Which Bank & Money Transfer
 

Hopefully we'll be moving to St Louis in November from the UK.

My wife, who is USC, has a bank account with a nominal amount of money in it, in Wisconsin. This bank doesn't have offices in Missouri.

I think that we should transfer some money using XE into her account before we travel. Then when we get to St Louis, open an account in a new bank and transfer the money from her old bank to our new one.

I'd like to be able to take advantage of any favourable exchange rates so the amount or number of transfers may vary.

Any pitfalls?

Secondly, which bank in St Louis should we use. Fatbrit recommended Bank of America and Bank One but that was in 2007. Does anyone have any up to date recommendations?

Re: Which Bank & Money Transfer
 

no idea for banks in the area, BoA are pretty evil, but they are everywhere.

XE is a good plan, but why not wait till you've got a bank set up and just transfer direct?

Re: Which Bank & Money Transfer
 

http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/...&lvl2=checking

My current banker - pretty decent deal.

Re: Which Bank & Money Transfer
 

Thanks for the Schwab suggestion. They have banks in St Louis close to where we think we want to live and their checking account looks attractive.

I wanted to transfer money in advance of arriving in the USA so that we have funds available for deposits on rentals etc. I don't feel comfortable having large amounts of cash on me when I moving around in places I don't know.

I also wanted to be able to transfer money if the exchange rate was favourable.

Do you know if there are any issues/costs with inter bank transfers?

Re: Which Bank & Money Transfer
 

If you want your US$ delivered via a XE.com EFT transaction the cost is free.

Re: Which Bank & Money Transfer
 

Sorry, I was talking about dollar transfers from one US bank to another

Re: Which Bank & Money Transfer
 

It may vary depending on your bank. The US system is not like the UK's BACS or faster payment system.

Re: Which Bank & Money Transfer
 

I don't think BoA are too evil Bob....pretty much on a par with most other national banks. BoA does have some fancy features with their ATM's though....like the way it scans checks you are paying in and tot's up the amounts for you - pretty neat I thought. Their online banking is very very good too, I find.

As you said, good thing about them is that they are everywhere....so less chance of being stung by other provider ATM fees (which is all the rage here).

Re: Which Bank & Money Transfer
 

Depends how quickly you want to transfer the money.

Expect to pay somewhere between $20 and $30 for a domestic wire transfer that should have the funds available the next business day.

Or just write a check drawn on one account and deposit in in the other if you don't mind waiting for the money to become available. Most banks will quote you an obscenely long hold time for funds deposited into a new account with an out-of-state check (I wouldn't be surprised if they say 15 to 20 days) but in practice it usually doesn't take more than about 5 days.