Transfer money from Canada to UK

What's the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to transfer money from Canada to the UK?

I have a Canadian bank account (TD Canada Trust) and I have recently set up a British bank account (Natwest). I have applied for a student loan and when the money is deposited into my Canadian account, what is the easiest way to transfer it to my British bank?

In the past, Canada student loan has mailed a cheque to my Canadian address and I then had family members forward this to me in the UK. Natwest, however, took 6 weeks to clear the Canadian cheque. Obviously, this is way too long!

I also have a cdn and british bank account (RBC and Llyods TSB) I have found that the banking charges over here are worse than back home (but my british account is only a cash account as I pay no bills here) anyways I find the best way is to take out money from a machine (as long as it has a PLUS), as that only cost $5.00 where to deposit a cdn cheque directly in my account has cost me £5.00 (and that was only a $45.00 cheque, hardly worth it) than if need be deposit it into my british account. It's really difficult getting money back to canada though.

in another thread, someone recommended tranzferz that has really low rates. you can google it for the exact addy.

http://www.tranzfers.com/ appears to give gbp 515 if u send cad 1,000, which is equal to a rate of 1.941. i'm not sure whether that includes the fee of cad 15. the latest interbank rate on http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/ ... efault.stm is 1.914, so it does look competitive with sending by bank transfer.

ian.