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I need to find a way to take a payment in $, then transfer it into £. If I do it via a swift transfer I pay about 3% commission. I’ve seen cards and accounts advertised before that enable you to do it much cheaper Revolut possibly. Any other suggestions?
Wise
Do you have a $ bank account
+1 for Wise.
Seconded, Wise. You get a US bank routing/account number for free. It’s all seamless.
You can have a virtual debit card on the account for free, a physical one for a few quid. Or just switch that USD to GBD, then withdraw it to your UK bank account.
I’ve been quite shocked at how good they’ve been.
Wise is probably most convenient I think but Revolut will have a little bit better Fx rates. Some people rate TorFX but Revolut still beats their rates.
The 0.2% or whatever that you might save with revolut (and don’t you need to subscribe to a plan to avoid extra fees after a limit) is not worth the risk of getting caught by their KYC/compliance algorithms
I’m still surprised that Wise has not asked me for any ID or source of funds documents after sending over £500k twice – though in both cases the money did come directly to wise from my solicitors’ accounts (property sale)
Another vote for Wise. My son does camp in America every summer. Has opened up a Chase account over there, so pays his cheques in (yep, still paid by cheque), then transfers it to his home bank account using Wise.
Another vote for Wise. I’ve been using them for 5 years; mainly sending payments to travel companies ranging from India to Mongolia to Ghana, plus cash withdrawals plus simply paying for stuff with a physical card with zero problems.
So @Travel_500 in summary everyone says use Wise 🙂
So @Travel_500 in summary everyone says use Wise 🙂
Not for large amounts where marginal rate differences or paranoia over type of institution makes a difference to different people. My sample of a few hundred people says a mix of Wise, Revolut, TorFX, or random international/national banks.
The 0.2% or whatever that you might save with revolut (and don’t you need to subscribe to a plan to avoid extra fees after a limit) is not worth the risk of getting caught by their KYC/compliance algorithms
I’m still surprised that Wise has not asked me for any ID or source of funds documents after sending over £500k twice – though in both cases the money did come directly to wise from my solicitors’ accounts (property sale)
That surprises me too; it’s not the experience of my colleagues who use Wise.
And 0.2% on 500k is plenty enough for me to shop around! You must use ten pound notes instead of fire lighters 😝
Just a note that when you compare make sure the provider tells you the exact amount you receive. One could be using interbank rate while the other could be applying their own rate which already includes a markup even while advertising a lower %.
And 0.2% on 500k is plenty enough for me to shop around! You must use ten pound notes instead of fire lighters 😝
Well I wouldn’t trust Revolut with more than £5000. And “made” more than 0.2% by using my crystal ball to exit GBP just before the BOE caused it to devalue.
The advantage of Wise as I mentioned was that the money could go directly to the Wise account via CHAPS, instead of needing to pass it through my other accounts (which would likely have necessitated phone calls / documents in branch for that amount and incurred more fees).
Atlantic Money seems to be the cheapest option as they have a flat fee, but each GBP transaction is limited to the Faster Payment limit of your bank, and they only support GBP or EUR as the source for now
And 0.2% on 500k is plenty enough for me to shop around! You must use ten pound notes instead of fire lighters 😝
Well I wouldn’t trust Revolut with more than £5000. And “made” more than 0.2% by using my crystal ball to exit GBP just before the BOE caused it to devalue.
This is important. Have read many such instances where either Revolut itself or banks that receive money from Revolut block the accounts claiming suspicious transactions and asking for all kinds of documentation.
Also, if you have some kind of premier banking or an RM, give them a headsup on funds reaching your account. Banks’ algos work in different ways.Thanks all – really helpful. Have set up a wise account and all seems very seemless.
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