petitefrancaise

By far the cheapest way to use UK sterling in the USA is to transfer with an exchange company. I would set up an account in advance of leaving the UK with one of the companies recommended on here - transferwise seems popular right now, I use Worldfirst. Then, once you've opened up your US bank account you can authorise a transfer of funds and the money is usually in your account within 24 hours. Whatever you do, don't just send sterling to your US bank fromyour UK bank, the exchange rates and charges are awful.

Ecto17

I agree with you for large sums but if it is for classflow then l wouldn't discount the post office card as it gives you the exact rate without any fees (assuming you pay it off each month.)

petitefrancaise

good to know.

tom169

zzrmark

No laughing here either, I have to make a drive to my nearest branch every Friday afternoon and stand in line with all the other schmucks who have bosses that don't understand how to pay their minions electronically.
So many things about this country are like living in the 70's (pick your century according to the moron you're dealing with at the time), banking being no exception.

Pulaski

If you're talking about being paid by check then the major banks allow you to deposit checks remotely, by sending the bank a photograph of the check.

durham_lad

After we retired we spent many months each year traveling, our son monitoring our mail, and there were plenty of occaisions when we would receive a check that had to be deposited within 90 days. He would take a photo front and back of the check and email it to me. I would then deposit it remotely after applying my signature to the back using Adobe Reader.

zzrmark

I usually have a maximum of one hour's window between receiving the Friday pittance and closing hours (6pm) and like my check to be fully drawable by Saturday, if I pay in on Saturday the portion of the balance that the bank holds doesn't become available until Tuesday (despite making a weekly deposit for over 18 months and never having an issue WF withholds about a third of the check's value for at least a day. Friday pay-in and the full balance is available to draw on Saturday, pay-in Saturday and full balance doesn't become available until Tuesday).

I was under the impression that mobile banking, despite being heralded as fully electronic, operates similarly to over the counter hours but considers close of day as 5pm, which means no full balance available until Tuesday.
I was tempted to use app pay but having witnessed the amount of time my stepson had to wait for his monies (same branch/ bank) as well as having a phone provider (Thank you Sprint)
that can only manage snail speeds most of the time in the areas I operate it just isn't worth the aggro.

So, I'm still standing by my '70's comparison.
I would be slating my internet speeds as well but, bizarrely enough, since moving out of suburbia and hitting the sticks the same ISP is now running at reasonably fast speeds, in the 'burbs it was infuriatingly slow.