Moving from UK to Canada but unsure on how to bring money

[mpitillo]

Hello everyone,

My partner and I are soon moving from UK to Montreal, Quebec (Canada) in the next couple of months.

We have a relatively large amount of money (£) saved across both our UK Bank Accounts (Barclays and Santander). We would like to bring this money with us, but we are having a hard time to find the most cost effective method to do so, without losing too much on conversion rate, or without having to bring it all by hand.

I was wondering if anyone here had a similar experience and how did you deal with this? I've heard about Scotiabank Startright Program, where you can open an international account and transfer up to $50,000 CAD before moving to Canada. But there is the limit of 50k, and I am unsure how their conversion rate works. Maybe there's another more recommended method?

Any tips?

Thank you so much!

 

[Bs65]

Cannot make a recommendation based on experience but maybe post question in

https://britishexpats.com/forum/canada-56/

Obviously do not bring by hand apart from fact you have to declare cash 10k Cad and over.

Given you likely have online access to Barclays and Santander both of which suspect offer international wire transfer worst case you could wait until in Canada And open an account

Have heard people use https://transferwise.com/ from the UK and get good rates but assumes you have Canadian account to receive although maybe check security versus bank to bank.

https://transferwise.com/help/25/sending-large-amounts

 

[steaky]

Why not go to your local HSBC branch and open Premier accounts in both UK and Canada? Get instant free transfer in Pounds or other currencies between the accounts and then worry about the conversion rates when are here in Canada.

 

[strssincanada]

I wouldnt recommend using banks to transfer as banks charges lot. I think u can use xe.com