Tourist rate

[andrewmckay5]

Hi All,
i know this is on other threads but its not always clear whether people are talking tourist or commercial rate.
Anyway where is the best Tourist rate for $ to be found in the UK.
regards
andrew

[phaedra]

Usually Travelex or M&S (yes Marks & Sparks!), bear in mind that buying on line with a credit or debit card is classed as a "cash advance" so is usually liable for about a 2% commission charge plus interest straight away. Usually you can look on line and then troll round the Post Office, Barclays etc. and see who's the nearest, usually they're within 2c of each other so not a huge difference.

If you can open a US bank account (Citibank in the UK do joint currency accounts) you can get the commercial rate when transferring between accounts but ask about charges as some banks are quite expensive.

[wrpac00]

Halifax is good if you have an account with them. You can also get them at the PO but the rate is a little lower.

Paul

[agod]

I have the luxury of having a wife, who works at the Bank of America, here in the UK, and just to make you all jealous we get the top commercial rate, and even better, free wire transfers as well, when we move money.


Sorry Alan

[Andy & Arlene]

M & S usually have the best tourist rate. Followed by the post office. They are both commission free.

[Pikey1999]

As stated M&S or TravelEx.
TravelEx is ok if you use your Nationwide card as they don't apparently charge you charges.(if you know what I mean...)
However you have to pick the money/TC's up from the Airport or some other location (i.e. Manchester Piccadilly railway station)

[Pikey1999]

Both Tourist rates plus you can reserve TravelEx for, I think, 30 days.
If the rate goes down you're safe.
If it goes up, you just cancel your order and make a new reservation at the better rate!

[Claire M]

If you have a Marks and Spencer store card, or M&S credit card, there is no commission payable. They also do not class it as a cash advance.

Claire

[chrisj]

Nationwide dont charge of you order money on their card

[Frosty]

Hi Everyone.

Newbie here.

Good news i just signed the contract on a house in Orlando, the closing is going to be in Mid June.

Question, whats the best way to change money from UK to US as i will have to transfer approx £90k for closing and just a couple of points could make a big difference.

Thanks for any help:)

[Pikey1999]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Frosty
Hi Everyone.

Newbie here.

Good news I just signed the contract on a house in Orlando, the closing is going to be in Mid June.

Question, whats the best way to change money from UK to US as I will have to transfer approx £90k for closing and just a couple of points could make a big difference.

Thanks for any help:)
[/quote]

Send your £90K to Agod and ask him to get his wife to transfer it for free. :D
However you may have to pay for flights to take them to Orlando to get your money back out! ;)

[r_johnston]

Hi
congratulations on the house purchase - we use XE.com for transferring money - they give direct access to commercial rates. However you will need to do some work in advance to get set up and also to open a bank account to accept USD - it will be worth it as they are typically 2/3c above tourist rate which on $90k is a lot

cheers

[Frosty]

Hi Robert,

Will check that out, does it matter which bank you use, we have a Bank of America account, what other work do we need to do in advance?

[r_johnston]

Hi Neil,

The only 'work' is setting up the account with XE i.e. like any account they seek to verify your identity and address - they also set a relatively low transaction limit to start so it may be you will need to convince them to increase this or send multiple transactions.

It doesn't matter which Bank you send money to - if it is a US based account then you transfer the money by EFT which is free from XE and possibly also free with the Bank of America.

Drop me an e-mail if you need any more specific advice or want to chat through the mechanics of this.

(the rate just now - 17th May 11.15 pm was 1.769)
regards
Robert

[Frosty]

Yes

Just checked out their site, it does seem a good rate, just alittle concerned that i send my money to them, then they forward to your bank, have you used them much ?, had any problems ?

[r_johnston]

Neil,

I use them all the time to send money to our US bank account - typically takes 2-3 days max to arrive and I have never had any problems whatsoever. If you open an account with them then you can see a full history of your transactions on-line.

I appreciate what you say about sending them money first of all but one party needs to accept the 'risk' - during processing they send you e-mails at various stages to let you check progress.

I honestly cannot speak highly enough about their ease of processing and efficiency

regards
Robert

[Claire T]

I don't think you can easily move £90,000 from a Nationwide Flex Account to a US account - big transactions over £10K need explanation...

We used HIFX when transferring money, we locked an exchange rate, so we wouldn't miss out.

[Robert5988]

This thread is over 4 years old!

You can transfer abroad from a Nationwide Flex Account - all large sums from any bank are subject to scrutiny - however you don't get the same high rate as from an ATM abroad or credit card.

I tried to pay my $11,000 property tax bill through N/W either by transfer or a Building Society cheque but the rate was poor.