I could have gone that way, but decided to just keep an account open in the States instead...my dad is a co-user of the account which means that he can add or remove money if I need. I just send money to that account via xe.com, which works fine. I didn't think I'd alway have the money needed to not get charged on a monthly basis. If you are going to get paid a bunch and have the amount of money needed to put into your account (and keep in the account), then I think it's a good deal.