[UK] How to do large FX transactions cheapest?

[rattle1299]

I have a large amount of USD (in a USD account in the UK) that I'd like to turn into GBP. It's enough money to me that every bp of saving is important, so I'd like to find the cheapest way to do this. I'm willing to do more manual work in order to achieve a better rate.

As far as I can tell there are at least 2 types of companies to do this through:

* Money transfer companies (like Transferwise, or https://www.keycurrency.co.uk). They seem to charge 30bps+, but you get an actual person to talk to and they seem relatively straightforward
* Trading platforms (like IG, SaxoBank, etc). Much more DIY, and despite a lot of Googling I can't actually tell if I can deposit USD, exchange it to GBP, and then withdraw to GBP, or if this isn't how you're meant to use them. But on the other hand they're much cheaper - less than 1bp in some cases afaict.

Does anyone have any experiences or suggestions? Thanks.

[tubaleiter]

You can also do it through a bank, but unlikely to have the best fees (unless it's big enough and you have enough of a relationship - not something I've tried). And I've heard of people talking to actual currency brokers if it's big enough, but not something I have any experience with.

I've used both Wise and Interactive Brokers for this, in six figures amounts. My thoughts:

1. Wise: will definitely do it, at a good price but not absolutely the best (cheaper than a bank or really any other "easy" option). Very easy to use.

2. Interactive Brokers: will definitely do it at a great price, have yet to find anything cheaper. But it's not intended to be used the way you want (deposit USD, exchange to GBP, then withdraw to GBP), and they will get cross if you abuse them, potentially to the point of shutting down your account. The intended use is: deposit USD, exchange to GBP, use to invest in GBP-denominated investments at Interactive Brokers. Sell sometime down the line and withdraw to GBP or USD. If it's a one-off, you don't really care if they shut you down, but they're also an attractive option for other things, so may not want to burn that bridge!

Your cost estimates are in the right ballpark, depending on exact value you're converting. IBKR is 0.2 bps, minimum of $2 (assuming your monthly trade value is under $1B - with a B). Wise varies more with the amount, but saw 0.38% (38 bps) on $1,000,000 when I checked just now.

[bdr1000]

I have a large amount of USD (in a USD account in the UK) that I'd like to turn into GBP. It's enough money to me that every bp of saving is important, so I'd like to find the cheapest way to do this. I'm willing to do more manual work in order to achieve a better rate.

As far as I can tell there are at least 2 types of companies to do this through:

* Money transfer companies (like Transferwise, or https://www.keycurrency.co.uk). They seem to charge 30bps+, but you get an actual person to talk to and they seem relatively straightforward
* Trading platforms (like IG, SaxoBank, etc). Much more DIY, and despite a lot of Googling I can't actually tell if I can deposit USD, exchange it to GBP, and then withdraw to GBP, or if this isn't how you're meant to use them. But on the other hand they're much cheaper - less than 1bp in some cases afaict.

Does anyone have any experiences or suggestions? Thanks.

I have used my Wise account to recieve large USD funds, cheapest is not always the only priority.

[ebeb]

Ria money transfer is every time better on forex rates over Wise since the last 5 years I have compared them while transferring from USD to abroad. But Ria doesn't allow business to business transfers. Now I am looking at XE.com to see if that has better rates than Wise and also allows business transfers.

[EddyB]

I have a large amount of USD (in a USD account in the UK) that I'd like to turn into GBP. It's enough money to me that every bp of saving is important, so I'd like to find the cheapest way to do this. I'm willing to do more manual work in order to achieve a better rate.

As far as I can tell there are at least 2 types of companies to do this through:

* Money transfer companies (like Transferwise, or https://www.keycurrency.co.uk). They seem to charge 30bps+, but you get an actual person to talk to and they seem relatively straightforward
* Trading platforms (like IG, SaxoBank, etc). Much more DIY, and despite a lot of Googling I can't actually tell if I can deposit USD, exchange it to GBP, and then withdraw to GBP, or if this isn't how you're meant to use them. But on the other hand they're much cheaper - less than 1bp in some cases afaict.

Does anyone have any experiences or suggestions? Thanks.

I use Interactive Brokers to exchange a couple of hundred thousand dollars to euros annually and find it to be a great platform, BUT I also have a significant amount with them in ongoing investments AND the hold time for ACH deposits doesn’t trouble me (and lets me avoid a wire fee).