What do we do with this money??
#16
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Why not stop worrying about it and put it away for whenever you get the chance to make a trip to the UK.
I'm sure the time and effort you are going to put into trying to figure out how to change this could be spent more fruitfully.
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For our anniversary, Mark's nan sent us a card with £100 in bank notes inside. In the past when she's sent us monetary gifts, she's always sent them via wire transfer, but for some reason this time she decided to send cash. My guess is that she didn't want to pay the wire transfer fee (understandably), but by sending us cash we're really in a weird situation.
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
Not all of the travel offices have a currency exchange apparently but it might be worth looking to see if you have one near you now.
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Oi less of the old!
I'm not even 40 yet! ![Stick Out Tongue](https://britishexpats.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif)
But Jenney, for the exchange rate, if you do want to take up my offer, we could just look at what www.xe.com says is their rate, if you want, then go with that. I'm fairly clueless on exchange rates, so if you'd like to exchange the money now, but go with someone else, just let me know.![Smile](https://britishexpats.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif)
I would honestly shy away from an airport's bureau de change as they have THE crappiest exchange rates around!
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But Jenney, for the exchange rate, if you do want to take up my offer, we could just look at what www.xe.com says is their rate, if you want, then go with that. I'm fairly clueless on exchange rates, so if you'd like to exchange the money now, but go with someone else, just let me know.
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I would honestly shy away from an airport's bureau de change as they have THE crappiest exchange rates around!
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#19
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For our anniversary, Mark's nan sent us a card with £100 in bank notes inside. In the past when she's sent us monetary gifts, she's always sent them via wire transfer, but for some reason this time she decided to send cash. My guess is that she didn't want to pay the wire transfer fee (understandably), but by sending us cash we're really in a weird situation.
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
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#20
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Well, aside from the fact that we're already home, we would much rather have those funds to help pay off debt and/or put in our savings account and earn some interest on it. The sooner we get rid of our debt, the sooner we can afford to make a visit to the UK. We haven't seen Mark's family in almost four years. ![Sad](https://britishexpats.com/forum/images/smilies/sad.gif)
I considered travelers cheques, but if I'm not mistaken, sending them in already signed would be similar to sending cash, wouldn't it?
I've already emailed my bank and hope to hear from them in the next couple of days. I'm hoping they have an idea of what we can do.
~ Jenney
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I considered travelers cheques, but if I'm not mistaken, sending them in already signed would be similar to sending cash, wouldn't it?
I've already emailed my bank and hope to hear from them in the next couple of days. I'm hoping they have an idea of what we can do.
~ Jenney
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we're talking about a hundred quid here
so what if the bank takes 5%, its only a fiver - we're not talking about a big transaction here....
so what if the bank takes 5%, its only a fiver - we're not talking about a big transaction here....
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#22
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For our anniversary, Mark's nan sent us a card with £100 in bank notes inside. In the past when she's sent us monetary gifts, she's always sent them via wire transfer, but for some reason this time she decided to send cash. My guess is that she didn't want to pay the wire transfer fee (understandably), but by sending us cash we're really in a weird situation.
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
Jenney,
You're in Richmond right? Our agency has a branch office there and they could do the exchange for you. Might take a few days but you'd get it. ask for either Lois or Mick at 740-2030.
PS Forgot to mention it's an AMEX office,
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Last edited by cindyabs; Jun 18th 2007 at 4:50 am. Reason: addtional info
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For our anniversary, Mark's nan sent us a card with £100 in bank notes inside. In the past when she's sent us monetary gifts, she's always sent them via wire transfer, but for some reason this time she decided to send cash. My guess is that she didn't want to pay the wire transfer fee (understandably), but by sending us cash we're really in a weird situation.
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
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I was talking to a colleague today and telling her about this. One of our other colleagues is currently in London, she'll be there for two weeks. I said, "Geez, it's too bad we didn't get this money before she left for the UK -- I could have traded the money with her before she left! If only I knew someone ELSE who was going to the UK!"
And as soon as I said that, I was like "DUH!!! I work in the study abroad office -- I know LOTS of people who are going to the UK soon!!!" So I talked to yet another colleague who advises our students going on our exchange programs in the UK, told her what was going on and asked if she thought it would be ok to email her students and offer to do a straight exchange of dollars-for-pounds. I mean, these kids are going to be over there for several months, and they would definitely use £110 (probably pretty quickly, too!). And that way we'd both avoid paying bank fees and getting stuck with a low exchange rate. I'm going to send the email out tomorrow, so hopefully there'll be some takers!
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For our anniversary, Mark's nan sent us a card with £100 in bank notes inside. In the past when she's sent us monetary gifts, she's always sent them via wire transfer, but for some reason this time she decided to send cash. My guess is that she didn't want to pay the wire transfer fee (understandably), but by sending us cash we're really in a weird situation.
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
er, go to a bureau exchange, they will cash the money from sterling to us dollars. prolly not much of a rip off, especially as you are contemplating posting it to the UK. what if it gets lost/stolen in the postal system, then you would lose $200 rather $20.
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For our anniversary, Mark's nan sent us a card with £100 in bank notes inside. In the past when she's sent us monetary gifts, she's always sent them via wire transfer, but for some reason this time she decided to send cash. My guess is that she didn't want to pay the wire transfer fee (understandably), but by sending us cash we're really in a weird situation.
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
Our bank accounts are all with USAA, which is headquartered in Texas. With the exception of one bank branch in San Antonio, USAA does not have any bank branches anywhere else. We do 99% of our banking electronically anyway, including the use of debit cards (we VERY rarely use cash), so it's never been much of an issue. The times that we might come into some extra money (birthday gift, etc) it's in the form of a check, which we just mail to USAA to be deposited.
So here we have £100 in cash, which is about $200 at the current exchange rate. We don't want to send cash through the mail, even if it's not in US dollars. I know that USAA will accept CHECKS drawn on foreign banks, but that's not what we received. Back in 2003, we tried finding somewhere locally to exchange Mark's leftover British money and came up blank. (We don't live near an airport, and even if we did the exchange there would be a rip-off.)
So what do we do?? Do we bite the bullet and send USAA the cash to be deposited? Should we bother opening up a local bank account, just so we can deposit the funds and transfer them to USAA?? We've never had to do this before so I'm sure there's an alternative that we're just not aware of, but hopefully someone here is.
~ Jenney
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#30
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I'm going to see if any of our study abroad students will swap with me, that way we're both helping each other out. I'll keep you all posted.
~ Jenney
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