technolog

Thanks for the input everyone; very reassuring.

Incidentally I was in a Santander branch yesterday and asked if I could operate my account and access online banking from the US and the answer was 'yes' on both accounts. Mind you, I've learnt to take Santander tellers' advice with a pinch of salt, though, to be fair, their customer service has been improving markedly of late. It couldn't have gotten much worse though.

Pulaski

Make your mind up, do you have one account or two?

Santander has retail banking in the US, they're a kind of Spanish HSBC, so they have a lot less to fear from the (over)reach of the IRS and the US banking regulators than other banks with no US presence.

Bob

They took over Sovereign, for a bit of a New England presence. They really shouldn't have though, as that bank just needed to be put out of its misery.

Ozzidoc

LOL.

Clearly "both accounts" refers to both questions/issues and not bank account.


OP - I have had few problems with the bank that you have referred to. The main issue is that I cannot receive security text messages to my phone so need to do some things by telephone banking.

technolog

Ah yes, good point. Will they not text to a US mobile number?

jborowsky

are you leaving accounts into the UK? Depending on how much are you leave behind, you have different reporting requirements. also, if you come back to the US with UK pension scheme, there are ways to improve the pension schemes by departing the UK.

technolog

My intention is to keep my British current a/c open with it accepting my monthly pension income and paying out whatever bills might remain or crop up. I would aim to transfer the pension lump sum and house sale equity into a new US current a/c as soon after arrival as possible.

Would you care to elaborate on the 'ways to improve the pension schemes by departing the UK'?

jborowsky

Sure. First you can't bring over british retirement accounts and set up an american equivalent presently. There are countries that will accept such rollovers with better tax treatment than if they remain in the UK.

MidAtlantic

Beware of brokers in this field charging exorbitant fees, and consider very carefully if you want the complications of handling funds in yet another country.

Mcodox

Check out Transferwise. Its a P2P currency converter. I have transferred about 150k this way UK to US in the last few months. Best rate within the spread, lowest overall charges I think. I do multiple 10k's due to the daily limit, whenever the rate is good. Takes a few days though (3 ish) so you need to have good timing.

Stribs

Hi Technolog

Does having a santander account in the US and UK in anyway solve the transferring money from the UK and the US without those little charges nipping away at your savings?

I emailed them a week ago with this question, nothing as yet.

Did you find out if your UK money would just become US being the same bank?

Stoutbanana

I asked them the same question and gave them my US phone number to send the otr code to.
When I got here and tried to change something on my account and then the box appeared for the otr to be entered that they said they had sent nothing appeared on my phone.

Emailing Santander on their 'secure server website email system thing page' is a pain because they will not answer because they are unwilling to believe it is me who is sending the email which is usually a complaint at how useless they are at letting me access my account to make changes!

mrsmaccmoo

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but I went into Santander and asked if they had a US presence and they said no! Bank of America have said we're unlikely to be approved for a credit card, so would need to go for a secured credit card, where they charge an annual fee and we have to put up $300 which we get back after a year..... really insulting when we both have excellent financial records in the UK. I'm thinking surely Santander, as my UK bank (with a credit card) could easily arrange a US credit card for me (without a fee etc). Has anyone ever done this.... I'm guessing it will be a long conversation with multiple people in the UK end, if the people in branch don't even know Santander is in the US!?

MidAtlantic

Read this thread and many others. Your UK credit does not transfer to the US. You have to start again. Go to the Help & Guidance at the top of this forum and you will find lots of useful information about this.

Pulaski

Not really, you're pretty much starting out afresh in the US, don't take it personally. Maybe, maybe not, it depends if the bank in the US has a standard procedure for it, and maybe even if whoever you're speaking to in the US is prepared to take the initiative to help you. It may be a complete cräp shoot. This doesn't have anything to do with staff in the UK. The US bank is a separate legal entity, with its own management and a different regulator. It will be entirely up to the bank in the US whether to issue a card, so I suggest you stop talking to branch staff in the US, who are clearly not well cluded-in to where else their employer even has branches.