What’s the cheapest way to convert pounds to dollars? HSBC is quite expensive. Wise is cheaper. But is there better than Wise? £1k per month I need to transfer regular.
For me T212 has the best effective fx rate (after the demise of Zing) but apart from spending the USD using the debit card (online or at the shops in the US) it might be challenging to extract / transfer out the USD from T212. Otherwise it’s a toss up between Wise UK (market fx rate+Wise fee) and Revolut UK Standard (so-called Revolut rate, £1k fits within Revolut Standard free tier for fee-free fx).
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Will compare what I can get from the cheaper apps currently (everything is for an international transfer of $1000 from pounds).
£759.85 for Monzo
£765.56 (partner with no reference) or £760.28 with SWIFT
£760.59 with Wise.
With Wise it’s possible to get a discount on the first transfer with a referral so I’d probably use that. That and they’re probably more useful for international payments than Monzo are (more generally). Can setup recurring payments too.
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Is this a transfer to a bank account in USD or meant regular conversions ? iFAST usually has good rates on some days. Would be worth checking
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I transfer several multiples of that every month and occasionally look around but always end up sticking with Wise. Even if there are places that give a few more pence they are never cheaper enough to be worth the hassle for me. Nine years now I’ve done big monthly transfers using Wise and I can’t see that changing any time soon.
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Transfer to my US HSBC account to pay off monthly US credit card bill hence atleast £1k a month
If you have a HSBC UK account you can link them and transfer fee free between them. Exchange rate isn’t the best but there’s no fee free monthly limit like there is with Revolut. Wise can work out cheaper too.
If you don’t mind me asking is it the HSBC US credit card or a US Amex or something else?
I’ve compared HSBC UK to US against Wise and Revolut and it comes up more expensive, easier though of course.
Revolut is cheapest but limited to £1k a month.
It’s the US HSBC credit card that has the $95 AF.
Did you get it as a non-resident? I heard HSBC US stopped giving out credit cards for those with a foreign address on their account.
The only cheaper way I know is to use IBKR. You can load GBP to your account and convert it to USD at more or leas the mid market rate. They also provide ACH direct debits numbers allowing you to pay of a US credit card directly from your USD balance. You can also withdraw your USD balance to a local account but there is a waiting period after your deposit before you can do that.
I’m a non resident but along as your a HSBC UK premier customer you’re still good to get it.
I’ll look into that. Has anyone had experience using Atlantic money? Apparently they charge a flat fee of £3. Their rate seems to beat even that of wise and of course better than revolut on balances over £1k
+ some other requirement. Can’t apply for the card online for example.
Atlantic money does have great rates but it would only make sense to use if transferring large amounts.
It should be possible to pay off the HSBC US card with an external bank account. You can just top up your Wise balance and pay it off with that. Wise provides ACH details and supports direct debits.