US$ Cheques in UK Banks [purplecthulhu]

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I asked elsewhere on LJ about this a while back and now have confirmation of just how crap Halifax are for this.

If I were to open a UK bank account for handling my ill-gotten gains in the US are there any recommendations? I won't be doing this for a while as I've now paid in the current cheque to Halifax, but if I get to do this regularly, and possibly with other currencies, I'd prefer not to have to suffer Halifax's crapness.

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There are 17 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I'd be inclined to look for a UK branch of a US bank, which would be more feasible in London than in many places.

Assuming you don't want to use a local exchange person designated RR for convenience...

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Good suggestion - any good US banks ~~still in existence~~ that you'd care to recommend?

The amount I'm dealing with at the moment is on the edge of what I'd be comfortable asking a friend to front and will hopefully grow.

Edited Date: 2009-06-26 04:25 pm (UTC)

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No experience. We're with Bank of America, who were still there yesterday...

Ask in

brits_americans?

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> UK branch of a US bank

I have a US dollar account with Citibank - and it is NOT a US bank - but a UK bank set up and owned by Citigroup.

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Lloyds used to clear US cheques immediately, and probably still do.

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I bank US cheques with Lloyds on a monthly basis. Not sure wherein the crapness of Halifax consists, but Lloyds charges me £5 for an amount under £100, £8 above that; I'd have to check to be sure, but my impression is that the sterling sums are cleared into the account swiftly if not the same day. My only grumble is that I have to queue every month so that a cashier can fill out a complicated form. It didn't use to be this way; thirty years ago I could just use a regular paying-in form, cross out the £-sign and substitute a $...

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Barclays are similar; and if you're a regular, they'll hand you a pad of cheque negotiation formsets so you can fill out the forms at home.

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We've had US dollar accounts with Citibank for some years. No complaints.

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Citibank is the retail bank of choice for this. But check the charges there, too! No retail bank is to be trusted in the UK.

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I dont pay any charges - but they expect me to keep over 2000 in the account so there is the hidden charge of lost interest.

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Thanks. I am happily in a position to make use of this information, too. :-)

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Indeed - and for much the same reason! :-)))))))

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Isn't

autopope the one to ask. He has run the whole gammut of US lodgement crapness by now surely.

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We had the reverse of this problem when we moved here. Bottom line, whoever you go through will find a way to take as much as they can.

I wish you luck :)

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I have a USD account with Lloyds on the Isle of Man. They're not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination (getting them to understand the difference between dollars and pounds has proved awkward), but the system is workable.

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Having read the above - I started the USD account, which is via the post, because Lloyds on the mainland wouldn't clear cheques immediately and on one occasion, told me that a cheque would take 3 months to clear even though my agent's bank offered to fax them with instructions. When I threatened to close the account, they did it the next day.

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Well I told you last time, RBS do a dollar currency a/c. But you can't get a debit or credit card on it.

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purplecthulhu

US$ Cheques in UK Banks

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