I have the need to occasionally transfer some funds from GBP. I have been having the bank do it but have been seeing large chunks of money disappear in fees (and what I guess is a less-than-market exchange rate).
Mt. Gox' has wallets for nearly two dozen currencies. If you transfer GBPs to Mt. Gox's bank, it will be added to your GBP wallet with them. The only amount subtracted are the wire fees. If you instead have your bank convert the fund to USD and then transfer, then yes, you would lose from the GBP -> USD conversion.
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https://mtgox.com/press_release_20120815.htmlObviously, the transfer is into different currencies and GBP->BTC->USD seems like it definitely wouldn't be worth the bother but I'm thinking I might be willing to hold some BTC for a while and see if it doesn't become easier to spend them directly.
If you simply want to go from GBP to USD, there are other services that might do that more efficiently for now:
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http://www.CurrencyFair.com -
http://www.TransferWise.com <-- Not USD yet, but to EUR, etc.
Other methods available in the UK:
You can send cash (GBP) in the mail to Bitcoin Nordic (in Denmark):
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http://www.BitcoinNordic.com And, or course, there may be a chance for a local trade:
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http://www.LocalBitcoins.comAlso, BitInstant now has an online bank transfer methods which supports a couple dozen countries, including the UK:
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http://www.BitInstant.comFor Bitcoin in the UK, BitInstant just released an online bank transfer system. This has not been publicly announced yet, but it works, and is very fast.
On BitInstant.com, select your UK flag (You can see many other countries are available for this as well), then select Online Bank Transfer and go through the process. You can have the funds converted automatically into BTC and sent to your Bitcoin account, so you don't even need to bother with any exchanges. Fee is 3.49% if over $100 worth, and 3.99% if under.
EDIT: note that these bank transfer payments are nearly instant (matter of minutes). It does not take 1-3 days like most bank transfers. It's pretty baller, actually
BlockChain.info now accepts funds from Barclays Pingit:
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https://blockchain.info/wallet/deposit-pingitThere may be other methods that work for you as well:
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http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins