Cashing a US cheque into dollars in the UK

A question about : Cashing a US cheque into dollars in the UK

I live in the UK with a UK bank account, but I am soon to receive a cheque for a significant sum in US dollars.

Obviously, normally I would want to convert the dollars into pounds.

However, I am going on holiday to the US in October so will need dollars then anyway.

Given I am obviously likely to lose some of the value in the exchange from $ to Ј back to $, I wondered if anyone had any tips on how to avoid this?

For example, is there anywhere I could go to cash the cheque in the UK that would cash it straight into dollars, to the value written on the cheque?

Or am I always likely to incur a fee?

Best answers:

• Personally, I would keep the cheque with my passport and take it with me. The USA has cheque-cashing businesses, and you should be able to convert it into more cash US dollars like that than you would if you first exchanged it into pounds, and then converted those to dollars.
  Or you could find someone like me who has a US or dollar bank account and see if you could work something out...
• Can you please tell us what the amount is and where are you going to get the money from.
• It should run into several thousand dollars. It will be an investment company sending me the cheque (I am cashing in some shares)
• I think what you want to do is not as straightforward as you think.
  The only solution that I can think of which will not cost you is to try and open a US bank account.
  Google a few well known ones and see if they have a London office which can offer you some guidance.
• I have a Citibank UK account with both US$ and UKЈ current accounts. Thus I can pay a US$ cheque in the account and convert it to Sterling on-line or by telephone. The only problem is that it takes a long while for the cheque(check!) to clear.