USD incoming/outgoing, bank account?

[roger440]

Currently i receiving an increasing amount of payments to my business in USD. I also pay my main supplier in USD.

As a consequence, i opened a USD account with Metro bank, as my existing bank, Lloyds, didn't want to help me, at least not for a remotely sensible cost.

Sadly Metro are utterly hopeless, wont bore you with the details, but my time there is at an end. Didn't work out all that well cost wise either.

So moving on, what are my options these days to do this in a cost effective manner? Im guessing it wont be using a "regular" bank?

Is an account based in another country the solution. Surely i cant be unusual in wanting to do this?

Any good ideas gratefully received!

[roger440]

uber said:

Super Easy https://transferwise.com/borderless

Interesting. Use their transfer service already for GBP to USD transactions. Didn't find that when searching. Thanks

Though that said, they wont let me transfer USD to an Aussie company. Only AUD. If that applies to this account, its wont help me much. Will find out.

Edited by roger440 on Monday 25th September 21:16

[roger440]

Mr Overheads said:

Revolut

What level of transactions?
Do you need to ever convert it back to GBP or does it mostly go back out again in dollars too?

Several hundreds of thousands a year. Dont need to convert back to GBP.

[roger440]

Thanks chaps. Some stuff for me to look at tommorow,

[roger440]

uber said:

Super Easy https://transferwise.com/borderless

Sadly, it seems not. They cant pay out USD to a bank/person located outside the USA.

So i dont really understand the point of it?

[roger440]

Mr Overheads said:

Hope this isn't too out of place. I think my post count is high enough to to do a very light pitch now.

I'm generally known on here for the more tangible costs like logistics, mobiles, comms, energy etc. But we have a lot of success with auditing past transactions of Forex.

From the client viewpoint it's the easiest service we offer, just need historic transactions (date and even better time of day) and I can tell you how much extra margin there was to be knocked off and lock in that deal for you going forwards with an alternative provider.

If you want your historic transactions auditing, send me a pm with transaction details.

Thanks for the offer. I may well take that up, but my immediate concern is having a bank account with USD, that i can pay to my supplier in USD that are NOT in the USA. Not an unusal occurence, but not one that seems to be catered for.

[roger440]

essayer said:

HSBC will open an account in USD, then you can use a broker to transfer to GBP or make payments as required. Fees aren’t bad, although will add up if you do lots of transactions.

It might help to book an appointment at a branch that’s used to the process (City/Canary Wharf etc)

But i want to pay out in USD only. I have no requirement to convert currency.

The problem i contantly trip up on, is the fact i need to pay a USD account that is NOT in the USA.

Sadly i do lots of transactions, so the costs rack up real quick.

Edited by roger440 on Thursday 28th September 14:57

[roger440]

essayer said:

Sure, you can pay internationally.

I’ve paid suppliers in China/HK from our HSBC UK-based USD account without issue

Fees - approx £11/mo and £30 per payment out, £6 in

Well thats good to know

Quite why Metro are making such an arse of it i dont know. There charges are not dissimilar, though still quite a lot compared to someone like transferwise.