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FX transfer for property purchase

Financial discussion for any financial queries for Expats
bofh
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FX transfer for property purchase

#403812

Postby bofh » April 13th, 2021, 10:22 am

Hi,

I need to move about 150K cash from my ISAs to Hungary for a property purchase. I have local bank accounts both ends and am a regular use of Wise (formerly Transferwise) and Starling Bank to send lump sums overseas. However, this is typically 5k or 10k at a time as and when needed, rather than a larger lump sum.

As of now, I'm under no specific deadline to move the cash, but we are narrowing down properties so a working assumption is deposit money would be required in the next 2 months and the full funds in 3 or so months.

I'm considering sending weekly chunks of 10K to spread out both currency and operational risk but that seems a bit of a faff so inclined more towards sending 50K chunks each month. I can't remember the last time I sent more than 10K at once and don't want to have to jump through compliance hoops or have the money 'stalled' pending paperwork.

I'd like to here members recent experiences with large FX transfers, also if there are any providers I should look at (feel free to PM me if that might contravene the forum rules).

TIA
-b

JuanDB
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Re: FX transfer for property purchase

#403871

Postby JuanDB » April 13th, 2021, 1:17 pm

I use transferwise and currencies direct every quarter to move funds, typically 20-30k sometimes as high as 50k, from USD in a brokerage account to GBP at Barclays. I occasionally get a call as a security check but I’ve never had any issues with funds not being transferred.

I think as long as you’ve used the various beneficiaries previously there isn’t anything in particular you can do, except Perhaps notify the originating bank (Starling?) that the payments will be made.

Cheers,

Juan.

SeagoonN
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Re: FX transfer for property purchase

#403876

Postby SeagoonN » April 13th, 2021, 1:31 pm

Have a look at the Wise internet site - you can send large amounts of up to £1+ million in one transfer which should be enough for your purposes...

You will also get a small discount if you send £100,000 or more in one go.

https://wise.com/help/articles/2977942/how-much-does-it-cost-to-send-large-transfers

Neddy

GrahamPlatt
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Re: FX transfer for property purchase

#403878

Postby GrahamPlatt » April 13th, 2021, 1:46 pm

JuanDB wrote:I use transferwise and currencies direct every quarter to move funds, typically 20-30k sometimes as high as 50k, from USD in a brokerage account to GBP at Barclays. I occasionally get a call as a security check but I’ve never had any issues with funds not being transferred.

I think as long as you’ve used the various beneficiaries previously there isn’t anything in particular you can do, except Perhaps notify the originating bank (Starling?) that the payments will be made.

Cheers,

Juan.


How odd, because I’ve tried that and Wise explicitly forbid transfers from brokerage accounts. It was the brokerage that initially refused the transfer out to Wise (TransferWise as it was at the time), I flagged it up with Wise, and they confirmed that not being a bank, they can’t accept. I was just trying to avoid the broker’s inflated FX charge. The OP will be OK, having banks at both ends, but won’t (according to my experience) be able to transfer directly from ISA to Wise.

JuanDB
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Re: FX transfer for property purchase

#403956

Postby JuanDB » April 13th, 2021, 5:06 pm

GrahamPlatt wrote:
JuanDB wrote:I use transferwise and currencies direct every quarter to move funds, typically 20-30k sometimes as high as 50k, from USD in a brokerage account to GBP at Barclays. I occasionally get a call as a security check but I’ve never had any issues with funds not being transferred.

I think as long as you’ve used the various beneficiaries previously there isn’t anything in particular you can do, except Perhaps notify the originating bank (Starling?) that the payments will be made.

Cheers,

Juan.


How odd, because I’ve tried that and Wise explicitly forbid transfers from brokerage accounts. It was the brokerage that initially refused the transfer out to Wise (TransferWise as it was at the time), I flagged it up with Wise, and they confirmed that not being a bank, they can’t accept. I was just trying to avoid the broker’s inflated FX charge. The OP will be OK, having banks at both ends, but won’t (according to my experience) be able to transfer directly from ISA to Wise.


Strictly speaking I go US brokerage account to Barclays USD account. Barclays USD to fx provider. FX provider to Barclays sterling account. I omitted the Barclays USD account step for brevity.

bofh
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Re: FX transfer for property purchase

#406578

Postby bofh » April 23rd, 2021, 9:58 pm

Thanks all.

I ended up transferring funds from my Starling Bank to my existing Wise account for currency exchange (and then onward to my Hungarian bank account). Wise was cheaper than using Starlings FX service (which is competitive) and funds were transferred promptly. I did hit the Starling Bank transfer limit of 25K. They indicate they will temporarily raise this for the day if requested. If the GBPHUF drops below 400, I'll likely hedge with a short spread bet.


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