Sending Money to a US bank account

[Mrs Hobbes]

This may be a better question for the UK DVC form but I wanted t ask here as this forum is busier.

We opened a US bank account with Suntrust in December to enable us to pay our DVC dues monthly and also for saving our holiday spending money.

We are looking for the cheapest and if possible free method to transfer money from the UK to our US account.

In January we used the post office to send money to the account but that ended up costing about £30 so we are looking for a better method.

Paypal has been suggested but after a phone call with paypal we were told that to register our US bank account we would nee d a US address otherwise we couldnt verify that account.

The man at Suntrust said that we could post a cheque to the bank to pay in but did he mean a UK cheque or something else?

Does anyone have any good suggestions or tried and tested methods?

Thanks for any help

 

[Elise79]

We use XE.com to send the money. You need to set up a trade account but once that's done you can send money and it will arrive next day.

The rate is usually only a couple of cents under bank rate and there are no other charges

 

[Mrs Hobbes]

Thanks Elsie that sounds like a similar set up to the post office but then our bank charges us to deposit too might work out a bit less using XE though so we can try that next time thanks

 

[Elise79]

With XE you set up the "trade" with them which is basically the money you want to transfer. You send a payment in sterling to them using your banks online banking to the details they give you. Once they receive it they send the money to your Suntrust account.

There should be no fees from your bank as you basically sending money like you would to pay anyone else. Using faster payments here means the money is sent same day and will show in your account the next day.

I have never paid any fees using XE. For send just make sure you pick the free option not wire transfer

 

[Mrs Hobbes]

I have never paid any fees using XE. For send just make sure you pick the free option not wire transfer

Thats fantastic! I love that we can avoid the wire transfer costs thank you :good vibes

 

[Lisa1976]

PayPal is free. I have a sun trust account, so I do a bank transfer to my PayPal account and then do a withdrawal to my sun trust account. It's completely free and takes a couple of days to show in my ST account

Should also say I don't have an American address.

 

[Mrs Hobbes]

PayPal is free. I have a sun trust account, so I do a bank transfer to my PayPal account and then do a withdrawal to my sun trust account. It's completely free and takes a couple of days to show in my ST account

Should also say I don't have an American address.

That's interesting - I always thought it should be possible but my hubby spent an age on the phone to PayPal and was told no.

If you have time would you be able to explain how you set it up please. We have a verified UK PayPal account. Thanks

 

[wildwood]

I send money to my wells fargo account a couple times a month via the post office , if your reciving bank charge you fees you keep a note from your statment and send this to the post office who will refund your money as they guarantee a no fee service , being using them for three years and always get the money retuned .

 

[Mrs Hobbes]

I send money to my wells fargo account a couple times a month via the post office , if your reciving bank charge you fees you keep a note from your statment and send this to the post office who will refund your money as they guarantee a no fee service , being using them for three years and always get the money retuned .

Thanks its worth a try to get the fees back. We received two lots of charges, the money deposited via the post office was $20 less than we asked to be sent and then our bank charged us another $20 for the deposit.

 

[gavvy]

I always use XE.com - no charges if you use ACH/EFT- the funds get there in around 2 days, one of the best exchange rates too.

 

[Lisa1976]

That's interesting - I always thought it should be possible but my hubby spent an age on the phone to PayPal and was told no.

If you have time would you be able to explain how you set it up please. We have a verified UK PayPal account. Thanks

I don't remember having to do anything major (it's been a good few years since we did it, lol).im sure we added it as you do a normal bank account

 

[Disneymad]

Paypal is 'free' but has a terrible exchange rate, hence not really free - they just bake their charges into the exchange rate.

Another vote for XeTrade here - admittedly they do bake their charges into the exchange rate too but it's more competitive. Normally it's on or around what Fairfax use if you want a guideline.

There's a little bit of fuss setting up the account as you have to prove your identity (this is to prevent money-laundering) but once it's all done it's incredibly easy. I just book the rate on their site, head to my normal online banking account and pay them (in the same way I'd pay the credit card bill), and then I usually receive the confirmation email saying they've sent the $$ the next day. They cover themselves by saying the money might not hit the account for a few business days but the one time I bothered to check, the Dollars were in the day after the email.

I'm with Sun Trust too - HTH!