Banking whilst travelling abroad

jooly

My son will be leaving the UK next May to travel America (to begin with). He has a 6 month return flight ticket which is extendable.

Can anyone suggest the best way to bank his money whilst he is in America, so that he can use his savings to live off. His money at the moment is in an ordinary savings account with Halifax, paid directly from his salary.

Thanks for any help.

Biggles

Almost certainly the cheapest way accessible to him, especially as he's already with Halifax, is to apply for a Halifax Clarity Reward credit card.

He can draw money on it with no foreign exchange fees; he will pay interest on the cash until the card is cleared, but this would only run out at about 1% of the amount withdrawn if he sets up a DD from his bank account to pay it in full each month.

adindas

The Debit card from these banks will function like the former NW flexi a/c:
Metro Bank, Need to come to London/Branches to open the a/c
Cumberland Building Society. Only offer to people who area living in one of their branches.

Alternatevile, still quite good (although is not as good as debit card) is using Specialist Overseas Credit Card such as:
-Halifax Clarity
-Santander Zero
- Sainsbury also inthe lines but need to pay £5.00 monthly fee in exchage of Travel isurance.

But need to check which APR apply to the card it could be in the range of 12.00-20 ish % and the interest is paid from the day the money is withdrawn.

jooly wrote: »

My son will be leaving the UK next May to travel America (to begin with). He has a 6 month return flight ticket which is extendable.

Can anyone suggest the best way to bank his money whilst he is in America, so that he can use his savings to live off. His money at the moment is in an ordinary savings account with Halifax, paid directly from his salary.

Thanks for any help.

rb10

I'd say open a Halifax Current Account and Clarity Credit Card.

Set up a direct debit to pay off the credit card in full every month from the current account.

Make purchases in America on the credit card - there is no fee for doing this, and by paying the balance off in full every month, he won't be charged any interest either.

Make ATM withdrawals from the credit card too. On this card, there is no cash advance fee, but he will be charged interest from the date that he withdraws the money until the date that it is paid off (it'll only be pence). If he's able to access online banking, I'd suggest making a payment from his current account* to his credit card after he withdraws the cash, as this will minimise the interest charge.

* Note: the best way of doing this is for him to go into his credit card on his online account, and click 'make a payment'. I think he's less likely to have his online access blocked by doing it this way.

AnonymousForObviousReason

An alternative to look at is Citi Bank, my friend used his as a saving account with his sterling converting to dollars at a fairly good rate. He didn't get charged for withdrawing cash in US from that account.

Although reading the above the Halifax does seem like a good option.

hugheskevi

Has anyone researched the Santander Zero Debit Card? The product details are here (about halfway down).

The Zero Credit Card gets a lot of mentions, but from everything I have read the Debit Card seems better.

I haven't found any definitive source which says there is not a foreign exchange loading factor, but several older documents state there are no loading factors applied.

As there so little discussion of it, I presume I am missing something...anyone know what it is?

Biggles

hugheskevi wrote: »

As there so little discussion of it, I presume I am missing something...anyone know what it is?

I think what you are missing is the fact that you need to have either one of their mortgages or one of their 'investment products'.

Annisele

I don't have any specific recommendations, but I'd make sure that he has access to cards from at least two separate banks (by 'separate', I mean belonging to different groups - only one of HSBC and First Direct).

That means that if one of the banks decides that his foreign currency purchases are suspicious, he can still access cash from the other one. He should tell both banks his plans anyway, but I think that a second card is good insurance.

KingL

Annisele wrote: »

That means that if one of the banks decides that his foreign currency purchases are suspicious, he can still access cash from the other one. He should tell both banks his plans anyway, but I think that a second card is good insurance.

Yes, good advice - the blurb with the Halifax Clarity card says "Letting us know when you are travelling abroad will reduce the chance of your account being blocked. Just call us a week before you go."

That's reduce, mind