US ($) Currency Thread 1 (closed - use thread 2)

Froggitt

My suggestion would be to swap the $975 for £482.50 with the OP paying the Special Delivery........IMHO both sides win......the OP wont get anything near $2 on the high street.........

Post Office® exchange rate
2.1568
You will receive
£452.06

and you can get $$$ for 50 day delivery at $1.95 from CCE with free delivery, so $2 is a good deal for you as well.

thatsfabulous

If anyone wants to buy instore I got 1.92 for exchanging 500pounds yesterday from First choice. I found that to be the best one on the high street this week.

Jeanmd128

I agree with Janken if you travel regularly to the US open a bank account - Bank of America is the largest - as long as you have all the regular stuff that you need to prove your identitiy it is a doddle - plus you get great on line banking. We use Rational FX most often for money transfers or Moneycorp - whoever is doing the best rate. I got 1.9715 a couple of days ago - which is way more than the tourist dollar.

Bleg

Is it really that easy to open a bank account in the USA even though you do not live there. We go there fairly frequently and would save alot of bother changing money all the time. I have frequently thought about it but I have never really looked into it. I shall certainly now.

phatbear

This site cant be used for trading, regardless of doing each other a favour.

all the best

the bear

andor

Thank you for that phatbear. I didnt know that. But wouldn't this situ be an exception to the rule? After all it is the moneysavingexpert.com.

Crabman

EXCHANGING PERSONAL DETAILS

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: For legal reasons I have to discourage swapping, buying and selling on the forum (please see this rule). While it can be a very useful way of saving money it relies on a certain amount of trust between members and as such can cause problems (and has in the past). If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="%20abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

andor

Thanks Crabman. I see where you're coming from. As a newbeeI am not yet up to the do's and don'ts of the site. I'm a quick learner however.

disney_cjd

Bleg wrote: »

Is it really that easy to open a bank account in the USA even though you do not live there. We go there fairly frequently and would save alot of bother changing money all the time. I have frequently thought about it but I have never really looked into it. I shall certainly now.

it is easy yes but remember that many of hte US banks charge you for using or having an account. There are so many ways of doing this and using banks over there. let me give some xamples....

You will also have to make sure you satisfy the US banks requirements fo rhte patriot act i.e. you are not a baddie!!

So which bank. Do not be put off by using a bank you have never heard of. There is no Barclays over there. Yes BoA is one of the biggest as are SunTrust etc. However there are many smaller state banks. If they have the required Federal bond they are fine. Also you tend to get much better service from US banks. If you get to know your banker they will follow your instructions via email etc. Very handy indeed.

If you Bank with Nationwide in teh UK for instance then you can go into your US bank account say with SunTrust, hand over your switch card and transfer money instantly and without any fees and at interbank rates, so somewhere near the 1,99 for today.

Another good way to do have a US bank account is if you bank with HSBC. They will let you open a US Account (subject to status etc) and then the transfers can be done on line. Depends where you want to go in the US mind as HSBC are not everywhere.

Also you will probably get charged an ATM fee in the US just for using it, even if you have a US account. So if you want to withdraw 200 bucks from your US account via an ATM in wal mart (if not a n ATM for your bank) you could pay 2 to 3 dollars for the trouble.

If you have a good credit status and your banks agrees you may well be given a VISA check card (like our Visa debit). You can use this in any store in teh US that shows the visa sign and it works just like our switch over here. So comes out your account with no charges.

Getting money into you US account can be done a few ways. Nationwide using your switch is a good one (if you bank with them). Others are using FX companies. Moneycorp are good but normally charge about 15 quid for doing it. I use xetrade.com which does not charge me anything and I get about 2cents off the spot rate. Much better than using the Post Office etc and costs me nothing.

Moneycorp do not charge you if you are subscriber to the small Florida Homes and Travel magazine mind you.

HTH

Bev_Walker

I'm planning a trip to California in September, but should I get my dollars now, or wait a bit in case the exchange rate improves?