Confused Parent Needs Financial Help
 

In January my daughter leaves for a semester in London. Frankly I've been so overwhelmed by the ridiculous visa process that it isn't until now that I thought about this vital question: How best to get her money while in London? Worst case scenario would be to just have her use an ATM card to withdraw from our American bank, but I really hate to pay alll those service fees. Five months of those fees could end up to be the cost of her flight home, provided we even want her back. Hahaha. Is anyone aware of perhaps a British bank with locations in the States where we could deposit money for her then she could use the card over there to withdraw funds? And would that still involve service fees? Wiring money to her might be another option but that always seems to be a hassle whenever one of our students we travel with does the same. Can I buy a gift card or pre-paid Visa in Brit Pounds?

If you have a BofA account, you will pay no service fees if your daughter uses a Barclay's ATM.

Alternatively, look for a bank that does not charge a service fee (my credit union does not), and feed that account as necessary for your daughter to withdraw money.

I have gone through this twice (France & Austria)and always gone the ATM route. We have also had to wire money when prepaying a fee or some other charge and I found that to be more of a hassle. However, if you prefer that, you have her open a bank account once she is there and collect all the various numbers your home bank requires. Then, you have the USA bank transfer the money. I would only do this with a fairly large sum. Of course there are fees associated with that. The ATMs in Austria use the rate that is posted for the day. the banks in Italy and France charge about 3%. I don't remember what they do in London. I hope she has a great semester.

HSBC is probably your best bet for a UK bank with branches in the US. Alternatively check out http://www.fairfx.com/ for prepaid VISA cards in £, $ or Euros - they currently only offer cards to UK nationals but the webite states they will shortly offer cards to international customers - great rates and fees. There may be a similar operation in the US

>>>The ATMs in Austria use the rate that is posted for the day. the banks in Italy and France charge about 3%. <<<

It's not the ATM's in Italy and France charging a fee, it's your home bank.

You can't just open a bank account in a foreign country. It's not that simple or easy.

Open a joint account with your daughter at a US bank that doesn't charge fees for overseas ATM withdrawals. That way you have access to the account if there are any problems and you can make deposits. My daughter and I have an account at my credit union that we use only for travel. Credit unions don't charge lots of fees like many of the banks.

The credit union idea is a good one - you just need to make sure that it is a member of the various major ATM networks so the money can be withdrawn at the other end. Very large credit unions typically are - but some small local ones aren't (they don;t want to pay the membership fees) and then you don;t have access to foreign ATMs.

kybourbon you may be right but I get charged a fee when I have an ATM withdrawal in France and Italy and not in Austria. I use a Credit Union.

We have opened a bank account in 2 different countries with out a problem. I don't know about England though.

Citibank has at least one branch in London, on the Strand fairly close to Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square.

There are two costs involved in foreign exchanges: The conversion rate and the fee that an American bank may charge. My impression is that an ATM withdrawal that does not incur fees is the cheapest way to go. Pre-paid cards get their money through the conversion rate which will be higher than the posted daily average.

Two ways to go here. First, if you have B of A, you could have your daughter open a Barclay's account once she gets to London and get an ATM card. You could then transfer money to that account. Barclay's and Bank of America are partner banks.

Second (and imo the easier way), is have a B of A account here, get her an ATM card for it, and tell her to withdraw ONLY from Barclay's banks in England (of which there are a zillion). You will NOT be charged any transaction fees.

My friend's son is in London this semester and he's doing the latter (and he was in London for a semester abroad last year and did the same thing).

Our trip last summer made it very easy for my son to pull out money. We have his account at B of A hooked up with our account, so he doesn't have to pay monthly service fees. It also allows us to transfer money into his account for college (and see what he's spending it on!). When we were touring England last summer, he would go off and if he needed cash, he'd use his card at any Barclay's and would pick up the bank exchange rate, no transaction fees.

I used to have an account at Barclay's when I lived there, and I like the bank and its very convenient branch locations. They have, however, updated their ATM machines, so using it the first time (because they're a little different than those in the States)can be a little tricky. Make sure your daughter knows that, since first time, it might get a little frustrating -- the locations of the buttons you have to push to get money!

