Transferring large chunks of money overseas

[roary]

O Wise Mumsnetters Abroad
Any particularly good advice for doing this? (short of a big suitcase chained to your wrist) :)

What sort of chunks? We transferred 100K or so to the Eurozone a few years ago and it was still most cost effective to do it via my bank.

I've always used XE.com - I get a better rate than my bank whenever I've asked, and they've always been helpful.

Do check the laws about importing money though - some countries can be a bit odd about it.

Ask your bank and/or financial institution for advice. In the past, I have simply had my bank in one country wire the money directly into a bank account in another country.

I think there are laws about it that vary country to country. For instance, there was a time I knew about transferring money from America to England, and iirc, the limit was $11k per transfer without having to fill out official paperwork. I have no idea if there were/are laws relating to how frequently you are allowed to make these transfers.

Regulations apply, I think, because of money laundering and tax avoidance.

But having said that, I recall wiring in money for a deposit for a flat purchase and it was significantly more than the $11k mentioned above.

Not sure that was helpful at all! [hconfused]

Proceeds of the sale of our house, so quite a large sum, to Australia. I quite like the suitcase plan, but that's definitely illegal. Just would feel quite James Bond.

Although given I will have two DCs and all their gear, a suitcase full of money would be a bridge too far.

Ask your bank.

There will be a few options, depending on how fast you want/need the money.

When we did this kind of thing regularly, we used Swiftwire.

We use paypal quite a lot