isabel

My daughter is currently in England on "Euro living experience #4 (2 studies abroad in college, worked in Paris, now in grad school in UK).

Opening a bank account is different in each country so those posters who told you about their experience in any country other than the UK are irrelevant to you.

My daughter is here a whole year this time and using her US bank to make ATM withdrawals. There are several banks with very low or no fees. As pointed out above Bank of America works with certain UK banks. TD (Bank North) is the one we found best for all Euro traveling. Just be sure you ask the bank you are going to choose what their arrangements are. Ask several times as not all employees really know (but may think they do and give out false info). Just like I wouldn't completely trust a travel forum to give definitive info, double check with the bank. But when you find the correct bank it will be far easier than trying to open a UK account.

Without it being a joint account with you, you can still make deposits. But having a joint account will let you deal with any problems.

If you trust her financially you could get her a Capital Ones Visa Credit card. No fees, good exchange rate and she can earn miles towards travel expenses. That will be the best thing financially. But I am talking about a regular, not a pre-paid visa card so you need to know she won't go crazy with it.

Mimar

To Mimmel and the OP, we have ATM cards (actually debit cards) from 2 different credit unions and have never been charged a transaction fee. And the conversion fee is only the standard 1% over interbank rate. We have used them all over Europe and in China. (Most recent use abroad was September.)

Otzi, you have time to set up an account for your daughter, at a credit union, at Bank of America or at Capital One. Pick a place where it's easy for you to put money in (;-)

Nena

Please check with your local credit union - I found out the hard way that my credit union ATM card from a savings account would not work in Europe! A checking account would have done the trick. My son, who is currently studying abroad, uses an ATM (checking account) with a small, local bank that doesn't charge any fees so do check with your local banks.

Michel_Paris

An ATM in Europe will not allow you to select which account (checking/savings)to withdraw money from, it will use your primary account.

Nena

When my savings ATM account would not work (I don't have a checking in this credit union), I was in touch with my credit union. After quite a bit of research, the credit union eventually emailed me and told me that because it was a savings account, it would not work. Probably just a thing with my particular credit union but a similar incident happened to a friend whose savings account ATM from a local bank (not a credit union and no checking account from that bank) would also not work in Paris. No big deal it didn't work since I had an ATM from a checking account with another bank.