UK Study Abroad - banking information needed
 

Our daughter is going to be spending next school year in London. Trying to figure out how to handle her finances. She will have an ATM card for her US bank account and a credit card, but will need a UK bank account to pay bills, room and board, expenses, etc. I've been doing a lot of research on opening an international student account at a UK bank. While a bit complicated, it seems doable. However, nothing I have found so far indicates what is the best (fastest and cheapest) way to transfer money from the US to that account. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If the amounts aren't too large she could use her U.S. debit card - withdraw pounds (which get translated into dollars when the withdrawal hits this side) and then deposit them to her U.K. account.

My bank doesn't charge any extra fee for this and the exchange rate is the best available. The U.S. card could be replenished from this side in dollars of course.

as silly as tmweddle's advice sounds in this age of internet banking, it may be the best answer, given the insular nature of banks. however, i suspect that the amounts required might just exceed the practicality for this.

the obvious answer is to use your US bank to wire the money but the fees and ex rates given will most likely be extortionary unless larger amounts are exchanged. UK banks will allow you to use their live currency exchange brokers if the amount exceeds about £25,000. this service allows you to get a market rate that is within a point or two of the interbank rate. with this process, you talk live to the currency desk and they offer you a rate that is good for a few seconds. if you accept, you are charged about £50 or so in wire fees. by far the cheapest way to exchange...on the basis of <percentage lost to fees or ex rate spread>. ask your US bank...they may have a lower threshold for using a live foreign currency trader. however, do you really want to ex a year's worth of living expenses at today's ex rate? guess it depends how you think it will move, nobody knows.

other than that, you may be put through to the standard foreign currency desk (not live traders) who will give you the retail rate (bend over) to exchange and transfer in sterling.

i don't think you will find a good deal by asking the UK bank to take a US$ payment.

another route is to try to find an international bank with truly seamless service across international boarders. i think this is a trick suggestion because as much as i have tried, i have not been able to find a bank that offers true international service (although plenty are advertised to do this). ...and i am not even looking for service with obscure countries/currencies, just USD, EUR and GBP.

finally, you can use a currency exchange service (forex) but this adds steps and complexity....others may have advice on this.

good luck.

I think I usually use www.xetrade.com to transfer money between the US and UK. I have both a student account and a savings account with Halifax/Bank of Scotland. Student accounts are not longer issued UK debit cards for international students. However, I am pretty sure that savings accounts still come with a cash card, which can be used at basically any ATM free of charge. So if your US bank charges a fee everytime a withdrawal is made from a foreign ATM, you might see about getting a savings account as well.

Someone may come on w/ a great solution but you have problems w/ most every option.

Money transfers come w/ big fees.

So unless a better idea comes (from someone who has actually tried it) this is what I'd do: Have her keep her funds in her US bank and open an acct once she gets to the UK. Her London bank manager w/ give the best suggestions for which type of acct she needs.

Have her raise the daily limit her US bank allows for withdrawls. A mere formality but she may have to go in person to do it.

Then once or twice a month she can take a large-ish withdrawl via ATM from her US acct and deposit into her UK acct. The UK ATM will not charge her. The US bank will charge from $0 to about $3 for each withdrawl. And she will get the best exchange rates. This is a sort of "low tech" way of doing it but easy as pie and she'll be able get enough money into her UK acct to cover her rent/fees w/o money transfers/wireing and so on..

We have a daughter that attends Richmond University in London and has been there for 2 years. First of all will you be paying the school for room and board or will she have a flat? Our daughter stays on campus so I pay each semester for tuition and room and board. As far as her expenses go she has a cc and an atm card. I just put money into her account every 2 weeks and she uses her atm card. The cc she just uses when she needs to. There is no need to wire money. We have our accounts at Bank of America and if she uses Barclays she doesnt pay any fees. You can email me with any other questions.

My suggestion was <u>only</u> if her rent/fees must be drawn on a UK acct. If not, jay's suggestion would work fine.

The ATM withdrawals/credit cards would be the same either way - just use her US cards. But if she does in fact need a UK acct - then she can just use ATM withdrawals from her US acct to top it up.

I was abroad in the UK last year, and will be again next year. I actually didn't open up a UK bank account at all, but I just used my credit cards and ATM cards.

&quot;Have her keep her funds in her US bank and open an acct once she gets to the UK. Her London bank manager w/ give the best suggestions for which type of acct she needs.&quot;

Apart from the fact it's extremely difficult to open bank accounts in the UK - even for UK citizens who've lived there all their life - when was the last time anyone (except multi millionaires) dealt with a bank manager. These days you'll be lucky to get a &quot;Customer Advisor&quot; who'll advise you to open the most profitable (to the bank) account possible.

If you really need to open an account then go through the university itself as they can smooth the process, but be prepared to produce proof of identity &amp; proof of UK address

Have a look at www.moneysavingexpert.com for unbiased information about UK bank accounts as even a cheque account in the UK can be earning 5% interest.

also look as US citibank accounts. They also have offices in London and I &quot;think&quot; you can access the accounts easily.

I lived in the UK for sometime and had no problem getting an account with Nationwide.

Susan, how long ago was that?

You also might want to look at PayPal to send money.I used them earlier this year to send USD $1200 to the UK with no problems.Their currency conversion rate was 3%.
http://tinyurl.com/ksohp

i moved to the UK three years ago. i found it difficult to set up a bank account. the problem lies in that you need proof of your idenity AND proof of your UK address b/f you can open your account. now- the idenitiy is easy with a passport. the address is tricker- if the school is willing to write a letter stating that x student lives at this address etc they may be willing to take it.

i'm sure someone at the Uni has expereince in this- i'd ask them how they advise their study abroad students to open accounts.

i use currency house exchange to transfer $ to &pound;. however, this is only for large amounts.

smaller amounts, I use paypal.

I recently deposited a USD check into my UK account at HSBC Bank and they charged me a nominal fee and the check cleared in about 5 days. I was surprised that it worked out so well.

I tried to do it the other way around by depositing a check in GBP's in my US account and US Bank told me that I would be charged $80 and it would take up to 6 weeks for the check to clear.