, provided they will accept US citizens living in the UK.

Well, as I'm a US citizen living in the UK, I'm pretty sure they will accept another one. 

Well, as I'm a US citizen living in the UK, I'm pretty sure they will accept another one. 

Good to know.  I seem to remember the issue being US residents, rather than US citizens.

Why did you have to go through HiFX? WHy couldn't you just wire the money from your CU directly to your Current Account in the UK?

I'm about to go through this process myself, but was just going to have the CU wire transfer directly to Barclays. (I thought) and now I'm questioning the process having read your info.

Why did you have to go through HiFX? WHy couldn't you just wire the money from your CU directly to your Current Account in the UK?

I'm about to go through this process myself, but was just going to have the CU wire transfer directly to Barclays. (I thought) and now I'm questioning the process having read your info.

I could have done it that way (I'm pretty sure, but not positive anyway), but then Barclays would be the one converting the dollars to pounds and their exchange rate was not as favorable as the one I got from HiFX.  My credit union (and as far as I know, this is the case for all US banks and credit unions) will only wire out dollars so somewhere in the process they need to be exchanged for pounds. 

To be honest, the entire process confuses the heck out of me and I'm not sure I'm explaining it very well.  The instruction email I got from my CU said -

"In order to process a foreign wire, we will need a corresponding US bank."

 - which really puzzled me, but evidently HiFX knew about this and has a Barclays branch in NYC that is used for this reason.  I assume if I'd done the transfer directly from CU through Barclays rather than HiFX they could have done the same. (By the way, the fact that HiFX uses Barclays, and that's where my account is, is a coincidence and not a requirement for the transfer.

I joked with my husband a few weeks back that it might be easier for me to just go to an ATM every day and take out the maximum of £300 each time, but since that would take me almost a year to accomplish, and put a real crimp in our day to day activities, we rejected that idea.   

I have just wired $165,000 from my joint checking account in the US to my joint savings account at TSB in scotland yesterday.  Yes we had to pay a fee $35 and the amount in GBP was 110,700 the deposit arrived in the UK account the same day but shows as a pending deposit and the bank tell me it will be available for withdrawal on Monday.  It was easy to do and there we no issues with either the US bank or the UK bank..

I have just wired $165,000 from my joint checking account in the US to my joint savings account at TSB in scotland yesterday.  Yes we had to pay a fee $35 and the amount in GBP was 110,700 the deposit arrived in the UK account the same day but shows as a pending deposit and the bank tell me it will be available for withdrawal on Monday.  It was easy to do and there we no issues with either the US bank or the UK bank..

That was smooth and you got a great rate too.   

It's odd that some banks and/or credit unions are so easy to work with and with others you're asking the impossible. 

I've been using xe.com   Seems there are several companies that do this reasonably well and their costs are pretty similar.

Seems there are several companies that do this reasonably well and their costs are pretty similar.

I agree, this is what I found too.  In fact all the choices made it a little difficult to decide which one to use, but it helped having recommendations from this forum.  Then it came down to which website was easier for me to navigate and who got back to me first with information I understood.

It's not necessarily the best logic in the world, but it works for me.....   

On another thread it was mentioned that getting too caught up in worries over the exchange rate is counter productive.  That sounds like good advice.... and I only wish I could make better use of it.  I went rather insane worrying about getting the "best rate" possible.   

We just moved the last big chunk of money yesterday.....and of course the Pound dropped a little lower this morning ....  BUT, when you consider that we were still planning to move, and the Pound was pushing over $1.70 in late Summer.....getting $1.50 or under is really really nice.

We just moved the last big chunk of money yesterday.....and of course the Pound dropped a little lower this morning ....  BUT, when you consider that we were still planning to move, and the Pound was pushing over $1.70 in late Summer.....getting $1.50 or under is really really nice.

So pleased to hear the rate change worked out so well for you.

We moved the last of our money yesterday and it arrived in our UK account this morning, we got $1.52. we move out of our home this weekend and spend our last few days in a motel closer to family until we fly on 20th..

We moved the last of our money yesterday and it arrived in our UK account this morning, we got $1.52. we move out of our home this weekend and spend our last few days in a motel closer to family until we fly on 20th..

$1.52 is a bit high if you moved it in the last few days. Depends on how much you move, but I think we were around $1.49 or so yesterday once they add a little to the exchange.

So pleased to hear the rate change worked out so well for you.

Now all we need is a house. My wife's oldest son has a little 2 bedroom in an iffy area of Huddersfield we can borrow for a while. This is our favorite at the moment......top of the budget though....and a little too big for us.  http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33523227.html?premiumA=true