Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark (Post 4927322)

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.

Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark (Post 4927084)

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

Originally Posted by Ray (Post 4928181)

Go with Maz .. I'll vouch for her ... she a very nice old girl ...

Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark (Post 4927084)

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

Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark (Post 4927322)

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. :(

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

Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark (Post 4927084)

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

Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark (Post 4927084)

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

Originally Posted by cindyabs (Post 4931855)

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, :)

Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark (Post 4933841)

Cindy, thanks. :) I stopped by a local bank today (little bank, not a major one) and they also suggested the AmEx on Starling Dr. It's about 4 miles from where we live. I'll have to remember to ask for one of the people you mentioned!

~ Jenney

Originally Posted by cindyabs (Post 4933893)

Good, they wouldn't know me if they fell over me, :) but when we had the office in Richmond Hill, I was always getting their faxes from our main office in Atlanta. Now how Richmond Hill, GA and Richmond, VA were indivisable, who knows? :D A case of close but no cigar.

Originally Posted by TRPardoe (Post 4930922)

Assuming it is not one £100 note, why not send it back to the UK as birthday presents to other people ?

Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark (Post 4927084)

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

Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark (Post 4927084)

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

Originally Posted by roadwarrior (Post 4939613)

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.