When we moved to the UK we found that many of the banks had complicated residency requirements. You had to show at least 2 bills of service (like electricity, water, etc) with your name on it for that address in order to open an account. Some banks have special student accounts, but I'm not sure if that would work for a US student on a study abroad.

The best bet is to find a US bank that doesn't charge for ATM withdrawals in the UK. I know HSBC claims to be the international bank, but they definitely charge a lot of fees. Barclays and BofA have a pretty good deal, so try them.

Good luck! Financial worries are a pain, but your daughters experience will totally be worth it!

USBank doesn't charge ATM fees and waives the other banks' ATMs fees. They do charge a conversion fee.

If your daughter is intending working then she'll need a bank account as few places pay cash these days.

If not then as others advise find a local bank that offers low cost foreign withdrawals and give her the ATM card. Then you can monitor her usage and add money as needed quickly

When I was a US student on study abroad, I was able to get a bank account (in France). My family had money wired from their bank to mine throughout the course of the year. I did have to show my acceptance into the program and other papers but it wasn't a huge process.

Now I am an HSBC account holder. I appreciate accessing their branches all over the world and having "my" bank to go to when I need financial assistance. However, in the last couple of years HSBC has really increased the conversion rates they charge and other fees. You can avoid some of them by having an online-only account...

If you do go the route of an international bank like HSBC, another way around wiring money is if you have 3 accounts: yours, hers, and a joint one both have access to. Providing $$ to her is as simple as moving it into the joint account and her then transferring it to her own - and doesn't incur the wire transfer fees.

Like ggreen, I had the same experience in France, and I was not yet 21. We used BNP back then. I didn't mention that because it was sooooo long ago, and times have definitely changed. Back then, it was easy to set up a bank account.

You might also want to check with the university your daughter's working with for the semester abroad. They generally have really good information on finances and other things just like this.

So your daughter is spending a semester in London and tution is $10,000 to $15,000 and you're worrying about the $4.00 or $5.00 weekly service charge on your ATM????? What does that work out to? Five months of ATM charges total a flight home? More likley $100.00 total, unless she is paying every meal she eats using her card. Open a checking account for her, get her an ATM card, let her take out a weekly allowance. Get her a charge card and be diligent in watching what she is spending.

My daughter studied in England, Poland, Australia, Equador and Kenya as a teen/20 yo. Trust me, the worst of your worries should be how much the ATM charges will be.

You might look into the online Capital One banking system. We have set up a direct banking account with a no fee ATM card that we use when we are traveling to Europe. We also have an account with Bank of America which allows us to use, through their Global Alliance, ATMs at Barclay's, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas without fees. Deborah

I see you are in Pennsylvania. Do you have a nearby TD bank (formerly Commerce)? Check with them about the fee structure. We have traveled overseas many times using their ATM card and never paid a fee for cash withdrawals. (Oh, and we always refuse the Visa debit card feature. We want to use the card only to withdraw cash from our account.)

Set up a joint account with your daughter. As co-owner of the account, you'll be authorized to monitor the account, access statements, and obtain additional/replacement cards.

>>>Mimmel on Nov 7, 10 at 2:26pm
kybourbon you may be right but I get charged a fee when I have an ATM withdrawal in France and Italy and not in Austria. I use a Credit Union.<<<

It's probable your Austria trip was before US banks started being required to show these transaction fees as separate charges. They were rolled in to the amount until a year or two ago. It's also possible your bank started charging fees and didn't in the past. It's your bank charging the fee, not the European bank.

A pre-paid Visa has many more fees than any ATM card would. Fee to load, fee to unload, fee every time you use it plus a lousy exchange rate.

>>>Frankly I've been so overwhelmed by the ridiculous visa process <<<

Opening a bank account may be a similar experience. For such a short time, an ATM card and credit card are easiest. She doesn't need to take out money every day. My daughter survived 6 months in Spain with two ATM cards (two different credit unions) and a credit card.