Foreign Exchange/Bank Accounts - Emigrating

[DaddyCool]

I should know this but it's not really my area. When you emigrated, how did you handle the logistics of your money?

I'm talking equity and large values here.

Did you take it all over in travellers cheques and pay them into an account in the country? Did you somehow manage to set up a foreign bank account and wire the money over ready to be accessed when you arrived? If so, did they send you cash card/book everything before you even entered the country?

I'm going to Canada. I'm sure this would be the same process for Canada/NZ/AUZ.

I think high street banks have a lot to answer for - we pay ridiculous charges for very little really (like that straight off charge of £25 because you're 1 day late with your credit card etc.)

crazy. the dude at moneycorp said i need to BACS the money into their account and then they'll do the exchange and wire. he said the BACS would probably be free.... any bets it isn't?

RBS are poo. Real poo. HSBC looks to be the one to go with. especially if your dealing with international accounts (on a domestic side I mean. there are varying deals for corporates)

I wonder how long Moneycorp hang onto your money for between you BACSing it in and receiving it in Canada.

If the turnaround is slow, you will be losing interest on your money - and they will be getting it. Based on online payment experience, it does seem to take quite a few days to move money from one bank to another, which is fine when you are paying a credit card bill, but not when you are transferring £££££s

When we used to do this kind of thing, the fee was £6 to Barclays and $10 to the US bank, and the transaction always took place within an hour or two.

I think I would not yet give up on RBS - but would want to speak to your personal banker - they may be able to do you a deal.

true. i'll keep looking.

i can't quite believe that a large high street bank has one rate for all it's foreign currency transactions. surely that's just silly.

it's immediate btw but they have a deal going where that they will wait until the dealer thinks the exchange rate looks really good and then they'll put through the wire right there and then.

haven't got the low-down on that one yet.

It doesn't make sense, Daddycool. I'm sure there must be something they are keeping mum about. Their credit card transactions all go through at close to the spot rate.

BTW, here's another online forex company. It's the one I use to check exchange rates, and their Can$ rate is 2.031 today.

\link{http://www.xe.com\XE.com}

Their website may cast some additional light on how the whole process works.

Would recommend you contact HSBC - we used them and they arranged to open an account in the US for us and transfered money etc etc. Once you're there and sorted they recommend you open an account with a local bank as we did here with Chase. Since closed the HSBC accounts. But boy did it simplify everything and costs - minimal!!!!

tried HSBC. They can't 'introduce' us to a canadian bank because we haven't banked with them for a year.

it's ok though anyway. i'm canadian so i can just set up an account when i get over there and wire the money to my mum and do a transfer when we arrive.

(come to think of it, i reckon i already have an account which is dormant and probably has about $5 in it)

I got a better rate from First Direct (on about 100,000 GBP) than I did from the FX brokers. I think it's probably a case of RBS being really carp rather than the FX people being really brilliant.

I am currently in the middle of emigrating to Canada and am using a company called Halo Financial. They seem to work in the same way as Moneycorp but i've found them really great. Good rates, everything was simple and they even helped me set up my bank account with RBC.