As the font of all knowledge, I'm hoping stw can help me here. I need to get about £3k to Canada in the next few working days for the missus to place a deposit on a flat. What's the easiest/ quickest/ cheapest way to do so – through my bank, a foreign exchange place or elsewhere?
THanks!

Hifx works for me doing transfers to france

**** me, that must be some flat, where abouts you moving?

this will be no use to you just now but i have two paypal accounts, one linked to my account in the uk and one to my account in canada, works well for hassle free transfers.

we use foreign currency direct http://www.currencies.co.uk/

much cheaper than our bank (barclays) – better rates and quicker.

rs – good point, hadn't thought of that but should've. Next time that should do it.
In the meantime, I'll check out those other two 🙂

Speak to your banks foreign currency/transfers department, they will be able to do this, they will need info from the missus about the destination account number, bank details, IBAN code, etc . . . likely the transfer will cost you a few quid . . .

Problem with this is that some banks use different terms for the same things, making your life more difficult . . .

Leaving things to the last moment means your life is more difficult 😉 . . . time to learn to prepare 😉

HiFX have been fine for me.

IBAN generally isn't used in Canada, so you'll need the bank SWIFT code, account number and the routing transit number. Most big British banks will be able to pay CAD same day to Canadian banks, so allow two to three days for the payment to hit the account.

HiFX worked for me too, UK > Canada. But it took a few days to set-up with proof of ID etc, so check with them how long it will take for the overall process.

Cheers everyone, will check these out. As for

time to learn to prepare

I'll tell the other half that!

Only just seen this. Recently discovered caxton FX, rates have been very good, no hidden charges and superb service.

xe.com have been good to me so far.

You send GBP to their UK account, they send CAD to your Canadian account.