choops

Has anyone managed to open an account with Wells Fargo in the UK before moving to the USA? How did you find it? Has it been beneficial?

Cuthbert Rizla

Yes, I'd like to know that too.

lansbury

Yes we opened one on a visit to the US, about 2 years before we moved over, which I know isn't what you asked. They sent everything to our UK address, without any problems. We still have the account but mainly use a local credit union now, as they give better interest rates on their checking and saving accounts.

If it wasn't for the better interest rates we would still use Wells Fargo for our main banking. As US banks go we had no complaints, you just have to get used to the differences between here and the UK.

AddyLaddy

A former colleague of mine mentioned he had opened a WF account whilst on his visit to London for the Embassy appointment. I didn't do this as I already had a USA bank account.

We now have a WF account and its OK, the staff in the branches are very efficient and friendly and there are lots of branches which are open late and on Sat (e.g. inside Safeway).
As the previous post said, they're different to UK banks. Nothing is free. We have to pay fees for cheques, loyalty points, ATM withdrawals from non WF machines, receiving wires (both US and International), ACH transfers and having a CC.

Their online service is OK, but there Bill pay system only works for registered institutions and you can't do third party ACH transfers.
I tried paying my landlord via their Bill pay system and he didn't receive the paper cheque until 9 days later! Gave up with that and write/post it myself now.

Poppy girl

I actually opened a Wells Frgo account yesterday due to the fact that I am with a local Credit Union and got sick of the charges for ATM's and wire transfers etc..anyways I added some accounts yesterday for bill pay its going to take a while to move everything over but I used a third party that was not registered infact I added 2 bill pays, so I am confused

I did think it was weird that I have to have $75 transfered from my checking to my savings account every month incase of a overdrawel (never happend in my life) but anyways they asign a day take $75 then you can with draw/transfer it back in the same day!!!

chopper40

I have WF too and I asked them to reduce that to $25. They did no probs. I got a charge $10 for manually moving it back on the same day. I complained and got it refunded.

AddyLaddy

You can add third parties but if they are not electronically linked they simply print and send a cheque in the post. This seems to take forever to arrive and it's generally not posted until the day after you requested it. Also the money is taken from your account immediately so they make a nice little profit whilst it spends 9 days in the post and then even more whilst my landlord gets around to cashing it!

With my old USA bank account I could do free ACH transfers and next day wires given the account and routing numbers.
WF allows me to ACH transfers to other USA bank accounts that I own, but they charge $3 per transfer.

I have to do that too so as to avoid the monthly account charge my account would otherwise attract.

If you ever go overdrawn, they will automatically take money from your savings account (assuming that is not empty too!) to avoid the transaction/cheque bouncing.

Also watch out with their high pressure sales people who constantly ring you up to sell you useless products that incur monthly premiums.

Makes me miss the good old NatWest ...

rallybug

As do I, although on printing my last statement, to avoid the monthly charge you would seem to have to transfer $100 to the savings account now (or a linked WF mortgage or a combined balance > $7500). The change didn't automatically amend the standing order, so I did that myself online.

Ray

https://www.wellsfargo.com/downloads...fact_sheet.pdf

Poppy girl

But then it looks like I lose the benefits.

So really I should request the $25 a month fee because I cannot see it ever going overdrawn (hopefully lol)....but then again its a kinda llittle savings plan on its own!!

Thank you both

dcjsimons01

We opened a Wells Fargo account about 5 months before we moved to The Us. We did it while on a scouting trip to the area and had no issue with doing it while still a UK resident, although I seem to remember we had to give them a "local" address to send certain things to. This wasnt an issue for us as we could use my company address.

One thing to be careful of is that you will be comparatively limited in what you can do with the money in the account until you have a US Social Security Number. Basically you will only be able to use cheque books and debit cards and also transfer money in. You will not be able to set up Bill Pay or transfer funds electronically without an SSN. This caught us out as we deposited a significant amount of money as a down payment when we thought we might be buying a house. Once we found somewhere to rent instead we could not get that money back out to the UK.

choops

Well it appears to be going smoothly with WF, but they wanted our banks to send bank references which is proving very very difficult!

House is being packed today, slowly my UK life is dissapearing!

pTeronaut

My wife and I have our mortgage, CC & bank online with WF, some things that we learned through this:

Their debit cards work as credit cards (No cash back at grocery stores, not working in Aldi either) in the state of Indiana, and one other state that I cannot remember.

If you pay for your passport application via their credit card, there is a chance that they will send your account to fraud protection, as they did mine.

Weeze

Be careful who you open an account with. We opened one with Wells Fargo in a branch when we came over for our visit before moving here. Then we realised we ment to open one with Wells Fargo International. Thankfully the lady was lovely and closed the wrong accounts for us and moved everything over.
Wells Fargo international give you a credit card straight away based on your salary and a better account that doesn't charge extra for the additional things like bill pay or to produce bankers drafts. We phoned Wells Fargo International and got everything sorted while we were still in the UK.

njmackem

I just opened my own checking account with them last week, and once I did that I have now linked it with my fiancée's account as well.

They told me that they can open an account for people who do not yet have their Social Security Number without any hassle. So it worked quite well for me.