For the last few years, I have received around half of my income in USD.
Is it possible, being UK based, for me to have a US Monzo account? I wonder if it would offer advantages over the likes of US Dollar accounts with either HSBC or Barclays?
Alternatively, does anyone have any ideas to minimise currency conversion fees? (PayPal won’t let me transfer to TransferWise)
Get a TransferWise Borderless account.
Looks like this will only be possible (for the foreseeable future) if you have US taxpayer identification number:
Yes, but:
…
Ah, I don’t want one of those. 
Thanks. 
Perhaps if I rephrase the question:
How can I move USD from PayPal to TransferWise?
or
How can I minimise conversion fees when converting USD to GBP when received in PayPal?
TIA 
Could you give you entire workflow, I’m not sure where PayPal comes into it? Are you saying that your USD income is sent to PayPal, and from there you need to get it into GBP?
And how are you trying to go from PayPal to TransferWise? The Borderless Account should give you a US bank account number and sort code, so not sure why PayPal wouldn’t work with that. I think you’d need a US PayPal account, is that what you’re using?
Yes. And PayPal fees are very expensive.
Because PayPal will only let you put UK sort Code and account number in.
The best solution would be to open a Transferwise Borderless account, and have your USD deposited into that. You can then convert to GBP at a significantly better rate then send to your UK bank account.
Ahhh, that explains it. This is because you have a PayPal UK account. You need to set up a PayPal US account. Then have people pay you into that, and you should be able to add your TransferWise US bank account details to it for withdrawal.
Contact Paypal by phone or live chat. Ask them to add your Transferwise Borderless account to you Paypal account. I did this last week and it worked fine. It takes around 1 working day to transfer from PayPal to Transferwise.
If you’re getting paid in US Dollars, why not skip PayPal entirely and get paid into a TransferWise USD account? I get paid entirely in US Dollars directly into my TransferWise account and it saves me a fortune.
That is what I said above - and also how I get paid like yourself. Never had any problems and much much cheaper than PayPal.
That’s my preferred option but the business paying me won’t do this.
A post was merged into an existing topic: Removed Posts September
A post was merged into an existing topic: Removed Posts September
Many thanks for letting me know of your experience. Did you actually say to PayPal it is a TransferWise account? Or just gave them the account details?
No problem. Yes, first I spoke to them on live chat. I told them I wanted to add my US bank account to my PayPal wallet, then for security purposes they had to speak to me on the phone. Within 5 minutes of speaking to them on the phone, they added my TransferWise US account to my PayPal. I have found It takes around 1 working day for the transfers and a little bit ore on weekends. Hope this helps 
It helps massively. Thank you.
Well, I’ve just spoken to a PayPal agent and he told me that TransferWise is known as a “Virtual Bank” and, as such, they can not add TransferWise to PayPal.
He just wouldn’t budge.
[edit]
I called straight back and spoke with a different agent. He asked if US Bank is located in USA or UK.
He said he will email me a link to upload a bank statement with the relevant details and this takes around 24 hours for them to action.
I’ve downloaded a statement from TransferWise which has my US account details and their logo and London address on it. I can’t imagine this is going to be too successful either?
I’ve never tried to add a US bank account to a UK PayPal account, so not sure what your chances are. I’d suggest it might be easier to open a US PayPal account and you can then just add the US TransferWise account directly through the web interface. I opened a US PayPal account years ago and it was simple to do (so hopefully that hasn’t changed), you just need to use a different email address.
The other thing to note is that TransferWise also have a US address, so you might want to contact them to see if they can help get PayPal the details they need.
I’ve tried this, it’s not possible - it’s not even that reliable with US cards. I’ve got two separate PayPal accounts now, one with my US account, one with UK. You absolutely cannot add TransferWise Borderless Account to a US PayPal - it’s not a ‘bank’ account and doesn’t allow payments to be taken from the account automatically. You can try to set it up, PayPal will accept it and then cancel it later on once the system recognises it doesn’t work. You need a real US bank account for this to work with PayPal.
A solution to this would be to give your TW Borderless Account details directly to whoever is paying you, then it’s simple enough for you to convert it.