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I live in the UK and have a UK individual (not business) bank account only. I have done some remote work for a client in the USA and I have already agreed to their terms before work started which included a clause that I will be paid in USD.

If I have them pay the USD directly into my bank then I assume I am at the mercy of whatever exchange rate my bank decides, which I expect to be a very poor rate for me as they know I don't really have any choice.

But do I have a choice? Are there any other options open to me here? Can I choose to use a third party to do the currency exchange in order to find a better rate? How would that work exactly?

Just in case it's relevant, the sum I am exchanging is 4 figures.

Darren H
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One of the peer-to-peer transfer services (like TransferWise, CurrencyFair, etc.) should help you. These services are radically cheaper than banks. I tried to research why the rates are cheap and the answer was quite technical. These services match currency moving in either direction.

My understanding of the operation of peer to peer services is this: Assume a person A in the US sends X dollars to B in the UK. And let a person C in the UK sends pound equivalent of X dollars to D in the US. Now, A's money will be routed to D while C's money will be routed to B.

Therefore, in reality, no currency exchange takes place and hence the rates are low. This is not the case with bank transfer.

Kannan
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