You might want to pay attention to how much gets taken off the top in fees. It wasn't difficult for me to get money wire transferred from...somewhere in Europe, but it would cost me $16. Cost my sister the equivalent of $27, which was why I was the better fit. But my bank told me the information required for an international transfer in a chat session.

I have no interest in Boynton or Bullock. Bullock has more of an impact on my life, but like by 1%, and me talking to her won't change that.

DTransferring from a UK account to a US account should not be hard though I admit my experience was with German and French accounts. They simply went to their bank and asked them to do a transfer, translating into dollars. There was a ding in the conversion from Euros to dollars. My bank charged a $75 fee to receive the money - which is high but they are a local bank.

Yeah, if you have a solicitor that would just as soon hold on to the money that makes life tough. It is actually part of their job to figure out how to get the money to you since they are professional in settling estates. And in this case I don't think you need a UK bank. The Solicitor has the money in some sort of account. Maybe a bank, maybe something else. But if you were in the UK they would have to get it to you. I'm pretty sure there is in fact a legal way for them to transfer the money to you. For a legal professional who has what is now your money (and who is responsible for settling the estate) to tell you it is up to you to figure out how to make the transfer is some nerve. I wonder if there is some professional association in the UK you can talk to about this? Or some regulatory body? Maybe Fiona can find out? Or someone in Ogle?

You can deposit a check in pounds, but they may take some of it as a processing fee, or whatever they call it. M had a check for £80 that he deposited into our US account, but they took something ridiculous like $20 off the top. We considered fighting them for it, since they hadn't mentioned the fee when he went to the bank to deposit it, but didn't have the energy.

If you are going to accept a check in pounds, you might check with your bank first to see what they will charge you in conversion and other fees.

Picturing my tiny local bank dealing with international currency, heh.

I do have a Cap1 account (for a variety of fundraising reasons) and they happily converted pound notes into dollars. (Tom's dad gave us cash to help with the funeral expenses while we were over there.)

Timelies all!

Great news, Scrappy!

I bet Cap1 can help you, Nora. I think they've sent me information about making international transfers easier recently, though it was not immediately relevant to me so I didn't retain anything.

Localistas, they're closing the Michigan Ave onramp to LSD at Oak Street today until mid-November: [link]

While I was in the US, I received money from Australia on occasion, both as direct transfers and as cheques in Australian dollars. The only problem I had with it was that in Australia, double-crossing a cheque means "not negotiable", i.e. can't be cashed, must be deposited; while in the US it means "cancelled". The city branch refused even to try presenting the cheques; I had to deposit them at the branch near our home (who had no problem with any of it). I don't recall if there was any kind of currency conversion fee.

Localistas, they're closing the Michigan Ave onramp to LSD at Oak Street today until mid-November: [link]

Oh man. Oh man. I'm so glad I don't go that way anymore.