Money on the wrong side of a border

Money does not always go from a working-age person in the UK to family in a home country. Savings sit on the wrong side of a border. A parent in Lagos gets old and needs money moved back. A child needs school fees paid in a currency that is neither yours nor hers. These pages are for those cases.

Start here

Should your family receive dollars, euros or the local currency? is the question that shapes every other choice on this hub. What currency the money arrives in changes which fee she pays to touch it, whether it holds value between transfers, and whether a dollar account in Lagos is worth the paperwork. Read this first.

How to send money from India (or Kenya, or Nigeria) to the UK covers sending money the other way.

When the amount is large

A few hundred pounds a month is one job. A house, an inheritance or your savings is another. The bank can ask where the money came from. Pick the page that matches what you are doing.

Moving your savings to the UK when you already hold them abroad is what to do with an account that was fine when you lived there and is now stuck. This is where the emigration case parts company with routine money transfers - the amount is larger, the receiving-side questions are different, and the paperwork matters.

Bringing an inheritance from abroad into the UK covers the papers the UK bank can ask for when a five- or six-figure inheritance arrives, the plain tax answer, and how to move the money.

Proving where a family gift came from so it clears the checks is for a large gift from home that the bank has paused. It lists the four documents the bank can ask for and what to put in the gift letter.

Sending money from the UK to buy a home abroad is the other direction: money going out to pay for a house.

Timing a large one-off currency transfer is for one lump of money and one date. It explains the three tools a currency broker offers, and when each one is right.

Where to look next

Sending money both ways still depends on the country. For money coming to the UK from India, Kenya or Nigeria, start with how to send money to the UK. The India page has the rule for money leaving your own NRE or NRO account. If you already have a Nigerian bank account and want to send to the UK, send money from Nigeria gives the two naira rates to check a quote against, and which route fits the purpose.

The Friday number runs weekly on one country at a time - always money going out from the UK. When a number for money coming the other way is worth publishing, we will run it here.

Corrections

• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said the transfer industry assumes money only moves one way, and that these pages answer questions the transfer apps do not think to ask. Wise and Grey do send money the other way and we found no source for the second line, so both are gone.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said a bank wants four documents for a family gift, that the gift letter must say certain things, and what papers a UK bank wants for an inheritance. We found no bank that publishes those lists, so the page now says what a bank can ask for.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said most senders do not know money can go the other way, that most transfer apps run one way only, that the monthly app is often not the right tool for a large sum, and that your bank's transfer button is the most expensive tool for buying a house. This page gave no source for these, so they are gone.