<p>My son is going to be living in London from January to June, 2013. Has anyone dealt with an American student and banking? He’ll have a paid co-op, so we need somewhere to deposit checks. Also, I’m confused about health care. Is that covered in the UK if you are a college student? Our insurance (retired military coverage) does provide overseas coverage but how hard would it be to find providers who take it in a country that doesn’t deal with health insurance?</p>
<p>As for banking, I tried HSBC, thinking they operate here and in England but they told me that even if my son opened an American HSBC account, he’d have to open a seperate one in London to have his London pay checks deposited in. </p>
<p>Oh, HSBC did say that “opening an account in the US, depositing paychecks from the UK” would be no problem if we opened a HSBC Premier Account. “What is the minimum balance?” I asked. “100,000K” I nearly dropped the phone.</p>
<p>If he was going to be there six months or longer, he would be covered by National Health, shorter time, his place of employment would be a place to start, as theyve undoubtably dealth with it before.</p>
<p>Pugmadkate, calling Tricare and Verizen are two of the items on my to-do list. I guess that I will also add USAA to the list, although my son will not need to deposit any checks while he is abroad. When he went to Russia with a class during spring break last year, I had called the bank ahead of time and he still had problems withdrawing money. I keep checking the travel abroad section on CC but it doesn’t seem to have much practical advice. I know that S will work out most of it on his own but it gives me something to think about.</p>
<p>The UK has extremely strict laws regarding money laundering which means it is really hard to open a bank account here. Your son will probably have to visit the bank with ID, proof of address, proof of employment and details of any work or study visa he is using.</p>
<p>I have no idea what a co-op is. If it is a normal paid job, it’s usual in the UK to be paid monthly in arrears directly into a bank account by transfer. No checks ( or cheques as they are called here) involved.</p>
<p>If you are here 6 months or longer you get NHS healthcare but it is still worth getting repatriation insurance just in case of serious illness (or death) where return to the US is required.</p>
<p>If you get sick you will get treated by the NHS anyway, even if you have insurance. Then about 10 years later they will invoice you for the treatment. The concept of health insurance is alien here.</p>
<p>He needs to buy a policy for healthcare. There are several companies. Try CMI. If he is on study abroad his school will have information. It isn’t that expensive - I think I paid $200 for a semester for my daughter.</p>
<p>My daughter has a BofA account and has been using her debit card in England. I think Barclay’s has a relationship with BofA.</p>
<p>I was going to suggest looking into Bank of America. S has been using his BoA account in the UK and France, and I <em>think</em> he told me one can arrange for direct deposit for a one-time fee. (But check first.) In France, foreign students pay an insurance fee and are covered. (Of course, there’s more bureaucracy than that, but I don’t even want to think about it. )</p>
<p>Is your son’s co-op through a program at his university or privately organized? If it is something that he applied for though his college/university and he is not taking a formal leave of absence I am sure that the school’s going-abroad office will be able to give him information on health insurance. </p>
<p>D was in the UK going to grad school for two years and though she could use the NHS we decided to keep her on our policy fearing if she were ever seriously ill or injured we would have trouble getting her treated in the US. The packet from our US insurance policy listed doctors in every urban area of the UK. </p>
<p>For day to day things like a sinus infection she used her UK college’s recommended NHS doctor and was very satisfied. For a dermatological condition that needed treatment the doctor listed in our US insurance packet for her city in the UK was the same doctor that she would have been sent to through the National Health Service. The interesting part is that she would have had to wait more than a month for an appointment through the NHS and by using her US policy she was in within a week.</p>
Cupcake:
I know there are people in the UK who see private doctors outside of the NHS. I thought some of them even had some company benefits permitting them to do so.</p>
<p>Assuming that’s true, wouldn’t those docs accept insurance of some kind or would they require a cash payment?</p>
<p>In the past students have had to open bank accounts in person with proof of UK address. Then, to get cash from your USA account, the easiest method is to get a one time, one day increase of your USAA ATM limit, your DS withdraws the needed cash from the UK ATM and deposits it in his UK bank account, assuming he needs funds before his paycheck is available.</p>
<p>My kids have found that using an in country ATM for cash to obtain needed monies works best for their needs. I have a friend who lives in the US and works in Canada, she uses the local Western Union office to change her funds, she consistently gets the best net rate there.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for sharing your knowledge. Slowly but surely we are working this out.</p>
<p>A co-op is what Northeastern calls internships. They call it a different name because it is different in some ways (a full six months, many are paid, etc.)</p>
<p>My son did study abroad in the UK. No special student visa needed as he was staying shorter than 6 months. He was covered by the National Healthcare system 9and used it to see a doctor and get meds. paid a low cost for the meds, none to see the doctor.</p>
<p>Email the study abroad liaison at the school in London to verify my information.</p>
<p>I am talking about the situation of being a foreign national in the UK, getting sick. You just go to the health service and they help you. They won’t turn you away or wait for you to provide proof of insurance. They have no facilities to take money anyway.</p>
<p>If you want to see a doctor privately (who will almost certainly be an NHS doctor on their day off) you can do. The only time there is any point doing this for most UK citizens is if there is a long waiting list. For a foreign citizens there may be a point if they want treatment not available on the NHS or if they are not entitled to free NHS treatment and their insurance will not pay up for such treatment (years later when they finally get invoiced).</p>
<p>I am not an expert. This is my personal experience as my mum broke her leg visiting me in oxford and had to have two operations. You can use wikipedia’s answer instead if you want.</p>
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