Multiple accounts for a travelling graduate?

portchieboy

Hi there,

I am a recent graduate who is planning to go travelling for a year. My current graduate account is with HSBC, but I could do with changing this for two things: A larger overdraft facility; and free money withdrawals abroad. For the overdraft facility I plan to switch my account to RBS to maximise the money available to me. However, the standard nationwide account and credit card seems like the best combination for spending and making withdrawals abroad.

Is there anything stopping me opening both accounts and transferring money from the RBS to the Nationwide one via the net when needed, or can anyone else come up with a better idea? I have thought about travellers cheques but come to the conclusion that they may not be worth the hassle.

Thanks
Peter

pin

Nope, no problem. When I went travelling I had my existing HSBC account and my Nationwide account. No issues with online transfers. As for your spending money, I relied soley on Nationwide ATM withdrawal's, Nationwide credit card spending and some some US$'s.

melancholly

not directly relevant - but it might be helpful to get a relative (that you trust!) to be a third party mandate on your account while you're away. i have my mum on my account just incase anything needed to be done while i was away.

pin

melancholly wrote:

not directly relevant - but it might be helpful to get a relative (that you trust!) to be a third party mandate on your account while you're away. i have my mum on my account just incase anything needed to be done while i was away.

I got my folks a limited power of attorney while I was away and granted them access to all my accounts, so they could deal with anything.

morg_monster

Nationwide also has an e-saver account which I used as a holding account - put all my cash in there to get better interest on the money and then did immediate transfers to the FlexAccount of a few hundred pounds at a time. Saved worrying about the 3 day transfer time from my HSBC account - and also got me more interest than HSBC's 0.1%! Nationwide e-saver isn't a market leader but I think it is at least 3 or 4%

portchieboy

Thanks people, that has confirmed that what I planned was right. I appreciate the feedback.