Best accounts for Wages now to be paid in USD

iab2408

Hi,

I am looking for information on the best way to manage my wages, as my company have just informed me that from March 2015 I will now be paid directly in US Dollars.

Currently I have a current account with Santander but I do not know the best option on where to get my wages deposited too, due to the risk of being penalised with surcharges and high exchange rates.

Also is there options on opening a dollar account?
Any help or advice would be appreciated

Cheers,
Iain

grumbler

All UK $ accounts are either not free or require high balance.
All £ accounts are pretty much the same in terms of the (poor) currency conversion rates. However, some also charge a flat fee for incoming foreign transfers, some don't - do your research.

Also, depending on the bank, intermediary banks can get involved in the transfer and have their cut. This is difficult to predict and can be a matter of 'trial and error'.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

This gets asked a lot. Here are some previous posts:

• US dollar salary into UK bank
• Advice on Dollar Bank Account Needed
• Need to open a US -dollar Bank account in England- Best ones?
• Foreign Currency (US Dollar) Bank Account - Help Please?
• Best US Dollar Account
• A dollar bank account
• Need a UK dollar bank account

Unfortunately people tend to not come back and say how they used all the advice.

iab2408

Thanks for the advice I will have a look at the previous threads you have added to this discussion.

Cheers

"Bolts and Hose"

System

Can you not open an account where the US$ is the local currency or the local currency is linked directly to the US$?

agrinnall

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Can you not open an account where the US$ is the local currency or the local currency is linked directly to the US$?

I think the assumption that everybody else has made is that the OP lives in the UK and eventually wants to get the money in sterling. If this is really the case then there's little benefit to opening an account in another jurisdiction, although I suppose if access is only required sporadically it could reduce exchange costs by saving up the wages in a USD environment then transferring a large amount at one time.

SLZ

Open an account with Citi, you'll need a Citi Gold account now, unless you wait and hope for the lesser account to take applications again. Citi is the best option in the UK.