I can not provide you with annotated information or indepth research,
as one would expect from a true 'Answer' here, but I can give you some
advice.
Find out if the remote party would accept a check, even if they would
charge you a little extra. I am British and I have a regular UK bank
account, and I can put US dollar checks into my bank, and they only
charge me about $7.50 for the privilege. I also get a slightly worse
currency rate, but it's pretty close to the regular rate. This is
probably the best way of converting many thousands of dollars into
pounds.
Another system would be to use something like PayPal. The big problem
with this, however, is that you could be stung with almost 4%
commission, which is certainly going to cut into an amount in the
thousands. See http://www.paypal.com/
The other alternative would be to do a wire transfer. The benefit of
this is that you usually get a really good rate, but the disadvantage
is that you have to pay a fee for the transfer. Your bank should be
able to advise you in this area. Generally you will pay a fixed amount
for the wire transfer, so on a big transfer you could probably get
away with it really cheap. I know our bank in the US charges about $15
to do a wire transfer, and this is for almost any amount (within
reason).
Good luck. |
