wildinvirginia

OK, I have my old UK Bank account still and a current debit and cash card. On occasion, my family pay money into my account there and I go to an ATM to withdraw it. or use it in a store on a very rare basis. All was well so long as they UK bank knew I was still in the States. of late, every time I go to get money out, it is declined. They wont let e register a US address so they call my parents house to tell them my card has had an attempted use and it has been declined. i have to call the bank at great cost and huge inconvenience, generally doing a world tour on the way. Today I tried to book airline tickets for a secret trip home to attend my brother's wedding. My SIL has put a large sum of money into my account with no way of getting it back out and when I tried to book the flight online I couldn't because they card was rejected. maybe because my country of residence is in the US but my billing address is in the UK because the bank wont change it, or maybe because shock and awe, i am using my account for the purpose it was intended, spending my own money! So tomorrow I'll be back racking up more money and blood pressure yelling at my moronic bank. This time, I even contacted them via my online banking telling them I'd be making this transaction trying to prevent this. So now, not only have I not been able to book the flight, my Dad will no doubt get the automated call telling him about rejected card activity, blowing the whole surprise thing. I am so so pissed off I can't tell you.

So, this continuing to happen, and I assume it will because every time they assure me the issue is resolved, it never is, my husband says to close the UK account while we're there. We wont be going home again for ages and this causes nothing but stress. they wont change my name even tho I sent a ton of documents when I married, now will they let me register a US address. Or any other for that matter without going into a branch. So yes, maybe it is time to take advantage of being there and just close all the accounts down.

Which leaves me with one issue however, how best o transfer money from the UK when my family want to send gifts or help us out ... or pay for a trip home (wish she'd had booked the tickets there! but hindsight etc) .... how do you all transfer funds. I have heard Western Union is OK but very expensive, I am thinking PayPal but I think they're pricey too. I have seen notices in the dreaded Walmart but never noticed costs and my crappy 'second chance checking account bank' isn't technologically advanced enough to do it. I think some stores allow UK residents to buy gift cards from overseas.

Just wondering if any of you have experience or ideas in sending and receiving funds without being charged the earth. Amounts sent are usually quite small so huge fees cancel any kind gesture on the part of the family.

Thanks for any ideas guys.

redglade

So sorry to hear your troubles. It must be an issue with your particular bank or branch because both hubby and I have kept our UK bank accounts and changed the addresses to US ones without any problems. As for money transfers - the times online has an excellent article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/mon...cle3964271.ece

penguinsix

Have you called to advise the bank of large overseas expenses? Whenever I'm on assignment we call the bank's security department and specifically alert them to expect a considerable number of overseas transactions, and when we have large purchases (over $500) we call and get pre-clearance for those purchases so they won't reject.

It's a pain, but when dealing with cross border transactions it's something that's often necessary.

Mummy in the foothills

Maybe you should try setting up an Xe account and transfer what you need to your US account from the UK one. Cheaper and faster than all the phone calls and raised blood pressure. The family could then continue to put money into the UK account as needed.

Elvira

Do NOT close your UK bank account. You'll never be able to open one again while you are not a UK resident.

Change your account details in person at your local branch the next time you are in the UK.

Use XE Trade to transfer money to and fro. (Do a search - lots of folks here use them.)

And enjoy your trip

wildinvirginia

Thanks so much.

I bank with Abbey who are now Santander - who, bizarrely also operate car loans in the US ... equally useless on both counts! Never a problem while they were Abbey. I did notify them about the transaction, they even emailed me about it - but EVERY time I try to use my account, this happens.

I will look into XE Accounts - very ignorant I know, but I have no clue what that is lol. My 5a.m baby-addled brain needs more coffee to focus

Thanks for your advice

Duncan Roberts

I'd say based on resent experience, xe.com is a good a place as any to try out. It's a currency exchange broker, they offer free transfers from UK to USA and USA to UK plus they have pretty decent exchange rates.

wildinvirginia

Great tip - thank you! Will go check that out.

Weeze

We transfer from Santander to Moneycorp. As Moneycorp has a UK account Santander don't screw up too much. Then Moneycorp transfer money to the US account. As abbey are generally shite, we have found it best to only use the uk cards in the uk, and the us ones in the us. Transferring using Moneycorp works for us. Oh, the first time you do it, Santander need to text you a special pin number to use. That was a pain, getting them to text a us cell number, but eventually it worked. My husband went through a faze of setting up the transfer to Moneycorp, then phoning Santander international number and asking to speak to the fraud section. Then telling the fraud section that there would be a transfer to moneycorp and if they stopped it and we incurred charges, he would bill Santander. They now do it right. I can only presume his threats were noted.

wildinvirginia

Aha, another happy Santander customer I see. re the fees involved in that expensive? the amounts I usually have transferred are quite small and just for gifts?

dbj1000

Just by chance last time I was in the UK I was listening to a Radio 4 Money Program special about bad experiences with highstreet banks, and Santander (who I'd never heard of until then) not only have the worst customer satisfaction rating of any bank in the UK, but they have the worst customer satisfaction rating in the history of UK banking!

HarryTheSpider

+1

Keep your UK accounts - we did - we also use this to help keep tabs on our UK credit - while you're out of the country you do want somebody buying a house in your name and sticking you with the bill!

wildinvirginia

Ha that's funny about the Santander rating - how do you go from top of the list to the bottom - sell out to a European company who don't give a crap about the tiny percentage of business you have in the UK High Street I guess.

That's an interesting point about credit and identity. I can't imagine my credit is as good as it was - I no longer have an income being deposited and to avoid fraud I got rid of overdrafts. Before I had thousands in overdraft limits and never used them lol I was the annoying customer who paid my credit card bill on time so they never made a penny of interest out of me. Sadly my husband's first wife wasn't so conscientious so our credit history here is crappy - hence the silly bank we're with now.

My 1000 quids worth of ticket money is still in the ether out there somewhere - are we sure camels and goats were too much trouble to trade with?

dunroving

+1. The Times Money section "gripes" page has more complaints about Santander customer service than just about any other bank.

Weeze

The fees were because Moneycorp were expecting the money and Santander cocked up transferring it twice in a row. This ment we should have been liable for late payment fees with Moneycorp. Santander accepted that they were a. Incapable of the simplest thing b. Liable for any costs we incurred. Thankfully Moneycorp were extremely helpful and didn't end up charging us anything.
In general, if you transfer over $50000 increments, the money hits the us by the next day. If you transfer a bigger amount, it can get held in the us for up to 2 weeks while the US check it isn't drug money or whatever.
Like I said, Santander are awful, but the arrangement now works for us. I would not recommend ever going into Santander and transferring money to the us direct. They cannot cope at all. This wad the error we made when we first moved over here.
Ironically, their fraud service is excellent though.