Converting your account to be denominated in USD

WhiskyInvestDirect accounts can now fund, trade and withdraw in US Dollars.

 
Until recently, WhiskyInvestDirect accounts were only available in British pounds. New users will now be asked at registration if they want their account to be denominated in British pounds (GBP) or US Dollars (USD).
 
If you opened your account prior to this change, your account is in GBP. 
 
If you would like to change it to be in USD instead, please email our customer service team confirming your username using the subject line: Convert my account to USD.
 
It's a simple change, but there's a few things you should know:
  • If you have more than £5 in cash remaining in your account, you will first need to either spend it on whisky or withdraw it back to your linked bank account. After your account currency has been changed to US Dollars, you will not be able to trade or withdraw the small balance of pounds remaining in your account – instead they will be gradually consumed by the monthly storage and insurance fee.
  • Scotch whisky is an asset which is denominated in GBP. All prices and valuations displayed in USD will have been converted from pounds before being posted on the website. The effect is that US dollar prices will be subject to fluctuations in both the value of the maturing whisky and in the value of the pound.  They may be more volatile as a result.
  • All accounts will be charged storage fees in GBP. If your account is denominated in USD, you will be charged an equivalent amount of USD based on the exchange rate at the time of billing.
  • To send US Dollars to your WhiskyInvestDirect account, you can either (from a bank within the US) make a domestic payment to our bank account with Wells Fargo, or (from a bank elsewhere in the world) make an international wire (or SWIFT) payment to our dollar-denominated bank account with Lloyds in London. You can get the details by logging in to your account and going to ACCOUNT > Deposit funds, after your account currency has been changed.
  • You can only send funds from your linked bank account. If you need to use a different bank account to send USD deposits, please contact us about our procedure for changing a linked bank account.
Make sure you use the correct bank transfer details – you may already have our pounds-denominated Lloyds account set up as a payee: dollar transfers sent to that account will be converted to pounds, and may be rejected.