# What is the best way to take payment for services from the UK into a US bank account?



## InspiredLamb (Mar 4, 2020)

I'm an English permanent resident living in the US. I freelance for a living. Can anyone tell me what is the best way to take payment for services from the UK into a US bank account, without taking card payments, which I am not set up to do. I've seen some horror stories about Transferwise, PayPal and the bank transfers have hefty fees. Does anyone have experience with this?

Any advice is appreciated.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

I've been using Transferwise for a couple years now and recently set up one of their "borderless accounts." What those do is to give you a bank transfer i.d. so that your UK customers can pay you and then you can transfer balances to your US bank account.

Don't know what horror stories you've heard, but so far for me it seems to work rather nicely.


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## InspiredLamb (Mar 4, 2020)

Bevdeforges said:


> I've been using Transferwise for a couple years now and recently set up one of their "borderless accounts." What those do is to give you a bank transfer i.d. so that your UK customers can pay you and then you can transfer balances to your US bank account.
> 
> Don't know what horror stories you've heard, but so far for me it seems to work rather nicely.


Okay, that's encouraging. They had a 1.4 out of 5 rating on consumeraffairs.com, and many tales of lost money and transfers that never made it to their destination. It was enough to make me think twice, but I'm open to some positive feedback from users here.


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## Italia-Mx (Jan 14, 2009)

Wire transfer is the only way.


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

Italia-Mx said:


> Wire transfer is the only way.


That may have been the case 20 years ago.


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## Italia-Mx (Jan 14, 2009)

It's still the case. If you have money in a foreign account and you want to transfer it to a US account, it must be wire transferred (with a paper trail of the transaction) unless you plan to arrive in the foreign country, take the cash out of the bank and transport it to the USA. In this case, the cash you transport must be under 10,000.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

The problem with wire transfers is their cost. That's precisely why transfer services like Transferwise, Remitly and the various FX services have sprung up in recent years. Which service you use can depend on how large your transfer is and/or how frequent. But the services are becoming more and more economical and more and more innovative.


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

Not wanting to be pedantic but aren't the services just electronic wire transfers? Often done by none banks?

I think the OP needs to think about what he already has setup. 

An UK bank?

An US bank?

Are they linked some how? If not does either offer low cost transfers?

Transferwise etc are great if he needs to transfer from an UK account but I think the OP is asking for a way clients can send money. If so he might need/want something that will be simple for UK residents and not require them to look at a transfer company they don't normally use.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

NickZ said:


> Transferwise etc are great if he needs to transfer from an UK account but I think the OP is asking for a way clients can send money. If so he might need/want something that will be simple for UK residents and not require them to look at a transfer company they don't normally use.


Transferwise offers a "Borderless account" where you can get a bank transfer number (an IBAN for euros, a routing code and account number for US $ payments) to use for accepting payments. For a US customer, they just make a bank transfer in US $ to "your" account at Transferwise as if it were a regular bank to bank transfer within the US (usually free to do). You can then access the funds in GBP or whatever currency you like using a debit card to make payments.

I think Remitly has something similar, though I'm not sure.


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

Italia-Mx said:


> It's still the case. If you have money in a foreign account and you want to transfer it to a US account, it must be wire transferred (with a paper trail of the transaction) unless you plan to arrive in the foreign country, take the cash out of the bank and transport it to the USA. In this case, the cash you transport must be under 10,000.



You can import as much cash as you want as long as you declare it:>)
Please read up under CFR31; FDIC is the official source. In very basic terms an aggregate of over 10,000 US$ cash or cash instrument transactions per customer/day requires a CTR (currency transaction report). Generally a consumer/commercial bank customer does not see those.

Aside from the fact that it is incorrect - what do you base your insistence on wire being the only way to transfer funds to/from the US?


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## nevinho (Apr 8, 2020)

Transferwise & other similar services usually don't transfer your money between countries. That exactly the reason they are so comparatively cheap. Instead, they take your money and put it in their local bank account. They then pay you the equivalent value from a bank account in the target country. This only works because they a) Have already seeded bank accounts all over the world with large amounts of money and b) At scale, they have cheaper ways to transfer large amounts of money between their accounts should any of their account balances become overdrawn.

So, based on the above, it is somewhat true to say wire transfer is the only way, but really it is someone else doing the transfer and not you.


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