I’ll never forget my trip to Europe. My wife and I spent a week in both France and the UK. We booked our trip through a U.S. international travel agency and they did a superb job. They booked everything from my air travel to my hotel stays. The company we used even had people pick us up at the airport. They had their signs printed with our names as we arrived and all we had to do was walk right up to them and they escorted us to our hotel. I must say it was like a dream.
As soon as we arrived at the hotel I wanted to tip the driver but he didn’t accept my VISA debit card, only cash, or pounds I should say. So I asked about a local bank or ATM and he pointed me to what they call a cash machine. I was able to take out some pounds and so I gave the driver a tip and he was on his way.
The next morning I set out to find a bank in which I could get a good exchange rate for my U.S. dollars. When I walked around and asked different tellers about their services, I realized that banks in the UK are different than the banks in the U.S.
For one, you can walk into a bank in the U.S., provide and social security number and open a checking account. Depending on the bank, a $100 deposit should be enough to get started. Some will even offer free checking which will take 2-3 weeks for checks to arrive in the mail. You will also receive a debit card or check card that is connected to your new account.
These are called current accounts in the UK. A lot of banks will entice people to switch their funds to them by added a cash back reward to their plans. A lot of banks in the UK will allow you to open a current account and all you have to do is pay a monthly fee for their service. Keep in mind that your new account in the UK can take up to 10 days on average to get your application approved and setup. In the U.S., your account is setup immediately and you walk out with temporary checks that you can use to start using to pay bills.
