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Transferring House Sale funds (GBP) to Australia


Plentymech

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I transferred from Santander to Wise in GBP then across to Westpac. I spoke to Santander to increase the online transfer limit a bit so it wasn't too tedious but this was by far the best rate so worth a bit of faff. We were actually in Penang when we sold the house!

Revolut wasn't going to be as good.

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22 hours ago, plato said:

Hi,

Has anyone transferred funds from a house sale in the uk to Australia recently? ie 2023.
We have an accountant and solicitor firm lined up to deal with the sale of an uk property and fund transfer. We are not sure as yet how the funds will be transferred to Australia (by our solicitor we presume).  We will be back in Australia when the property is sold.


We know the uk Bank  has a daily withdrawal cap and to override this, the bank says we need to be in the uk and present ourselves in person to arrange. (!#%). But, we will be back in Australia when the house is sold and settled so we have a real estate agent to sell the property with the solicitor handling the finalisation of the sale. We have an accountant to deal with the HMRC. 

We have used XE exchange previously by transferring small amounts from the uk bank into XE and onto Australia where we reside. But, with several hundred GBP,  we don’t know how to have the funds paid by  into XE as a lump sum. We css as nt imagine anyone transferring funds from a house sale in small amounts to XE over 20 bank transfers. How do u transfer the lump sum from the house sale into XE or similar? 

Anyone with recent lived experience or knowledge on this subject to share?

I've been using Wise for years and they are super easy to use, but you need to open an account in advance because there's an ID authentication process that takes a while. Once your account is open it's straightforward to connect it with a UK bank account, and an Australian bank account (when you have one). You can transfer $1.5 million at one time within Wise, although there's often a daily transfer limit from your UK bank to your Wise account (£50,000 in my case), so most people transfer their money over in chunks. They currently charge 0.43% of the consideration, but their exchanges rates are much better than you're going to get with any bank. Beware of any company advertising 'commission free' foreign exchange because that invariable means they're ripping you off with the exchange rate.

It's worth bearing in mind that the Australian FCS protects deposits up to $250,000 for account holders at each bank (in the same way the FSCS has a protection limit of £85,000 in the UK), so if you anticipate having a large sum of money on deposit in Australia for an extended period of time, then you might want to consider spreading it across several accounts.

Wise fees...

https://wise.com/au/pricing/

Edited by InnerVoice
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13 hours ago, partnership said:

What about revolut? Has anyone used this for large sums?

Yeah, been using Revolut for a while now.  They're snappy and swift.  No concerns from me with them.  Although depends what you mean by large sums, but had no issues going into six figures with them.

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6 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

It's worth bearing in mind that the Australian FCS protects deposits up to $250,000 for account holders at each bank (in the same way the FSCS has a protection limit of £85,000 in the UK), so if you anticipate having a large sum of money on deposit in Australia for an extended period of time, then you might want to consider spreading it across several accounts.

If you are doing this then make sure they really are different banks. There are several banks that are groups trading under more than one name, but the guarantee only covers one $250K for the group regardless of the different names.

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  • 1 month later...
On 04/05/2021 at 08:48, Wanderer Returns said:

I've recently moved £250,000 over with Wise (formerly TransferWise) in dribs and drabs, and it was a fraction of the cost of using a bank. My last transaction was £15,000 and the charge was £52.50 pounds, so they charge 0.35% commission.

Was that transfer to your AUD wise account or GBP wise account?

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1 hour ago, LukeGw8921 said:

Was that transfer to your AUD wise account or GBP wise account?

Wise don't charge you to deposit your cash in the same currency.

It's only when you move it (either between internal pots or as a transfer to an external bank in another currency) that they charge.

The fee is the same regardless of which method you use to change currency in wise (I tried both)

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9 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

Wise don't charge you to deposit your cash in the same currency.

It's only when you move it (either between internal pots or as a transfer to an external bank in another currency) that they charge.

The fee is the same regardless of which method you use to change currency in wise (I tried both)

Thank you 🙏🏻 

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Why do you not work with a forex company with a private client desk and a person with whom you can discuss your wishes and how they can help.

I wouldn't use Wise if transferring £250k, even if it was in instalments.

I would say to my chosen forex company if the exchange rate gets to (say) A$1.95 I'll sell (say) £50k.

If it gets to A$2.00 I'll sell another £50k.

etc etc

Similarly if the rate drops to A$1.80 I'll sell £50k.   I think that's called a stop loss order.

And if it gets to those rates at 1am in the morning I won't get annoyed because the forex company will do it all for me.

Plus - who do you talk to if the funds are lost when being transferred.   I've heard of that happening ...

Each to their own though!

Best regards.

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4 hours ago, Alan Collett said:

Why do you not work with a forex company with a private client desk and a person with whom you can discuss your wishes and how they can help.

I wouldn't use Wise if transferring £250k, even if it was in instalments.

I would say to my chosen forex company if the exchange rate gets to (say) A$1.95 I'll sell (say) £50k.

If it gets to A$2.00 I'll sell another £50k.

etc etc

Similarly if the rate drops to A$1.80 I'll sell £50k.   I think that's called a stop loss order.

