Questions about US financial obligations while living in the UK

I'm currently applying for a spouse visa to move to the UK, but I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for how to maintain payments to US financial obligations if/when I'm over in the UK. I have some credit cards and a student loan to repay, and I'm just wondering if there's a recommended way to deal with this. At the moment, I keep thinking I'm going to be transferring money back and forth from the UK bank to the US bank to pay the US bills. Is this how it's done? Are there other recommended ways of handing this?

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Depends on how much you'll be needing to transfer and how often.  A lot of people like Transferwise and Paypal.

A few tips before you move.  Make someone you trust (parent, close relative) a joint signer on your bank account.  You may also want to consider appointing a power of attorney in case there is anything that requires a signature.  Simply having a document notarized in the UK can cost £90.  Also check what your bank requires to keep your account free.  When my US direct deposit stopped, my bank started charging me crazy money to have the account open.  I switched to a credit union on my next trip, but not before paying over $100 in bank fees!

Thanks KFdancer! It may be a few hundred per month until the credit card is paid off. Power of attorney is a good idea. I only have a credit union at present with no fees, so I think that should be alright. I'll make some calls! Thank you!


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We have a Citibank account in the US and I have one here in the UK as well.  My UK acct allows me to have a standard pound sterling acct which you would expect but I'm also allowed to have a US dollar acct here as well.  To pay our US bills, I transfer GBP from my sterling acct into my local US dollar acct then do a global transfer to my US Citi acct.  It's no fees for the transfers and I get a very competitive exchange rate.

We have a Citibank account in the US and I have one here in the UK as well.  My UK acct allows me to have a standard pound sterling acct which you would expect but I'm also allowed to have a US dollar acct here as well.  To pay our US bills, I transfer GBP from my sterling acct into my local US dollar acct then do a global transfer to my US Citi acct.  It's no fees for the transfers and I get a very competitive exchange rate.

Ooh, interesting. Thank you! I'll look into that!

My bank changed my account to an eBanking account, so I won't have any fees if I do all of my banking electronically, but if I needed counter service, it's $8.95 flat fee that month, no matter how many times you use counter service. It's worked great. I use PayPal to transfer between my US and UK accounts because they only charge half a percent.

I kept my bank account (credit union) open in the U.S. and left some money in there to handle my expenses back home. When the money ran out, I just transferred some from my Paypal. I, too have a student loan I'm repaying, and a small storage unit holding some personal belongings. I have my current U.K. address listed as my billing address for my U.S. account, and there doesn't seem to be a problem with me receiving bank statements here. The only downside is whenever I used my cards here in the U.K. I get charged a transaction fee. 

We have a Citibank account in the US and I have one here in the UK as well.  My UK acct allows me to have a standard pound sterling acct which you would expect but I'm also allowed to have a US dollar acct here as well.  To pay our US bills, I transfer GBP from my sterling acct into my local US dollar acct then do a global transfer to my US Citi acct.  It's no fees for the transfers and I get a very competitive exchange rate.

Me too. I don't know if it is the best rate; but it is really convenient and instant. The only nuisance with my Citibank account is that I have to keep a minimum of $10,000 in my US account to avoid monthly fees.

Me too. I don't know if it is the best rate; but it is really convenient and instant. The only nuisance with my Citibank account is that I have to keep a minimum of $10,000 in my US account to avoid monthly fees.

Really?  I have just a basic checking in the US and have to only keep more than $1500/month in the acct to qualify for no fee.  Do you have the Gold Acct?