USA Dollar accounts?

sydney2002

Folks,
My lady says "this year I would like to venture to the USA and see Mickey Mouse" so I says okey dokey, we better save up then.

Chap in work says to me "why dont you open an american dollar account"

Not a clue what he on about, just nodded and said its a good idea.

So anyone done or got one of these?
Can I / we open a US Dollar saving account or such like and sick in english £'s and they be instantly translated into the good auld $ ?

CHeers folks
Syd

gt94sss2

You can open a US Dollar account but its only worth it if you are going to be spending a long time (months!) in the USA or if you regularly expect to get US cheques etc.

If you are only planning to go on holiday there for a couple of weeks, stick to cash, travellers cheques and credit cards..

Regards
Sunil

techno_geek

Your best bet is to get a Nationwide FlexAccount if you don't have one already - their service is fantastic, and generally accept the majority of applicants for a Visa Debit card and an overdraft.

In addition, you get fee-free cash withdrawals and purchases abroad when you use your card - so whenever you go on holiday, take the card with you and avoid unecessary complications like a dedicated US$ account!

Even if you don't qualify for the Visa Debit card, their cash card also allows fee-free cash withdrawals when abroad, and you still get the same great exchange rate! They use the market rate of conversion, instead of the poor consumer rates you see in Thomas Cook and other bureau de change places...

Nationwide's credit card also offers fee-free purchases when abroad, but they'll still charge you to withdraw cash on the credit card.

Hope this helps you! Plus, if you find Nationwide to offer great service, you might even switch your day-to-day banking to them as well (that's what I did!!)

sydney2002

techno_geek wrote:

Your best bet is to get a Nationwide FlexAccount if you don't have one already - their service is fantastic, and generally accept the majority of applicants for a Visa Debit card and an overdraft.

In addition, you get fee-free cash withdrawals and purchases abroad when you use your card - so whenever you go on holiday, take the card with you and avoid unecessary complications like a dedicated US$ account!

Even if you don't qualify for the Visa Debit card, their cash card also allows fee-free cash withdrawals when abroad, and you still get the same great exchange rate! They use the market rate of conversion, instead of the poor consumer rates you see in Thomas Cook and other bureau de change places...

Nationwide's credit card also offers fee-free purchases when abroad, but they'll still charge you to withdraw cash on the credit card.

Hope this helps you! Plus, if you find Nationwide to offer great service, you might even switch your day-to-day banking to them as well (that's what I did!!)

Have TWO flex accounts.
One is around 12 years old now. I swear by Nationwide, and love seeing my statement went coming home from a holiday and it shows a higher rate of conversion for the currency than I would have got in a shop.

Swear by nationwide.

P.S Do you work for them, or have sexual fantasies over being the natiowide pimp maybe haha :rotfl:

posheak

Not much point in you doing that for one trip.
your credit card used in USA will be converted to GBP when the bill is sent to you.

Just takes a few hundred in US cash (20's, 5's, and 1's ) for incidentals and use your credit card when you are there (get it from your bank)
you can take travellers cheques but, credit cards are better

arealhighlander

I second the recommendation for a Nationwide Flex Account.

I took out one of these, plus a Post office credit card. Nationwide do not charge for foreign cash withdrawals, and the Post Office do not charge an extra 2.5% overseas transaction charge the way most CCs do.

I now charge up my Nationwide card before I go on holidays, and only use these cards when on holiday. Saves a packet. Only take enough $$ cash to do you for the first day so you have some readies to hand.

EVERYWHERE takes CCs in the States.

Regarding Land Of The Rat :-) The Disney passes cost a fair bit per person. If you buy a 3 or 5 day pass (was called a Super Hopper Pass when I got my first one) what you will find is that once you use your pass for the first day into the main parks, it allows you access for the next 7 days into the small parks (Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach etc.).

So I recommend (assuming a 2 week holiday), one day at the main parks, then use the pass to go to the smaller parks for the next few days and then save your last few days for the main park. Best value then for your passes :-)

Oh, also find out of there are any special events on where the park will be open longer. We found that the park was going to be open till 1 am one day so we went then (to get the most time for our money).

Also, are you getting a package or just a flight and accommodation seperate? Go to any Dennys, Macdonalds, any other fast food place, they have tourist magazine with coupons with money off. Americans LOVE coupons, there is no "stigma" in using them! You can use them to get really great deals in some of the hotels, but even if not, you get money off in shops, food outlets etc. Well worth getting.

IGK

I would agree with other posters that for one trip it is definitely not worth all the hassle of setting up a US Dollar account.
If you're going to make regular trips, and make regular US Dollar purchases then it can be worthwhile.
I have a US Dollar Current account with Citibank, and with a couple of minor niggles it works quite well.
You need really to open a sterling current account as well, then you can make an instant transfer from the sterling account to the USD one when you need funds. There is no charge for doing that, although the rate is a few cents away from the mid-market rate, but it is much better than bureaux de change -type rates.
What is convenient is you get a Visa Debit card, which you can use for purchases in the US (or paying for USD things online here etc.), and so paying for things like hotels and restaurants, the exact US amount just gets debited from your account with no charge.
You can use it as an ATM card for getting cash free at Citibank machines, but some other machines do charge $2 or so per withdrawal.

Another added bonus is once you're all up and running you can also open a Euro account very easily (just phone them up), and the same card can be attached to the EUR account in the same way. You just call them up asnd tell them which account the card should be attached to. Therefore if you're going to, say, Spain or somewhere you can use the EUR account in the same way. ATM machines tend not to charge for Euros as much as in the US.

The Citibank foreign currency current accounts don't pay interest (but they are current accounts not savings accounts), and you do need to keep something like £2,000 balance across all your accounts, and there are certain criteria to be met for them to allow you to open an account, but in the right circumstances it can work quite well.

See
http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/bankingproducts/currentaccounts/usdollar/index.htm