Secondment in the USA

MikeT77

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice - I'm due to start a secondment in June in the USA, probably for 1 to 2 years. I will continue to be paid is £s and retain my UK contract with my employer. I'm thinking of transferring money onto a prepaid credit card and using that to withdraw cash from ATMs in the US - I believe these do not have any loading fees. Is this a good idea or is there something more appropriate?

Many thanks,

alanrowell

Best choice - Nationwide Flex Account
Next best choice - Nationwide Flex Account
Best choice after that - Nationwide Flex Account

Somewhere around 200th best choice comes pre-paid cards - even Travellers Cheques are higher

And f you want a credit card - guess what, the best choice is Nationwide

canadiangirl78

Hello

Nationwide have just changed their terms and conditions so they will now be charging for withdrawals overseas, so you'll need to compare their charges with other companies.

Most expats will set up a standing order each month from their UK account to their US account- check whether your bank will charge you for this, as this may be cheaper.

Also please get some tax advice, the length of your secondment could mean that you do not break UK tax residency which could lead to you having an ongoing tax liability in the UK. Will the UK company continue to operate PAYE? Are you paying the US taxes? If you are not responsible for your own taxes (ie you are equalised or protected) then this will be less of an issue.

Good luck!

omelette451

canadiangirl78 wrote: »

Nationwide have just changed their terms and conditions so they will now be charging for withdrawals overseas, so you'll need to compare their charges with other companies.

No. Nationwide has not said it's going to start charging; what it said was that it would start to pass on the charge it currently pays on our behalf to the card processing company (i.e. Visa). Every other bank and building society adds its own charge to this fee, and Nationwide has no plans to do the same, so Alan's advice still stands: it is still the best choice, even if it's slightly less so than it was previously.

M4RKM

I disagree with the sarcasm of the 200th best choice is a prepaid card..

the FairFX Card comes out quite well, because if you load it with $ and spend in $ it is free, and for withdrawls costs $2.

Currently, today, the FairFX card is giving a rate of $1.50 to the £ to load the card (obviously, you load more than £500 in one go to avoid fees)

while the Visa exchange, with the 1% charge that Nationwide are passing on, works out at $1.49

very little in it, but you can't say that the nationwide always gives the best, it isn't currently on spending, as it is 1¢ difference per £1

yours sarcastically


M

fifeken

canadiangirl78 wrote: »

Hello

Nationwide have just changed their terms and conditions so they will now be charging for withdrawals overseas, so you'll need to compare their charges with other companies.

If you're going for the option of a UK card, go for the Nationwide Cirrus card for ATM withdrawals and avoid this new charge.