Organizing Your Money

I was lucky enough not to require a mortgage for my Florida holiday home purchase. As such, I can't write about obtaining mortgages and so on.

What I can write about, however, is in setting up international money transfers quickly - and making sure they reach the U.S. in time! Remember, my closing date was only 10 days after the day I made my offer.

I decided to use a company called MoneyCorp. (There are of course many other foreign exchange companies that you could use.) I'd never used them before, but had heard many good things about them with regards to transferring large sums of money abroad. (Not in relation in purchasing property in Florida, in fact, but in Croatia. I run the Visit Croatia Forum, where property purchases in that currently are discussed in length.)

If you use MoneyCorp, you'll need to set up an account - or "trading facility" - with them. Give them a call and explain how much you need to transfer and by what date. They'll talk you through all the steps you need to undertake, and how you can open up a trading facility. Note that opening this up doesn't place you under any obligation to use them.

I spoke to MoneyCorp on a Thursday - a week and a day before the closing date of the purchase of my flat. They set up a (legally binding) contract detailing the amount of U.S. Dollars that I was to purchase, and the exchange rate that would be applicable.

This exchange rate would now be fixed for the amount of currency I would be purchasing. I had managed to get a rate of 1 GPB = 2.0042 USD - not too shabby! (N.B. This was December 2007.)

If the exchange rate changed over the next week, I would still get the one I had signed up for - even if, for whatever reason, the Pound weakened dramatically!

My contract also stated that MoneyCorp needed to receive cleared funds from me the day before the closing date of my property purchase - which is the day that my lawyer in the U.S. required them. (In order to then send funds to the vendor's lawyer.) At this stage I needed to speak with my bank, HSBC.

I called up HSBC, and spoke to them regarding my requirement to transfer funds to MoneyCorp. As MoneyCorp also used HSBC, luck was on my side. I wouldn't have to send them money 3 or 4 days in advance - only 2 would suffice. (In fact, sending MoneyCorp the money 1 day before would probably have been fine. HSBC advised me to do it 2 days in advance to be on the safe side.) HSBC would also charge me a fee of £10 for sending the money.

At this point, let's have a timetable of events, money wise:

Monday - Make Offer
Tuesday - Offer Accepted
Wednesday
Thursday - Set up contract with MoneyCorp (MC)
Friday

Monday
Tuesday - Transfer funds from HSBC to MC*
Wednesday - Funds received by MC**
Thursday - Deadline for funds to be received by MC; Funds transferred from MC to the U.S.
Friday - Funds received by U.S. laywer; Closing day

*Applicable because both I and MoneyCorp use HSBC. If you bank with someone else, you'll have to make this step earlier.

**You see - my money actually reached MoneyCorp the day after I sent them from my HSBC account

Phew! Easy when you know how!