Paying US credit card payment from UK account

this might be a totally stupid question....but is it possible to make a payment on a US credit card from a UK checking/current account?  i currently have my US bank details set up so that my US credit card debits that account when i make a payment.  but wouldn't it be possible for me to set up my UK account as well (i don't have one yet...so i can't test it out) so i can make payments from that?

my thinking is that i have been using my US account for all my UK transactions (ATM withdrawls, in-store purchases, etc.) and my bank has converted the purchase amount in GBP to USD without an additional fee to me (or not one that i can see anyway).  so it makes sense in my mind (tho i'm not a finance whiz) that it could work the other way around for payments.

am i totally out there in thinking that this might be possible (without a fee)?  has anyone tried it?  or can you explain to me why they don't do it/doesn't work?

I am faced with the same predicament and will be setting up an account with XE, having pounds out of my current account transfered into dollars to my US checking account.  I already have my CC payments automatically withdrawn.  Lots of other threads here about this as well...

caligirl I am very surprised that your US bank account is not charging you an extra fee for using it over in the UK.  How long have you been doing it and what bank?  It is very very unusual for any bank to do that nowadays so it sounds like you are getting a fab deal.

I think you will be able to use your UK account to pay a US debt but they will likely charge you a transaction fee of about 2%.  that is pretty standard for most major banks.  The fee is supposedly due to the work they do to translate your charge from the foreign currency to the home currency.

My US bank only charges a fee when I use an ATM, but not for purchases.  Guess I should consider myself lucky!

I am faced with the same predicament and will be setting up an account with XE, having pounds out of my current account transfered into dollars to my US checking account.  I already have my CC payments automatically withdrawn.  Lots of other threads here about this as well...

i will likely end up going the XE route as well...but wanted to try and avoid fees, hassle, etc.  it just seems more convenient to set it up directly to my UK account (when i get it).  there is no mention on my credit card website that the money needs to come from a US account....but i don't want them to end up hitting me with fees.  tho it might end up evening out in the end if either bank (US or UK) charges for wire transfers that are done thru XE. 

more research to do i suppose....

check it out, but I believe XE is free for an account, i have yet to even get a current account here!

check it out, but I believe XE is free for an account, i have yet to even get a current account here!

i think you're right...it is free.  but i know that banks charge for wire transfers (not sure if it would be on this end, or in the US, or both!). 

i know at my last job in the US, there were a few wire transfers into the business account and each time a transfer was done, the bank charged $15.  i really don't want to get hit with a $15 charge every time i want to do a transfer....although my bank (washington mutual) could be different.  there very well may not be a charge...though i doubt it. 

we have the same bank!  i love WM they are great.  But yah, I gotta find out what they will charge.  Was thinking about paypal but someone on another thread was saying its no good, cant remember what it was.

we have the same bank!  i love WM they are great.  But yah, I gotta find out what they will charge.  Was thinking about paypal but someone on another thread was saying its no good, cant remember what it was.

oh good!!  well...if i find any info out as far as WM goes, i'll pass it on to you as well!

i remember someone saying there is a cap on paypal...like $500 a month or something.  don't quote me on that...but i remember thinking that it wouldn't work for me because i would be transferring/wiring more than that.

Paypal is good, but they limit the amounts and the transfer time can take up to three weeks. I believe the transfer amount in their free account is £250.00 a month.
Other than expensive wire transfers, there is one other option which I use, but it takes some assistance.

American Express Travellers Cheque Card - How?
I opened an account in my name in the UK and mailed the card to my mom in Texas.
When I want to easily transfer money, I simply go to the American Express Travellers Cheque website, sign in and add funds to my card account. Two hours later, I instruct mom to go to the ATM, withdraw up to $450.00 (Max per day), then drive over to the teller and make a deposit. Easy, quick, and the cost is 0.06 cents on the dollar for the currency charge.

If I need more in the US bank account, I transfer more over and mom may have to make a second ATM visit the next day.

When I go home on vacation, I transfer funds, pick up the card from mom and avoid all the UK transaction and currency fees.