And if it gets to those rates at 1am in the morning I won't get annoyed because the forex company will do it all for me.

Plus - who do you talk to if the funds are lost when being transferred.   I've heard of that happening ...

Each to their own though!

Best regards.

Because it's cheaper to do the same thing with Wise. It's called an Auto Conversion. The rate's already over $1.95 ($1.95142 at the moment) so if I had one set for $1.95 it would already have gone through, but I've got one at $1.96 waiting. And yes, they do seem to like to go through at 1am.

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3 minutes ago, Ken said:

Because it's cheaper to do the same thing with Wise. It's called an Auto Conversion. The rate's already over $1.95 ($1.95142 at the moment) so if I had one set for $1.95 it would already have gone through, but I've got one at $1.96 waiting. And yes, they do seem to like to go through at 1am.

Thanks Ken.

And the points about a stop loss order - and who to contact if your funds don't arrive?

Best regards.

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8 minutes ago, Alan Collett said:

Thanks Ken.

And the points about a stop loss order - and who to contact if your funds don't arrive?

Best regards.

No, Wise don't currently offer stop loss orders. If your funds don't arrive then obviously you contact Wise. But a wait a few minutes before you do so.

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30 minutes ago, Ken said:

No, Wise don't currently offer stop loss orders. If your funds don't arrive then obviously you contact Wise. But a wait a few minutes before you do so.

Good luck trying to contact Wise - based on what I've heard.

I want people I can talk to if I'm moving larger sums.

I'll happily use Wise for moving £5k.

Not for £50k or more.

Best regards.

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3 minutes ago, Alan Collett said:

Good luck trying to contact Wise - based on what I've heard.

I want people I can talk to if I'm moving larger sums.

I'll happily use Wise for moving £5k.

Not for £50k or more.

Best regards.

I've come across many companies that it is almost impossible to contact. Wise isn't one of them. When moving larger sums, I'd want the instructions in writing, and I definitely wouldn't want to have to talk to someone.

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1 minute ago, Ken said:

I've come across many companies that it is almost impossible to contact. Wise isn't one of them. When moving larger sums, I'd want the instructions in writing, and I definitely wouldn't want to have to talk to someone.

Really?

Each to their own.

The companies I use all put transaction instructions in writing after speaking with them.

Onwards!

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14 hours ago, LukeGw8921 said:

Actually.. wise do charge a conversion fee between account … so gbp to aud has a small charge

Of course they do.  You will always pay some kind of currency exchange fee at the point where the currency exchanges from one to the other, regardless of how you do it.  If you'd used your bank, you'd have paid the fee when the bank converted the currency.   The benefit of Wise is that their fee is usually lower.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 13/12/2023 at 10:30, plato said:

Hi,

Has anyone transferred funds from a house sale in the uk to Australia recently? ie 2023.
We have an accountant and solicitor firm lined up to deal with the sale of an uk property and fund transfer. We are not sure as yet how the funds will be transferred to Australia (by our solicitor we presume).  We will be back in Australia when the property is sold.


We know the uk Bank  has a daily withdrawal cap and to override this, the bank says we need to be in the uk and present ourselves in person to arrange. (!#%). But, we will be back in Australia when the house is sold and settled so we have a real estate agent to sell the property with the solicitor handling the finalisation of the sale. We have an accountant to deal with the HMRC. 

We have used XE exchange previously by transferring small amounts from the uk bank into XE and onto Australia where we reside. But, with several hundred GBP,  we don’t know how to have the funds paid by  into XE as a lump sum. We css as nt imagine anyone transferring funds from a house sale in small amounts to XE over 20 bank transfers. How do u transfer the lump sum from the house sale into XE or similar? 

Anyone with recent lived experience or knowledge on this subject to share?

Hi again

Has anyone used Hoxton Capital Management? This group appear to be financial advisors re UK Pensions etc.

See  this website about an upcoming seminar in Sydney on March 5th 2024.

https://hoxtoncapital.com/resources/events/your-bridge-to-retirement-in-australia/

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1 hour ago, plato said:

Hi again

Has anyone used Hoxton Capital Management? This group appear to be financial advisors re UK Pensions etc.

See  this website about an upcoming seminar in Sydney on March 5th 2024.

https://hoxtoncapital.com/resources/events/your-bridge-to-retirement-in-australia/

Never heard of them. I am a bit suspicious, though. Scroll down and you'll see their lovely Emma is referred to as Matt.

 

Also, nothing on that page suggesting anyone there has registration or expertise regarding Australian tax arrangements.

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2 hours ago, plato said:

 

Has anyone used Hoxton Capital Management? This group appear to be financial advisors re UK Pensions etc.

This company is not an impartial financial adviser. They're an investment company and they want you to give them your money to invest in their products.  

Edited by Marisawright
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2 hours ago, Philip said:

I've come across https://atlantic.money/ which claims to charge a flat fee of £3 to send however much your UK bank account will let you send them by Faster Payments in one transaction.

But what are their exchange rates? The fee is normally a tiny fraction of what you pay. 

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