My husband's K3 Visa came in the mail today

We are wondering what others have done regarding switching bank accounts.

Was anyone able to keep their UK bank and have access (without a ton of fees) in the US?

Are there any banks that are in both the US/UK?

I know he'd need to have a SSN to open an account here. Just wondering what people did in the meantime.

Just wondering if people could share their experiences.

Sorry if there is info/posts on this already, I tried searching but it kept saying the feature was down.

Thanks!

Kristina

Yup, use HSBC. Open a current account whilst in the UK. Get online banking and tell them you will be abroad for a while so that you can use your HSBC credit and debit cards freely. Once in the USA change your address online to the USA one. You can pay your cards and look after your money online. Once I changed my addy to the USA one they started sending my statements here.

It sounds a little complicated but it's what I did. My Dad did it too when he moved to Malta a few years ago.

So, my money stays in the UK (for now, I'll eventually move it to the USA) and I have full access to it from the USA.

I have a US bank account and no SS number. I have had the account for over 2 years now and only moved to the US 2 days ago.
My account is with Citizens bank and my UK bank, which actually owns Citizens Bank is happy to transfer funds at a good rate any time I fax them with the signal numbers I arranged with them before I left.

I did use HSBC but found their New York office was actually adding another charge to all money tranfers meaning I got charged 3 times for every transfer and they had the cheek to call it an intermediary charge when was tranferring from HSBC in the UK.

Well, I won't be using HSBC for transferring funds....

Citibank also has the same thing as HSBC. You can even set up your Citibank to have an American checkbook issued, and you can pay for things in USD without foreign transfer fees.



oh and re: transferring money...you can get a US citibank acct and transfer between the two. It's same day transferring if it's done before 3pm. For some reason, my acct is unable to transfer to D online, but his works fine for me.

Which also works just fine for me

I use Nat West Online and a local US bank.

US banks charge, explains why there are so many of them, being owned by same parent company seems to make no difference.

I make transfers by phone, they have my US Bank details on file, first one was a bit of a pain but now easy.

I wish I had got a American Express Credit Card in the UK, would have kicked start my US Credit rating on transfer.

I did not need a SSN, you do not need one, you may need to shop around, easier than arguing the toss with the ignorant,

Yeah I was a bit dismayed that the flow of information between Citi US and UK seems to be non-existant. They've said they're 'different companies' which I think is a load of horsesh!t.

I don't have that problem. I had an hsbc acct for 6 years in england and they set up the account in usa for me before i left. By doing this you can have a credit check done and you get an'introduction' from hsbc uk and you can arrive in usa with a bank account and credit history.

I get charged by hsbc in uk 10gbp every time i transfer money so just make sure i wait till lots in there before i tx the money. I have had no charges from hsbc usa.

I know that when I travel to the UK, I can use my Bank of America card to access cash at Barclay's bank machines without paying an extra charge (beyond the conversion fee, that is).

Since the pound is so ridiculously strong against the dollar right now, however, you might want to open a US Bank Account and convert to take advantage of it (I still harbor dreams of things leveling out again - but that might not happen!).

Try calling your bank and asking about the options - a lot of banks either own or have agreements with banks abroad that you might not be able to figure out from the names on the buildings.

Good to know about HSBC opening accounts for you in the USA before getting there. My fiance has his accounts there and we were wondering about this. Does anyone know exactly how his credit score will transfer, if it does at all? He has great credit, mines not as spectacular as his, so we are hoping his will transfer to the US. Does anyone know about this, or does he have to start from scratch? Thanks!

I opened 2 accounts with citzens bank here before I had my SSN.... when I wanted money transfered from my UK account I just write myself a UK check and pay it into my US account... it clears in 3 days and has a very small charge... Citizens Bank is part of the Bank of Scotland Group...

Kez

Credit scores either good or bad cannot transfer, this is due to US banks, having no access to UK credit referance agancies records, due to the data protection act.

I have a Bank of America account - opened on a visit to the US a few years ago - straightforward checking account - and I still have a Nationwide account.

Kept most of my funds in there and use my cash card (Nationwide) to withdraw with NO fees. I monitor my account on-line as I have Flex account.

As for transferring large amounts I use a company called interchange FX, I have had no problems at all with them

Citizens Bank is not part of the Bank of Scotland group but part of The Royal Bank of Scotland group, two very different banks.
While I have had nothing but good service from the Royal Bank, Bank of Scotland are a pain to deal with.

I have to second that difference in service quality between RBS and Bank of Scotland. When I ordered a foreign draft through my Bank of Scotland account I had a week of calling them to chase it up (since no money had been debited from my account) only to finally be told that they never placed the order in the first place. When we used my wife's RBS account, we got the draft in a couple of days.