British Expatriate Network

Hello all!

I got 2 checks recently from the UK - totalling 50ukp. I've always deposited these via the ATM machine for convenience sake. Anyways - I get this package back from Bank of America saying I need to fill out this enormous form, and that it's a collection item. Their fee for doing this is according to the document they sent - $40 per item and the minimum amount they will process is now $200.

I had previously been banking with a credit union which also implemented this $200 minimum....

I thought it might be clever to open a Post office savings account in the UK (should be possible via the internet eh?) Then I could post the checks over to there and hoarde it away over there... They even have an account with a debit card on it now.... Alas - this is a big nope. They want a UK checking account for that....

Another thing I would ideally like to have is a UK credit/debit card so I can join the UK iTunes music store...

Anyone have any ideas on how to achieve these things, and let me collect on my gift from grandma?? )

Thanks in advance,

Fiid.

Well, it is my experience that banking UK cheques here is a fruitless exercise (I have bookoo royalty payments each month on images I license) so I simply have the various publishing houses send me US Dollar cheques, and one of them uses PayPal after I invoice them.

As for trying to use the UK iTunes from here you'll most likely run into snags with that due to IP addresses. If I want something that I can wait a few days for I order the CD from Amazon UK - I've never been a big fan of buying MP3's download and prefer the CD myself as I like the tactile-ness of it all. Don't pay for priority shipping as regular mail takes about 3 days.

Andrew )

This is a good reason to keep sort of active current account going in the UK. It also helps when you want to send Grandma a cheque too.

The problem is that most UK banks will not let you open an account if you're no longer resident there. They'll point you to their offshore counterparts.

The problem with British-branded offshore banks is most want anywhere from a minimum deposit of at least 500 pounds and many want more like 5000! There are often nasty fees too.

However, I do know of at least one bank, The Co-operative which is one of the very few to offer an offshore current account with chequebook and Visa debit card, no minimum deposit and no fees (at least until you withdraw from outside the UK, there's the usual VISA/banking fees.)

http//www.co-operativebank.co.uk/servlet/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1076660385076&pagename=CoopBank%2FPage%2FtplPageStandard

However, any reputable offshore bank will only allow you to apply my mail and anti money laundering rules mean you have to send lots of documentation, including a passport photocopy signed by a guarantor etc. It will take a while to set up.

Also although pound sterling to pound sterling transactions incur no charges, U.S funds would, including trying to deposit U.S cheques - you would basically have similar problems the other way round, waiting for U.S cheques to be collected on etc.

As far as just getting money from Grandma, you may want to tear up your cheques from her and get her to send cash by Western Union or Moneygram.

http//www.westernunion.com/index_consumer.asp?country=US


http//www.moneygram.com/index.htm


Moneygram has the cheaper fees of the two but has less locations. For 50 pound the fee would be 12. Not great, but better than what you were saying.

MoneyGram also has the advantage that one of the locations transactions can be made is from any British Post Office, which would be easy for Grandma.

Your grandmother fills out a simple form and simply hands over the cash at the counter. She'll be given back a form with a code number on it.

She then shares that code number with you. You go with your ID and that code number to a Western Union or Moneygram location and pick up the cash in U.S dollars.

Not sure about UK i-tunes or how that all works. Do they not accept U.S cedit cards?

Most if not all music or video companies restrict themselves to the country they have rights for.

You can't ship products from Amazon.co.uk overseas for example.

You can only access iTunes UK or Napster UK from a UK IP. Unless you can find a UK based Anonymizer - and I bet they block those too.

Thanks for the tip on the Co-Op account.

That's incorrect. I get all my CD's from the UK - as they're released earlier.

Just open an account at Amazon.co.uk and order away...

In fact, just this week I received The Rifles from Amazon UK.

Andrew :)

agreed. do it all the time.

As to the OP, Lee's right. She needs to send you a moneygram. or she can have her bank make out a USD check, but I don't know how much the fee for this is and whether it's cheaper than the monegram way.

OK *certain* products are not available to overseas users.

Examples?

Why would you want to access Napster UK?

/recommends a real P2P program
//gives the RIAA the finger

I also order lots of stuff from Amazon UK (mainly DVDs) and goods arrive faster than ordering from Amazon Canada. I occasionally have to pay a little duty.

That's why I find it odd that I-Tunes is not similarly region-free. I'm not disputing that it's not, it just seems strange. Surely that actively encourages illegal downloading, because many people want to download things they can't find anywhere else.