john banks

A third of my income is paid in dollars. I bank with RBS.

Each time I'm paid, there is between $12.50 and $20 difference between "original ordered amount" and "amount received" which sounds to me like it is the US bank charges. Then RBS take a commission charge of £7.

The thing that grates more is the "senders exchange rate" which seems to be in the bank's favour by about 1.5 to 2%.

Since it says "senders exchange rate" I presume this is the US bank's margin/split rather than RBS, so not much I can do about it by changing UK bank?

Dingdongler

Sorry to be nosey but given your profession why is half of your income paid in $?

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

I think John has a lot of investements

Shaun

GC8

He peddles drugs: and these payments come from 'Uncle Escobar'...

john banks

Uncle Escobar and investments, LOL, if only. I have carved a niche in reverse engineering ECUs that has opened up international opportunities.

Anyone answer my question and tell me if I can get a better deal? This experience reinforces my existing impression that banks are useless parasites.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8678979.stm

Sorry John......couldn't resist it LOL

Last time I looked, GMP's in my area are on £135,000 as an FTE.. I took my kids to Pizza Hut last friday and they raped me for much more than your exchange rate problems LOL

Shaun

boxst

You could use Citibank (UK) and set up a dollar account? That is what I did and you then have the advantage of deciding when to convert (i.e. when the exchange rate is favourable) and you can also negotiate a better rate of exchange depending on the amount you wish to transfer.

Steve

GC8

Further to what Steve has said, whichd be my sensible comment: Id add that a US$ account with the same company should mitigate your costs/charges as much as is possible (if possible).

Dingdongler

Wow! You make a third of a GP's salary again from your 'sideline'!

That's no small achievement, well done. I wish I had a sideline!

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

I've been recommended these

http://www.moneycorp.com/?source=goo...ive=4386648629

Haven't looked into it yet

Trout

iTrader: (1)

...he is Scottish!

Try using a proper international bank as said above, not one of these parochial Government run operations.

Or set up a US account with someone like eTrade (historically been less hassle) which means you have an interest bearing account in the US, you can do a bit trading for entertainment purposes and you do bulk transfers when you need it.

john banks

Midlife, you've been too busy reading the Daily Mail again That WTE figure (probably means nearly double the hours most work) was probably for a select few, in a particularly good year, who dispense and are on PMS contracts and includes their private work/other business interests (if you own a few nursing homes and several practices etc) and probably some of their expenses too. With our income already having been frozen for the last four years (never mentioned in the news), along with rising expenses and increasing work required to hit the same targets along with the negative briefing from press/previous government there is considerable disgruntlement amongst many. The generosity of the 2004 contract has now been eroded such that in real terms I'm not really better off than when I took a partnership in 2002. I'm not complaining by any stretch, but the reality and the hyperbole are different. So the opportunity to do work in something else that I love and with the depreciation of the pound means it is viable after saved travelling costs to locum out a few sessions and do this instead, and interesting enough that I'm willing to do it in what was previously my "spare" time. It is quite odd that I can tinker with ECUs for more than I'd get paid as a GP with a special interest working in hospital. I know you are not looking for or need a justification, but I thought you'd find it refreshing to hear the reality which is very unlikely to be grassier than your side of the fence.

I do suspect that if I did this stuff full time in a low tax state in the US with the cost of housing and living there, I could have a comparable standard of living, but I can't practice medicine there. I also suspect that eventually the purchasing price of the dollar (and the euro and pound) will be trashed against most other world currencies, and the discussion will not be between these currrency pairs but against S.American and Asian currencies.

Wow, I've gone off at a tangent, just trying to shape what I do to fit my interests/needs and the developments good/bad in the world

Re the bank, indeed the fixed fees are just a Pizza Express meal for two mice with discount vouchers, but that is barely the start of the bank's urine extraction, the rate of exchange is what is really horrible.

Trout, I'm not Scottish!

Thanks for the ideas. If funds were left in the US beyond the end of a UK tax year, what do you tell the Inland Revenue?

GC8

Barely comparable, but when I imported cars I used HSBC and their exchange rate (sometimes on as little as £1,000) would be within a couple of Yen of the actual rate of exchange, when sent via telegraphic transfer. The savings were substantial even at this end of the scale, when compared to the tourist rates offered by many high street cowboys.

With regards to the Inland Revenue: need you tell them anything, because Id presume that American accounts are beyond their influence?

Trout

iTrader: (1)

John - you live there and I speak from experience - it rubs off

For a US account you will need to set up as a non-resident and this will create a non-residence interest form at the end of the year. You can give this to the revenue - if the numbers are of any scale the US will share them with the revenue on your behalf!!

GC8

I stand corrected.

scoobyster

Going back a couple of years but I used to get paid my company expenses in Euros via IBAN transfers. My current account is with Nationwide because of their fee free forex ATM withdrawals (then, now loaded by 1% outside the EU, but still at proper forex rates not tourist). They would never tell me how much they swayed their rates when converting the IBAN transfers, which was annoying since I had to guess how much to claim for this, but it generally worked out at 2.5 - 3%. Not great, but sounds like it could be better than your current arrangement.