Hope this helps - It's working for me.

hmm...that sounds like it would be cost effective if you are working with small amounts (i would say less then $500...at $.06 per dollar...that would work about to $30....assuming that there might be a wire charge on both ends...transferring the same amount of money via wire transfer would be about the same).

it's definitely something for me to look into tho.  it's a good idea...assuming that the exchange rate that Amex is using is similar to the actual rate on XE. 

Paypal is good, but they limit the amounts and the transfer time can take up to three weeks. I believe the transfer amount in their free account is £250.00 a month.
Other than expensive wire transfers, there is one other option which I use, but it takes some assistance.

American Express Travellers Cheque Card - How?
I opened an account in my name in the UK and mailed the card to my mom in Texas.
When I want to easily transfer money, I simply go to the American Express Travellers Cheque website, sign in and add funds to my card account. Two hours later, I instruct mom to go to the ATM, withdraw up to $450.00 (Max per day), then drive over to the teller and make a deposit. Easy, quick, and the cost is 0.06 cents on the dollar for the currency charge.

If I need more in the US bank account, I transfer more over and mom may have to make a second ATM visit the next day.

When I go home on vacation, I transfer funds, pick up the card from mom and avoid all the UK transaction and currency fees.

Hope this helps - It's working for me.

Hmmm - very creative thinking. I like this! This may work for us. Will have to share with DH. Thanks for posting it.

I have a question about the American Express travellers Cheque Card.
I have just been reading through the instructions on the website and wondered what currency do you put on it?  Pounds or Dollars?  In the terms and conditions it states "The Card is a prepaid card intended for use whilst travelling. It is not a credit card, charge card or debit card. You must load funds onto the Card before it can be used. Cards are available in three currencies: Sterling, US Dollar, and Euro. However, you are only allowed to have one currency on each Card or Cards purchased by you. When you apply for a Travellers Cheque Card, you must indicate an Initial Load Amount which must be at least £200 and no more than £3000 (or the US Dollar or Euro equivalent). " So if I was taking it to the states i would load dollars, right?  Or would I load pounds onto it and be able to withdrawal dollars while in the states?

Regarding XE - You may be subject to fees to get money out of your bank to XE, to get money from XE to your receiving bank, and from the receiving bank to accept the money. 

For US/Canadian accounts you can send funds by ETF, which is generally a free service from your bank.  XE says this isn't available for UK banks though.  So you'd have to wire the money to XE.  HSBC US charges $30 for an outgoing wire transfer - varies by bank.

XE charged me about $15 for a wire fee on an approximately $1500 transfer.  They can also send drafts (like cheques), I believe those are free. 

NatWest did not charge anything to receive the wire transfer.  However, HSBC US told me that it would be $15 to receive a wire transfer.  So you'd need to check with your bank. 

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If you could get a credit card in the UK, you could probably pay off your US card balance with that each month.  Although, I imagine if you had a UK credit card you probably wouldn't need to pay off a US card.

I just started using the XE trade service and it's been great so far.  It was a bit tricky getting things set up at first, as you have to go through the whole rigmarole of sending them ID and then they have to call you back to confirm everything.  Also their online site was a bit confusing at first.  But, there customer service was very helpful.  I called them when I made my first transfer and they basically walked me through the whole thing.

I transfer about £500 once a month to pay US CC bills - but I can transfer up to about £2200 a month right now, and I was told that after using the service for several months I could get that limit raised if I needed to.

Cap321 is correct about not being able to use EFT's to send money from the UK account to XE, but you can do a BACS transfer, which most UK banks let you do free of charge. 

If you have a feature when you access your account over the internet that lets you pay bills this is almost always done as a BACS transaction.  XE will give you their bank data to use in your Bill Pay service to send them the money for the transfer. 

The BACS can take a few days longer to process, but the last time I used it I send them a payment via my Bill Pay on a Thursday and the funds were in my US account the following Tuesday.  Not too bad!

Both my US and UK banks are HSBC, and I paid no fees whatsoever.  The £500 was deposited as $856.78, for a rate of 1.71356, which was only about a 2% premium on the actual rate at that time.