<p>DS will be going to Oxbridge for two years in the fall on a fully funded scholarship. His university and college fees will be paid directly by his funding source but he will receive two checks (one in August, one in January) for personal expenses, food, etc. These checks will be issued in pounds (I made him double check the accuracy of this, and it’s true). He needs a British bank account so he can avoid currency conversion fees and so he can withdraw funds there. He will also need a credit card issued from the same bank, again, so he can avoid all those bank fees and also because the technology is different (some sort of embedded microchip thing?). Does anybody know such an account can be opened in the U.S. with that stipend check, or does he need to wait until he goes to the UK? Are student accounts there as routine as they are here? I have looked at Barclay’s and HSBC on the Web, but their account minimums are very high to open a U.S. account (in the neighborhood of $100,000). Right now, my strategy is to go with him to HSBC (seems more consumer-oriented than Barclay’s) with his award letter in hand and see what they say. Does anyone have any experience or advice to offer (I know I am hovering, but I will only see him for a short time and he wants me to be on the account, too, if possible)?</p>
<p>Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated, CC friends.</p>
<p>Your S is not going to Oxbridge. Oxbridge is not a place. You should be ashamed of yourself. How can you not know the name of the university your child will attend?</p>
<p>He will most likely be able to open a student account, but he will need to wait until he gets to the UK to open it.</p>
<p>I’ve a student account with RBS; I had no minimum deposit, and I was also issued a credit card. I was also able to open a savings account; all student accounts are current accounts. I am not sure if there are RBS branches in England; HSBC will probably be your best bet, or perhaps NatWest. It will be easiest to wait until he gets there, and then go to different banks and talk to them in person.</p>
<p>Wait until he gets there. I had the mistaken idea that I could open a joint account with my kid and put $ into it which my kid could withdraw at Oxbridge, so I went to HSBC to do it. It turns out that the American and British versions of HSBC are separate corporations and so what I wanted to do was not possible. </p>
<p>It’s a while now, but our experience was that you could open an account and if you kept 1,000 pounds in it, there were no monthly fees. </p>
<p>MAKE SURE he has the stipend and award letter with him in his carrry on luggage as he will need it to go through immirgration upon arrival in the UK.</p>
<p>Wait until you get there; I tried like mad to open an account last spring for my DD when the Pound was low and could not find a way to do it without being independently wealthy and having one of those high tech worldwide accounts.</p>
<p>He will need some sort of correspondence from the university showing his address and his photo ID.</p>
<p>The best way for you to give him any money is to keep a US bank account with an ATM that will work in the Uk, you can deposit to his account in USD, he can withdraw cash at an ATM there. Otherwise you have wire fees or 30 day holds or exchange rate delays.</p>
<p>Perhaps the OP is using the term Oxbridge in an effort to give basic information but not enough to out their kid. I have done the same thing on another board.</p>
<p>gloworm, I don’t understand your witty comeback. Also, I am not a Fulham fan. Maybe you should go vote against free healthcare? (that’s what all americans do, right?)</p>
<p>If your son is smart enough to get into Oxbridge, maybe you should respect his wishes and not ask for incredibly trivial advice on this forum? I’m sure he is more than capable of figuring out the banking situation himself.</p>
<p>For the record, 2 minutes with google and phrases like ‘UK bank account for foreign student’ would have him sorted.</p>
<p>Oh and if you are going for anonymity (something I can respect) then why not just say ‘college in England’? What difference does it make that it’s Ox/Cam? You wouldn’t just be gloating a bit there would you?</p>
<p>About you being on the account too … I don’t think that is too likely, unless he does indeed open an offshore/international account. They are intended for expat workers, and carry high fees or minimums, and for a student to open one would be an extremely stupid thing.</p>
<p>It is very easy/quick to open a bank account once you’re in England. Your son should bring enough traveller’s checks (cheques!) to tide him over until his funds are available. As students, my H and I used NatWest but not for any particular reason that I can remember.</p>
