Advice on Dollar Bank Account Needed

carolann312

Hi my husband works in Afghanistan for an American Company and gets paid in dollars which is then paid into his current account at Santander and exchanged into pounds. As the exchange rate is not too good at the moment he has heard it is possible to open an account at a bank in this country where his dollars will not be exchanged. Does anyone know if this is correct?

henm2

Barclays may be able to open a suitable currency account in US dollars for your husband.
Their account is an offshore account, Barclays International account, but you need to maintain a minimum balance to the equivalent of £5000 currency equivalent.
http://www.offshore.barclays.com/offshore-current-account/

jonesMUFCforever

...And you will not in most cases be able to just walk in and hand over dollars cash to credit the account.

urbanmyth

Citibank offers a dollar and euro account.

catokelly

Most UK banks will charge monthly fees etc if you open a currency account with them, and you will still have the issue of trying to get a good rate for converting the Dollars to Pounds. You should use an international money transfer specialist to get the best rate. Once you have registered you can then transfer the US Dollars directly to their Client US Dollar Account and they can convert the Dollars into Sterling at much better rates than all banks. The main benefit is the rates are much better and another benefit is that they will always let you know the rate before converting the USD into Sterling and you can choose to go ahead or wait for the rate to improve.

Voyager2002

catokelly wrote: »

Most UK banks will charge monthly fees etc if you open a currency account with them, and you will still have the issue of trying to get a good rate for converting the Dollars to Pounds. You should use an international money transfer specialist to get the best rate. Once you have registered you can then transfer the US Dollars directly to their Client US Dollar Account and they can convert the Dollars into Sterling at much better rates than all banks. The main benefit is the rates are much better and another benefit is that they will always let you know the rate before converting the USD into Sterling and you can choose to go ahead or wait for the rate to improve.

Yes, but presumably the salary has to be paid into a bank account.

The sensible solution is to open a dollar account such as that offered by Citibank, and then use a money transfer service to exchange dollars in that account for sterling in his UK account.