Large sums of money transactions from the UK

[Snowy79]

I've seen recommendations for smaller sums of transactions but does anyone have ideas as to the best way of transferring sums around about the £145,000 bracket? I've got an HSBC account in the UK and also one in the Philippines. They assured me there was no fee to transfer the money between the UK and the Philippines as it was the same bank but it turns out there is. Added to this the bank exchange rate is poor compared to the market rate. As a guide HSBC quotes approx 61.57 and the day rate is about 62.73. Basically just over a £2681 difference. 

Are there safe companies out there that charge a set fee using the base rate?

[Steve GCC]

you could look at this...........

https://www.devere-group.com/page/ForeignExchange.aspx

I have not used them but my pensions and off shore savings etc are with them

Will ask my POC for more details if you like

 

Steve

[Steve GCC]

Have contact details if you want PM me and can send them to you.

 

Steve

[OnMyWay]

Do you have a pound account at HSBC Philippines or any other bank in the Philippines?

[Snowy79]

2 hours ago, Steve GCC said:

Have contact details if you want PM me and can send them to you.

 

Steve

Yes please. Cheers. I'll check if they are FSA registered.

[Snowy79]

1 hour ago, OnMyWay said:

Do you have a pound account at HSBC Philippines or any other bank in the Philippines?

I've got a pound account but they pay out a poor exchange rate. Not looked into other ways of drawing it from my bank yet. If you're thinking of drawing pounds here and finding a cash changer etc.

[Gary D]

My concern would be what happens to the money when it hits your account in the Philippines, the bank staff will think all their Christmas's have come at once. I have heard of bank staff wiring money out of an account into their own and apparently they can do it without autherisation.

[OnMyWay]

2 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

I've got a pound account but they pay out a poor exchange rate. Not looked into other ways of drawing it from my bank yet. If you're thinking of drawing pounds here and finding a cash changer etc.

Yes, you could go talk to some changers in advance and see if they could meet you at your bank with the pesos, then deposit the pesos in your peso account.

I guess you don't have time to write a pound check to yourself and wait for it to clear?  That is the only fee free way to transfer if HSBC has fees.  Some people had said HSBC does not have fees for HSBC to HSBC transfers but I think you are saying that is wrong.

[scott h]

11 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

I've seen recommendations

Snowy, here is what we did when we moved here and built our house.

We opened a dollar account and transferred a pretty hefty some of dollars into it. I think we had to wait two weeks for clearance. Our bank knew that their exchange rate was poor and arranged for a money exchanger that they do business with to meet us at the bank and exchange the large amount at the higher "street" rate. We then deposited our pesos into that same bank. Bottom line is that we never left the bank premises with a large amount of cash.

Now there are as many methods as there are members on this board  but this is what worked for us.

[Snowy79]

Yes I think the money changer in the bank is the best method and pretty safe. HSBC Philippines assured me there was no charge but the HSBC in the UK say they use a clearing bank and do charge. Probably some tax avoidance scheme for them and they do charge. It's worth looking into as I've seen differences of over £4,000.