UK student studying abroad

aprilbe

My daughter is spending a year at a Swiss university and we are trying to find the best solution for finance. A travel card seems good as she and I can load it with money from UK bank accounts, but a 2.50 charge every time she draws cash out seems steep. Equally, opening a Swiss bank account will incur hefty transfer costs to get cash into the account from a UK bank account. Any suggestions will be very welcome!

Voyager2002

An account with Metro Bank, and ATM withdrawals there.

If she can open a Swiss bank account then use a currency broker to fund it: the one I use is at https://www.xe.com

bewildered123

She might find that she has to open a Swiss bank account for paying rent and bills. If so, my students have found the Swiss post office the easiest to set up a basic account with in the past. If she has to, then the cheapest way is to use that for almost everything, and to transfer a lot of money from the UK in one go. The bank charges are still not cheap but most have a minimum and maximum charge so it pays to just try to make a few transfers over the year. Voyager's suggestion will be cheaper still I suspect. It's been a while since we sent anyone but in the past you needed a residence permit to open a bank account, so be prepared for that. I looked into travel cards and for my bank they worked out more expensive than using my visa debit card, but you do need to remember that it's more economical to take out quite a lot of cash, rather than several smaller withdrawals.

rageagainstessays

What about starting a bank account, taking the money in cash and paying in?