Send money to the United Kingdom from Canada
Grey pays out in pounds sterling into a British bank account. Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Bank, NatWest and Santander UK are all supported, reached by sort code and account number or by IBAN, and transfers from a funded balance typically arrive within minutes over Faster Payments. Pounds are one of Grey's own balances, so this route can involve no conversion at all.
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The oldest money relationship Canada has
After the United States, Britain is the country Canadian money is most entangled with, and almost none of it is what a remittance page would describe. It is a British state pension still paid into a Lloyds account. A leasehold flat in Manchester with a service charge and ground rent falling due whether anyone lives in it or not. A parent's care home fees in Kent. A solicitor in Edinburgh waiting on funds to close an estate. A daughter at a university in Bristol who needs an accommodation deposit by Friday.
The population behind it is enormous and long settled: British and Scottish and Welsh and Northern Irish families across Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia, many holding dual citizenship, most with at least one account still open on the other side. The money moves in both directions and has done for generations, which is why it is rarely a fixed monthly figure and almost always tied to a document with a date on it.
Grey pays pounds directly into the British account. If your Grey balance is already in pounds, nothing is converted and the payout is simply sterling leaving your balance for the UK account. If it is in US dollars or euro, it converts once, at a rate you read before you confirm.
Three steps to a sterling payout
Sign up
A Grey account is free and opens in about five minutes from your phone with one valid identity document. Nothing is posted to you.
Fund
Balances come in US dollars, provided by Lead Bank, in pounds and in euro. A pound balance is worth having if money regularly moves between you and Britain.
Send
Enter the sort code and account number, or the IBAN, and confirm. Transfers from a funded balance typically arrive within minutes over Faster Payments.
What sending to Britain costs
That last point is worth pausing on, because it is what makes this corridor different from every other one Grey runs from Canada. Sterling is not only the destination currency here, it is a currency you can hold. Anyone with money arriving from Britain, a pension, rent from a let property, a share of an estate, can keep it in pounds and pay pounds out again without touching an exchange rate in either direction.
Where a conversion is needed, compare on the sterling that lands rather than on the fee. The margin inside a rate is invisible by design, and on a probate payment or a term's fees the difference shows up as a shortfall someone else has to chase you for.
How the sterling rate is fixed
The rate shown at confirmation is the one your transfer uses. It does not move between your sending from Halifax and the credit appearing in Leeds, and it is not revisited after settlement.
British payments tend to come with precise figures attached. A completion statement, a school's invoice, a care home's monthly account. Fixing the rate at confirmation is what lets you meet those to the penny rather than sending an approximation and following it with a second transfer.
Grey set against a transatlantic bank wire
An international wire to Britain from RBC, TD Canada Trust, BMO, CIBC or Scotiabank carries a flat fee regardless of size, applies a rate the bank does not put in front of you first, and can lose a further slice to a correspondent before it lands. The slower alternative Canadians still fall back on is worse: a cheque in the post takes weeks to clear across the Atlantic, and Interac e-Transfer does not leave Canada at all. Grey shows the rate and the fee before confirmation, pays pounds directly into the British account over Faster Payments, and lets you hold sterling rather than converting twice a year in both directions.
What lands in Britain
Pounds, credited to the British account the way any domestic payment would be. The recipient signs up to nothing and has nothing to collect.
British bank accounts
Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Bank, NatWest and Santander UK are supported. Ask for the sort code and account number, or the IBAN, whichever they have to hand.
Timing
From a funded balance, transfers to UK accounts typically arrive within minutes over Faster Payments, which is the same rail British domestic payments use.
GreyTag
If the person in Britain also uses Grey, send to their GreyTag. That one is free and instant, and no sort code is needed.
Money coming the other way
No Canadian dollars go in. On this corridor the money often arrives in pounds already and never needs to become anything else.
Money from Britain
A pension, rent from a property you kept, or a share of an estate can sit in your pound balance in sterling, ready to pay a British bill later.
Paid by a client or employer
Work paid from outside Canada can land in your balance in the currency it is paid in, converting into pounds only when you send.
Moved in by you
Move money in from an account you already hold in another currency, ahead of a completion date or a fee deadline rather than on the day itself.
Holding a funded balance is what turns an awkward transatlantic payment into a routine one, particularly when a solicitor or an agent has given you a date and not much notice.
What Canadians are paying for in Britain
Property left behind
A mortgage, service charge, ground rent, council tax or insurance on a flat or house in Britain, usually while a tenant or a relative is in it.
Estates and probate
A Canadian executor paying a British solicitor, settling fees and disbursements, or sending a beneficiary their share in pounds.
Care and family costs
Care home fees, medical costs and day to day support for a parent who stayed in Britain while the rest of the family settled in Canada.
Students and young movers
Accommodation deposits, tuition instalments and living costs for a Canadian student at a British university, or a child who moved over for work.
Four patterns account for most of this corridor, and none of them is a monthly remittance.
What makes the British route different
FAQs
Which British banks can Grey pay into from Canada?
Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Bank, NatWest and Santander UK are supported, reached by sort code and account number or by IBAN.
Do I need a sort code or an IBAN for a UK transfer?
Either works. Ask your recipient for the sort code and account number, or the IBAN if that is what their bank shows them.
Can I hold pounds in Grey instead of converting twice?
Yes. Sterling is one of Grey's balances, so money arriving from Britain can stay in pounds and be paid back out as pounds.
How fast does a payment reach a NatWest or Lloyds account?
From a funded Grey balance, transfers to UK accounts typically arrive within minutes over Faster Payments, the same rail British domestic payments use.
Can I pay a British solicitor handling an estate?
Yes. Send pounds to the firm's client account using the sort code and account number on their completion or fee statement.
Can I pay service charge and ground rent on a UK flat?
Yes. The managing agent's account takes the sterling credit like any domestic payment, with the amount fixed when you confirm.
Can I fund my Grey balance in Canadian dollars?
No. Grey holds US dollars, provided by Lead Bank, pounds and euro. For this route a pound balance removes the conversion entirely.
Does my mother in Britain need a Grey account to be paid?
No. She needs a UK bank account. The pounds arrive as an ordinary credit with nothing to collect or sign.
Is this cheaper than posting a cheque to Britain?
A cheque takes weeks to clear across the Atlantic and arrives at the bank's rate. A sterling payout settles in minutes at a rate you saw first.
Can I pay UK university accommodation fees from Canada?
Yes. Pay the institution's account in pounds so the invoiced figure is met exactly rather than short by the conversion.
Will the pound figure change after I confirm?
No. The rate is fixed at confirmation, so the sterling amount shown is the amount credited to the British account.
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