American Dollar Bank Accounts

[hellkat]

How do I go about opening a bank account into which I can put American Dollars?

I am hopefully about to start receiving cheques (excuse me, "checks") for this editing work, and I don't really fancy having to pay extortionate charges to the currency exchange department of my own bank, every time put them into my account. Not to mention having to wait centuries for the cheques to clear.

It would be really rather more useful to have an American Dollar account, especially as it might work out better for me when I am travelling to have an account where I can access American Dollars directly.

The only thing I can come close to is my Paypal account, which converts itself into either Sterling or American Dollars ... but I don't think I can pay cheques directly into there. And the company I am getting the work from doesn't pay into Paypal (the gits), they just send out normal cheques drawn on an American bank.

I notice (from googling) that its possible in most UK banks to have an American Dollar account, but they usually require a (rather high) minimum amount, and I don't fancy saving all the cheques up until I have enough to open one (cos they'd probably all be out of date and therefore invalid by the time I saved enough, LOL).


____________________
Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Davo]

Have you checked out CitiBank?

Just had a quick look at their website and they allow you to bank US cheques without charge.

https://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/international/eurocurrent.htm

Only catch is they ask you need to hold a sterling account with them to avoid getting a £20/month "service" fee.

Failing that last time I had some moron pay me with a cheque in dollars (ebay purchase), Natwest charged me £5 to put it in my account, got a pretty good currency conversion rate though.

[pwntifex]

Strong pound won't do you any favours.
____________________
the warped one: This is a follow up from the thread 'my willy hurts'

[carvell]

[Mary Jane]

I was going to suggest Citibank, but davo beat me to it.

Another bank that also has brick and mortar business in the States is HSBC, but I have no idea what their rates are.

I'm going to be opening an account with citibank once I've found a proper job here in order to make transfering funds between here and the US easier.

A lot of US expats here in the UK use it.

[iooi]

Give F.D. a ring.

Far better service than HSBC
____________________
Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......