ForEX?

[boxst]

I have a reasonable sum in USD just sitting in the ((UK) Bank. I would like to take advantage of the exchange rate and put it in pounds. I would normally just negotiate with he bank but having get a Revolut card recently the exchange rate on there is excellent.

Is there anywhere safe to set up what I assume is a ForEx account? For the moment I would like to transfer to GBP but when (if) it goes back up I would like to transfer back to USD. It needs to be online, close to inter transfer bank rate and instant.

Thank you for any advice.

[The Leaper]

I'm thinking the same thing. However, I am put off somewhat by my UK bank's exorbitant fees for the transaction.

R.

[I 8 a 4RE]

The Leaper said:

I'm thinking the same thing. However, I am put off somewhat by my UK bank's exorbitant fees for the transaction.

R.

Check Transferwise.

[Mezger]

I 8 a 4RE said:

Check Transferwise.

I use them and they are excellent, do they do multi-currency within the same country? Whenever I've used them I've had to transfer the original currency (SGD in my case) to another bank in same country as the currency (e.g. Singapore dollars to their Singapore account) then they will transfer GBP to my UK account.

[Condi]

Have a word with the bank about the exorbitant fees? All banks have a FX desk and will trade huge volumes daily, so there is no need to pay huge fees. There is a shed load of competition in the sector, and depending on the amount of money you want to change (thousands, 10's or hundreds of thousands?) will make a difference as to how close you can get to the interbank rates.

[anonymous-user]

You guys are holding some valuable USD.

You're planning to exchange them into relatively unloved UK£ in an economy that's heading for a cliff edge.

Are you sure you've thought this through?

[Pistonheads2019]

rockin said:

You guys are holding some valuable USD.

You're planning to exchange them into relatively unloved UK£ in an economy that's heading for a cliff edge.

Are you sure you've thought this through?

That doesn’t really make sense! At an exchange rate of 1.21 or whatever the current rate is, dollars are no more or less valuable than pounds.

Arguably, GBP is artificially depressed due to Brexit uncertainty and is like to recover over time.

If you really think that $ is much more valuable than £ (at a rate of 1.21) then you’d be transferring any spare sterling cash that you owned, into USD.

I doubt you’re doing this though?!

Edited by Pistonheads2019 on Wednesday 31st July 09:15

[boxst]

I don't think I got an answer

I want to just effectively move between my accounts taking advantage of the exchange rate. And be able to do this when I wish. I currently have a CitiBank USD account but the exchange rate to move between accounts even if I talk to my advisor is a good few cents lower than, for example, revolut.

[anonymous-user]

Pistonheads2019 said:

Arguably, GBP is artificially depressed due to Brexit uncertainty and is like to recover over time.

That's the whole point. Can you tell if/when the pound is going to recover? Or will it continue to slide over the coming months/years?

Personally, I never trade currencies.

[Pistonheads2019]

rockin said:

That's the whole point. Can you tell if/when the pound is going to recover? Or will it continue to slide over the coming months/years?

Personally, I never trade currencies.

Me neither.

But the whole point is that the value is what the value is! You can’t say that the USD is more or less valuable than the current GBP equivalent!

[RizzoTheRat]

Your Revolute account will let you change £5000 per month for free, but £6.99/month for a premium account will let you change as much as you like. I'm a bit reluctant to use my Revolute that much though as I'm not convinced how secure it is and I don't believe they're covered by the FSCS compensation scheme.

rockin said:

Pistonheads2019 said:

Arguably, GBP is artificially depressed due to Brexit uncertainty and is like to recover over time.

That's the whole point. Can you tell if/when the pound is going to recover? Or will it continue to slide over the coming months/years?

Personally, I never trade currencies.

Depends what you're doing with it though, if the OP has dollars but no plan to spend dollars it makes sense to transfer to pounds when the pounds weak.

I have Pounds and am planning on buying a house in Euros in the next year or two...I think I'll just be going for a bigger mortgage at less attractive rate rather than transfer pounds over and risk the rate recovering. If it was the other way around I'd happily be switching Euros to Pounds at the moment.

[boxst]

RizzoTheRat said:

Depends what you're doing with it though, if the OP has dollars but no plan to spend dollars it makes sense to transfer to pounds when the pounds weak.
.

Yes, this. I am lucky enough to get RSUs from my American firm that I sell and leave in dollars until such time as I want to buy something or the pound is weak. If life is good they coincide.

[anonymous-user]

As with many things in the world of finance we'll never know whether the pound is particularly "weak" today until after the event. We can say that it's weaker today than it was this time last week but we have no idea where it will be next Wednesday.

The North American stock market reached an all time high in 2016. A perfect time to sell? Well, anyone who sold at that time would have missed out on at least another 25% growth (as of now).

[bradders]

RizzoTheRat said:

Depends what you're doing with it though, if the OP has dollars but no plan to spend dollars it makes sense to transfer to pounds when the pounds weak.

I have Pounds and am planning on buying a house in Euros in the next year or two...I think I'll just be going for a bigger mortgage at less attractive rate rather than transfer pounds over and risk the rate recovering. If it was the other way around I'd happily be switching Euros to Pounds at the moment.

I assume the OP already has GBP and USD accounts, in which case, why not transfer funds into Revolut, do the exchange, and transfer them back out again? Maybe I've misunderstood - but it seems pretty straightforward if not?

[boxst]

bradders said:

I assume the OP already has GBP and USD accounts, in which case, why not transfer funds into Revolut, do the exchange, and transfer them back out again? Maybe I've misunderstood - but it seems pretty straightforward if not?

Yes. That is more or less what I’m going to do as I can’t find a satisfactory alternative. The charges (upgrade to premium (annually £72) and swift transfer (£25)) are far outstripped by the difference in exchange.

[bradders]

boxst said:

Yes. That is more or less what I’m going to do as I can’t find a satisfactory alternative. The charges (upgrade to premium (annually £72) and swift transfer (£25)) are far outstripped by the difference in exchange.

That's how I've found it, to press - I live just under half a year in the Euro zone, so use Revolut quite a lot for switching funds around as necessary. Would be interested if anyone comes up with a better alternative.

[Tallow]

When I have to pay invoices from USD to GBP, I use OFX if I haven't already setup a forward purchase through a specialist FX trader (which isn't really worth going to the effort of unless you're planning to do this sort of thing a lot, I'd say).

When I've had to transfer money from GBP to USD, I've generally found Revolut to be the cheapest option.

[boxst]

Thank you for all your help.

Apart from the odd situation of having to justify where the funds came from, I transferred out from CitiBank this afternoon it is in my Revolut account now and the exchange rate is very good even for those large amounts. I'm quite impressed.

[supersport]

Mezger said:

I 8 a 4RE said:

Check Transferwise.

I use them and they are excellent, do they do multi-currency within the same country? Whenever I've used them I've had to transfer the original currency (SGD in my case) to another bank in same country as the currency (e.g. Singapore dollars to their Singapore account) then they will transfer GBP to my UK account.

I hold pounds, dollars and euros in my transfer wise account, and have one of their MasterCard debit cards. All very useful and very fast.

[MOBB]

Another vote for transferwise here, it’s great