Cheapest way of transferring USD to GBP

[PenguinArmy]

We'll have about $2000 to convert to the UK pound. Is it cheaper just to take it in cash to the post office or do via a bank transfer or other electronic means?

Account here is Bank of America, UK accounts are Natwest, First Direct and HSBC.

our US bank charged us $20 to do it via electronic transfer and their currency rate wasn't that bad

We also put some onto the UK credit card, i.e. did a payment to the Natwest credit card from the US account (no fee in US and got Natwest currency rate) then when we got home spent the first couple of weeks using the credit card as it had a positive account balance IYSWIM

have you tried via moneycorp? you can check on currenciesdirect online as well, to get a better rate.

I didn't think of UK creditcard, I just though UK accounts charged to deal with foreign currency and then had a less than impressive conversion rate.

We did it on the natwest credit card as we had some special deal, they didn't charge commission I think was DHs so not entirely sure, they changed our account when we told them we were going to the states for 2 years and hence the deal on the cdit card was better, might be worth emailing them to check yours

hi penguin,

I have been using Currency Fair for a few months now. It is a peer to peer service so the rates are really good and the fees negligible. So far my experience of the customer service is outstanding as well. Highly recommended!