We are moving to Indiana next week for 14 months. Will we have any problems using our U.K. credit cards (TSB Mastercard, Barclaycard visa) in the U.S. ? It seems easier than trying to get a U.S. card for a short period of time. I will pay the bill each month from a U.K. bank account. Any advice/experience would be appreciated.

Will you be getting paid in the US or UK? And how will you be paying for rent etc? Ie you may well need a US bank account even if not a credit card - so you may not be able to avoid the US banking system completely.

Most checking accounts will give you a debit card - so can use that for most day to day expenses.

Other than that I can't see why you couldn't use a uk card. Obviously you won't be building up a US credit history - which could be an issue if the 14 months evolves into something a lot longer.

And there is probably a 1-2% charge for each transaction (maybe hidden on the exchange rate).

Many of the pay-at-pump gas stations have difficulty with non-us credit cards, but that's just a minor irritation.

Thanks fozzyb, I will have a US bank account for day to day expenses and rent etc. and my pay will be split bewteen the U.K. and U.S. It's more for the larger purchases - holidays etc. so it sounds like the U.K. card is an option.

That sounds exactly like the setup I had initially - which worked fine for us.
(Except for me it was initially only going to be a 6 month assignment, but that soon changed to a year, then 2 years, then was going to be permanent, then wasn't...).

One small point that didn't occur to me at the time - when its time to move back the UK - closing US bank accounts remotely can be a right pain in the a**e. And as they often have monthly charges when there isn't a salary being paid directly in - its easy to end up inadvertently getting into "debt" while trying to close the account. In hindsight I might have saved a few grey hairs by closing the account in person before I left.

You will need to make sure that the card issuers in the UK know you're going to be in the US. I have had British cards "locked out" if I hadn't notified the issuing bank of my travel to the US, as has my mother.

Make sure your UK CC does not charge a % fee for overseas transactions.

It almost certainly will,so make sure it is acceptable to you.

Great info, thanks !

Unless you're willing to stump up a deposit for a secured card, I doubt you'd get approved for a US credit card at first anyway. I used my UK cards in the US with no problems when I got here.

Which UK bank are you with, HSBC gave me an unsecured credit card day 1 when I moved here properly (well the card took 3 days to arrive). Also before moving here when I visited often I had an account with Citi bank in the UK, It let you have multiple currencies linked to 1 ATM card and I could just move money between accounts when the rate was good. Having a US$ checkbook was also useful as the US is more in to checks than DD (ACH here) like the UK for some reason I still don't understand.

Good advice and that's true of all international travel. I always report international travel to my credit card companies to minimize the chances of transaction issues (e.g. I frequently travel to Canada).

I know my sister doesn't pay charges on her UK CC when she comes over.

some have a % rate hey charge explicitly, others don't, but to really know what you are "paying" you need to compare the actual exchange rate used on a transaction to the inter-bank rate at the time, can be up to 3% different... i'm sure some hit you with both...

A preloaded card is hugely cheaper such as from Caxton FX I am told (I have never tried it myself yet though). It would be FBAR reportable, but that is a minor irritation.

Some preloaded cards don't work internationally, even if they have a VISA logo on them. Personally I wouldn't choose to rely on one until I had tested it in the country I was going to visit.