<p>At Oxford, there are tons of banks on High St., within easy walking distance of the colleges, that cater to students and ATMs are all over the place.</p>
<p>Travellers cheques are a bad idea- more trouble than their worth. Just have money in his American account and use his ATM card to get pounds out.</p>
<p>Barclay and Bank of America are sister banks. My DD just returned from a semester abroad. At Barclay she was able to withdraw money at Barclay (using her Bank of America card) without an atm charge. I don’t remember if there was a conversion charge. So if you have a BOA in your area you might go to them and ask how things are set up. I do not know if it is possible to make a deposit at Barclays into a bank of america account??? doubt it but you could certainly ask.</p>
<p>I sent my DD with 2 credit cards (from different companies) and ATM cards from 2 different banks (she carried 1 atm and 1 credit card…put the others in a safe place for back up)…we had the foresight to contact each of her card companies and have me listed as someone who could answer and make decisions on her card…Very glad we did as a week after she got there we had to have one of the credit cards and atm cards replaced (someone got her wallet and it was out of her possession for a few days)…took a couple of weeks for me to get the new cards and then I mailed them to her…somewhere they got delayed as they did not finally reach her until about 6 weeks later.</p>
<p>Anyway…several times her credit card was blocked (even though we told them she was traveling)…credit card company would call our house…If I hadn’t been authorized to deal with her accounts it would have been very difficult to get them unblocked each time it happened.</p>
<p>VISA cards seem to work best in England and in Europe…occasionally you will find a machine that will not accept your US card…you then just have to look for a different machine…one that displays the symbols that are on your card…but of course you are right about having to pay the conversion fees on the us cards. Most stores don’t like to take a credit card unless it is over $20…My daughter says that she needed cash most of the time for purchases…and some stores don’t take credit cards at all.</p>
<p>Feel free to pm me if you have other questions that we can help you on… Oh and if you are thinking cell phones. … there is a place called car phone warehouse in london that you can buy a cell phone for 5 pounds and then pay as you go for minutes… it was recommended to her by students who went the semester before…worked well for her.</p>
<p>This is really nothing to worry about in any way. There are thousands and thousands of foreign students in the UK and I’m sure most of them have bank accounts. The first week in October is called “Freshers Week” and this week students don’t have any classes, they go to parties and orientation and sort out stuff like bank accounts. </p>
<p>As noted above, your son will need proof of address (use a college room bill - sometimes called “battels”), photo id (passport) and possibly proof of enrollment at the university (student id card, letter from the college).</p>
<p>Most UK banks offer student accounts, which seem like a great deal but they don’t always offer the same deal to international students, so be warned. HSBC does offer the same deal, minus the free overdraft, so that’s where I bank. I also got a free 4-year student railcard from them when I signed up for the account. They have different free things like that every year. </p>
<p>You can withdraw free from a bank of America account at Barclays. However, that isn’t the same as having a UK account in which to bank a cheque. I am pretty sure you will have to open a UK account in any case to avoid massive fees for depositing foreign currency in a US account.</p>
<p>There is no monthly charge for a bank account in the UK (unless you have some kind of millionares premium account).</p>
<p>In most shops the minimum card payment is £5. Some will take a card for a payment of less than £5, but will add a fee (of about 20p so not much). However, if you have a non-chip US card, you may have some problems so this is another reason for getting a US bank account. UK cards have a chip inside them and when you pay for something you have to put the card into a hand-held reader and type in your PIN. </p>
<p>You don’t have to go to London specially to get a mobile phone! Surprisingly enough, people have phones outside of London (and electricity, the internet, cars etc etc!)</p>
<p>The US banking system is really primitive in comparison to the UK one. The UK one has lots of things the Americans don’t (chip and pin, free online transfers, use any major bank’s ATM with no fees, paper cheques dying out). There really is nothing to worry about.</p>