Paying a US friend $650 - what's best?
Discussion
Quickie: I need to send a friend in the US just under $650.
He has a US bank account. I have a UK bank account. I need him to get that amount of money - i.e. the charges will be paid by me.
What is the best way of doing it? My bank will (astonishingly) do the transfer for free and not hit me too much on the exchange rate but have said that the receiving bank 'may charge to have the transaction made to them'.
So, my question is, what is the best way to send money to a friend in the US? Doing it from my bank seems like the easiest by some margin but does anyone know if US banks will charge to receive the money? If so then how much? And what other options are there? (PayPal seem to do such a thing and I think that Facebook do as well.)
All wisdom welcomed, thanks.
He has a US bank account. I have a UK bank account. I need him to get that amount of money - i.e. the charges will be paid by me.
What is the best way of doing it? My bank will (astonishingly) do the transfer for free and not hit me too much on the exchange rate but have said that the receiving bank 'may charge to have the transaction made to them'.
So, my question is, what is the best way to send money to a friend in the US? Doing it from my bank seems like the easiest by some margin but does anyone know if US banks will charge to receive the money? If so then how much? And what other options are there? (PayPal seem to do such a thing and I think that Facebook do as well.)
All wisdom welcomed, thanks.
adam. said:
sc0tt said:
Hell no their money exchange is awful.
Eh?It's about 3 clicks to do a payment in USD, today, at 1.19USD:1GBP, hardly breaking the bank on a payment of $650, not a 'wedding' amount.
OP was after something easy.
Do you know which bank it is? There's a list of some here: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/wire-trans...
2Btoo said:
but does anyone know if US banks will charge to receive the money?
Yes. Mine (bank of america) charges iirc $50 for an incoming wire transfer. Use transferwise. It then lands in his account as a domestic deposit as if it were a paycheck or regular check being cashed, and is cheap on fees for you and a good rate.
All you need is their account number and their paper/electronic routing number* and you are good to go.
*(Not the wire routing number - confusingly US banks have two routing numbers, which are the equivalent of UK sort code, so make sure it is the one that will result in no incoming wire charges - my app tells me both and is very clear which is which )
Edited by GCH on Thursday 25th July 21:41
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