Banking for student in USA

abbababe

Hi, I hope someone can help, or at least point me in the right direction.

My son will be spending a year at an American university as part of his degree course. He currently has a student bank account with HSBC. Can he continue to use the account to withdraw cash, or will it work out very expensive ? Does anyone know how easy it is for a foreign national to open a bank account in the US, and are there any drawbacks to this ?

newfoundglory

He doesn't want to be using his HSBC account! Yes, it will be expensive!

You need to take a number of factors into account here, and as far as I see it there are two options. It may be a good idea to do both.

Definitely open up both a Nationwide current account and credit card. However, as a student he may find Nationwide will reject an application for a credit card, and only provide a cash card (rather than a full debit card) on the current account. The cash card can still be used to withdraw worldwide, however obviously without the debit card or credit card you can't actually use the card to buy anything. If this is the case, it would be a good idea for you to take out a Nationwide credit card in your name, and reqest a second card putting your son as the second card holder so he can take the card with him. You can choose to fix the limit as you see fit.

I managed to a debit and credit card from nationwide before i became a student, however i already had accounts there before i applied. I've used mine all over the USA and the world and never had a problem yet!

You could of course open a local account out there. You would have to check out what documentation is needed (shouldn't be that hard, many tourists, businessmen and those who buy houses do it!). However, banking isn't generally "free" in the USA - there are even small fees on some student accounts and he may not qualify for one of those. There is no national ATM network like LINK, which we have in the UK - so ATM withdrawls from other banks often attract two fees (one by the bank you hold the local account with, and one from the bank who owns the ATM!). There can be charges for using and/or the issuing of the cheques.

The Nationwide credit/debit card is probably the best option as you get VISA wholesale rates of exchange (good!), and there would be no need for international bank transfers. However, if he intends working out there then obviously you would need a local account too.