USA Sterling Bank Account?
Oct 30th 2018, 11:35 am
#1
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USA Sterling Bank Account?
Hello, lost this forum completely but just spent quite a bit of time trying to find it, finally found it by searching in my emails!
hWas hoping someone may be in the same boat here. Hubby gets a fairly regular Sterling check as well as a UK pension check that is obviously in Sterling and because of the pain of disclosing foreign accounts on the US tax return, we would like to close all UK bank accounts. Called our bank here Wells Fargo and also checked with one other large one and both said they don’t provide Sterling accounts. It is easy to open a dollar account in the UK so a bit perplexed. What do others do here?
Does everyone keep UK accounts and then just continue to file FBAR? Or is there an easier alternative to have Sterling checks paid directly in a bank here without diabolical exchange rates.
Thank you in advance for any feedback.
hWas hoping someone may be in the same boat here. Hubby gets a fairly regular Sterling check as well as a UK pension check that is obviously in Sterling and because of the pain of disclosing foreign accounts on the US tax return, we would like to close all UK bank accounts. Called our bank here Wells Fargo and also checked with one other large one and both said they don’t provide Sterling accounts. It is easy to open a dollar account in the UK so a bit perplexed. What do others do here?
Does everyone keep UK accounts and then just continue to file FBAR? Or is there an easier alternative to have Sterling checks paid directly in a bank here without diabolical exchange rates.
Thank you in advance for any feedback.
Oct 30th 2018, 1:05 pm
#2
Wondering if...
Joined: Apr 2009
Location: Clarence, NY
Posts: 1,214
Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
I had a multi-currency account in the UK before moving, and maintain it. Pensions paid into it in Sterling, converted and transferred either when needed or when the rates are favorable. Or least unfavorable! I honestly don't see FBAR as being a "pain". A nuisance maybe, 10 minutes once a year; a small price to pay for the flexibility the account allows.
Oct 30th 2018, 1:49 pm
#3
Austin. TX.
Joined: Sep 2013
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
hsbc?
Oct 30th 2018, 2:42 pm
#4
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
Barclays have an international account but want a £25K minimum balance. Otherwise you pay a £20 per month fee.
Oct 30th 2018, 3:03 pm
#5
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
Thank you. It looks like a sterling account at a US Bank is just not possible.
Celticgrid as you suggested it may be worth filing FBAR and just keep the one UK account. We were just thinking life may be a bit easier if we no longer had UK bank accounts at all to report.
We had a ridiculous amount of accounts we initially had to report here on FBAR and FATCA etc.. We would open a different account instead of closing the original, which we may have had .80 p! So it was complicated! We have slowly closed them but because of the pension being paid in Sterling and the odd Sterling check, we were just thinking it would be easier to have a sterling account open here and have zero UK accounts to report.
Petitefrancaise will try HSBC though before giving up completely. Thank you.
Celticgrid as you suggested it may be worth filing FBAR and just keep the one UK account. We were just thinking life may be a bit easier if we no longer had UK bank accounts at all to report.
We had a ridiculous amount of accounts we initially had to report here on FBAR and FATCA etc.. We would open a different account instead of closing the original, which we may have had .80 p! So it was complicated! We have slowly closed them but because of the pension being paid in Sterling and the odd Sterling check, we were just thinking it would be easier to have a sterling account open here and have zero UK accounts to report.
Petitefrancaise will try HSBC though before giving up completely. Thank you.
Last edited by WJS; Oct 30th 2018 at 3:05 pm.
Oct 30th 2018, 3:07 pm
#6
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
Unless the cheque you're getting is an annual salary or similar, why not just keep the accounts below the US reporting limits? That way you can keep accounts open and not have to report them. The FBAR reporting limit is $10,000, and the FATCA limit is higher.
Oct 30th 2018, 3:15 pm
#7
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
Owen778 thank you! I totally forgot about that. As I said we had accounts with almost nothing in them that we had to report. Think that would not have been necessary if we had less than 10,000 overall I believe. We could just transfer as needed I guess to keep the balance under 10,000. Hmmmm. Thank you again.
Oct 30th 2018, 3:22 pm
#8
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
Owen778 thank you! I totally forgot about that. As I said we had accounts with almost nothing in them that we had to report. Think that would not have been necessary if we had less than 10,000 overall I believe. We could just transfer as needed I guess to keep the balance under 10,000. Hmmmm. Thank you again.
Last edited by Jerseygirl; Oct 30th 2018 at 3:30 pm.
Oct 30th 2018, 6:01 pm
#9
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
I asked my bank a couple of years ago if they offered a sterling account- they said they did, but the terms were not good (high minimum balance, no interest...). I doubt you'll find a good account.
Oct 30th 2018, 9:18 pm
#10
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
While living in the USA I used to have 2 UK pensions totaling about £1,000/month being paid into our UK bank account. I just made sure that account, plus a savings account at the same bank, never exceeded $10k at any one time. I always found it useful to maintain a UK account even before I started receiving those small pensions.
Oct 30th 2018, 10:49 pm
#11
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
Given the regular threads we get in the moving back sub-forum, on the difficulty of opening a U.K. bank account even when resident in the U.K., I would strongly recommend keeping a U.K. bank account open if you have any connection to the U.K. at all.
Oct 31st 2018, 4:36 am
#12
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
The FBAR takes me like 5-10 minutes and I have a half-dozen accounts. It really isn't too painful.
Now FATCA, that's another beast...
Oct 31st 2018, 2:41 pm
#13
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Re: USA Sterling Bank Account?
You have all given me excellent advice. Will definitely keep a UK account. Thank you!
