# Converting £'s to $'s



## goodman (Oct 3, 2009)

We are in the process of selling our UK property and buying a place in California. I was just wondering if anyone knows a method of transferring funds to get a better exchange rate rather than using the Banks' usual electronic transfer method.


----------



## Fatbrit (May 8, 2008)

goodman said:


> We are in the process of selling our UK property and buying a place in California. I was just wondering if anyone knows a method of transferring funds to get a better exchange rate rather than using the Banks' usual electronic transfer method.


xe.com


----------



## Rolling Stone (Mar 29, 2010)

Buy a square foot of land in Gibraltar for 800E and as a property owner you can transact the sale through a Gib bank meaning ZERO UK taxes. Then you can transfer though the Gib bank to the USA if that is the goal. The added benefit is no inheritance tax if you keep the property/banking relationship in Gib. 
I have a fried that sold a well known pharmacy chain in the UK for millions and he did this and lives on the Costa Del Sol near us. He has never spent one night in Gib but he does not need to as a property owner. He told me he feels better knowing his family will get a tax free inheritance once he moves on.
Just a thought.......


----------



## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Rolling Stone said:


> Buy a square foot of land in Gibraltar for 800E and as a property owner you can transact the sale through a Gib bank meaning ZERO UK taxes. Then you can transfer though the Gib bank to the USA if that is the goal. The added benefit is no inheritance tax if you keep the property/banking relationship in Gib.
> I have a fried that sold a well known pharmacy chain in the UK for millions and he did this and lives on the Costa Del Sol near us. He has never spent one night in Gib but he does not need to as a property owner. He told me he feels better knowing his family will get a tax free inheritance once he moves on.
> Just a thought.......


I strongly suspect much of that is an urban legend. But I can tell you from experience that buying property in California will definitely subject you to taxes in California on the ultimate cession of the property (by sale or inheritance). (More, if you're resident in California.)
Cheers,
Bev


----------



## Rolling Stone (Mar 29, 2010)

Bevdeforges said:


> I strongly suspect much of that is an urban legend. But I can tell you from experience that buying property in California will definitely subject you to taxes in California on the ultimate cession of the property (by sale or inheritance). (More, if you're resident in California.)
> Cheers,
> Bev


He is a resident og the UK I thought. No tax on property sales through Gib.....FACT....I am there now! I have a deed to property in Gib also and use it for my business purposes....FACT! Why would you have a desire to call someone a liar without facts to support the judgement? 
What does CA have to do with this? He is just talking about getting money from a sale in the UK into the USA without losing too much in the process I thought? Of course he will pay local and state taxes in CA if he buys property there.......


----------



## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

No one is calling anyone a liar, Rolling Stone. But the OP IS selling up their UK property, which does kind of imply that they are going the expat route. 

Just one other idea for Goodman might be to keep at least a small UK bank account open when you move. It's really handy on visits back to "the Old Country" and if you wind up ordering things from "back home" after you move.
Cheers,
Bev


----------



## goodman (Oct 3, 2009)

We are alaready living in California. We tried to purchase a property and were a month away from purchasing a brand new place when the lender pulled out all because we had no US credit score. Basically, we were led up the garden path. They carried out a manual credit check by phoning our UK bank and mortgage lender and told us we were pre-qualified for the loan. My husband obviously pays tax on his salary and we are not really worrying about the inheritance tax situation at the moment, we just want to be able to get our own property as it is such a good time to buy here in CA and the UK property is becoming a burden and we could do with the capital from it.


----------



## crys (Feb 20, 2009)

I know a company based in London, who can set the rate at around 2% more than UK banks. Very big company in the city. I recently sent over a alrge sum of money and saved myself around £4K by donig it through this company. Am reluctant to post their details in case i get banned for advertising but if anyone wants the details, please pm me. And before you ask, i dont work for them, dontget any commission, just was introduced to the company by a friend and it was well worth it for me.


----------

