Bank of America & Barclays

Can somebody tell me exactly how the relationship between Bank of America and Barclays works?  If I open a BOA account, do I automatically get to bank at Barclays? Or do I need to open a separate account there? Can I transfer money between the two? If so, what is the cost?  Or is teh relationship limited only to ATMs? (is there a charge to take out pounds in UK from dollars in my BOA account?)

Unfortunately I need to be able to easily change money back and forth.   I am working for a US company and will be paid in US dollars.  My wife will be working for the British government and will be paid in pounds. 

Thanks!

I also paid in $ but need to transfer money to my £ account regularly.  I simply go to the ATM twice a month, once after each paycheck, withdraw £250 and deposit it into my Barclay's account.  I keep it to £250 because my daily withdrawal limit at my US bank (Chevy Chase) is $500, and at the current exchange rates that's about £250. 

I only pay the $2.00 per ATM withdrawal that Chevy Chase charges me. 

There might be a better way, but that seems the easiest and the cheapest.

Aaron

I also paid in $ but need to transfer money to my £ account regularly.  I simply go to the ATM twice a month, once after each paycheck, withdraw £250 and deposit it into my Barclay's account.  I keep it to £250 because my daily withdrawal limit at my US bank (Chevy Chase) is $500, and at the current exchange rates that's about £250. 

I only pay the $2.00 per ATM withdrawal that Chevy Chase charges me. 

There might be a better way, but that seems the easiest and the cheapest.

Aaron

This is exactly what I do every month. I have a BOA account. I had no idea they were affiliated with Barclays.

I have a Bank of America account, and when I inquired about money transfers they said that no matter what account I was sending it to, they'd charge me the same ($40!!) for any transfer. 

AFAIK, the only freebie out of the deal is at ATMs.  I imagine you'd get charged for all other services.

In preparation for my move, I just made a wire transfer from BoA in the US to Barclays yesterday.  BoA charges a flat $25 fee and Barclays charged a 6 pound fee to receive it.  The posted exchange rate on the financial web sites was $1.838 and the rate I got was about $1.851.

That is interesting. I'm have a BoA account as well and when I tried to talk to them about my move to the UK and asked how the could help me with wiring and opening an account they looked at me completely baffled. As if it had never been done. The only information they could give me was that they would charged for the wiring to any UK bank. I was pretty dissappointed and am in the process of switching my accounts to Citibank before I leave.

I had heard the Barclay's is pretty tough to get in even if you have an affiliated Bank in the states. Maybe that is not true and I should bother switching banks ?

This might sound like a silly question but When you wired the money from BoA to Barclay's, did you already have an account established at Barclay's ?

In response to this listing,
I just moved to the UK (This Week) to be exact and before leaving, applied to Barclay's for an Ex-Pat Banking account.
Quick reply, they stated they are NOT opening accounts for American residents at this time. I've got perfect credit, and references to back it. Guess I will take my money elsewhere.

I'm looking into Citibank, but hate their currency exchange charges.

Any better suggestions are greatly appreciated.

- Michael

Hi sorry to the moderator if this is Out of Topic:

Hi MWCarson,

You could try going to another branch... one thing we've noticed is that each bank branch has its own 'psuedo' standard despite all their claims of uniformity.

Have you tried the banks around: Bond street, earl's court  or Oxford street?  Most often  they are receptive to new comers as long as you show enough financial capability.

Or if you want you could try Lloyds TSB ( newcomer link: http://www.lloydstsb.com/ [nonactive] ). They have offshore banking as well.



As for the BOA and Barclays relationship, don't really know details but so far we do not get charged when we withdraw on barclay ATMs using our BOA debit cards. As for the wire transfer fees from BOA (incoming an outgoing)I think its $40 per transaction plus additional fees from the originating bank.  Personally we never tried over the counter wires because we find the fees too exurbant.

You could try paypal. Basically open a bank account in the Uk and attach it to an e-mail address. Then open a bank account in the US attach that to another e-mail address.  Then have your dollar salary sent to the US account and the quid salary sent to the UK account. 
 
So whenever you need money from either side of the world just transfer instantly. The only catch,  there is a 3-4 working days wait for wihtdrawal requests from paypal to be credited to your bank account. But at least the fees are minimal.

Hope we were of help,

Marius and Marian

This might sound like a silly question but When you wired the money from BoA to Barclay's, did you already have an account established at Barclay's ?

2Cubes......you are correct.  I was responding with the thought of addressing the wire costs and not the ability to easily open a Barclay's account.  My wife already had an account there to transfer the money to.

Ah...ok. I guess then I'll continue with the transfer of my BoA money to a CityBank account. I'm hoping that will make things a little easier  You had me hoping there for a little while that I wouldn't have to go through with it

Does anyone have experience with using Alliance-Leicester?  They seem to be a mostly-Internet based bank (with a few walk-in branches) that has much better rates than Lloyds, Barclays or any other major UK bank.  They offer very good interest-paid checking accounts and free access to any UK ATM (there is a fee to use ATMs elsewhere in Europe, about 1.5 pounds).

Is there any agreement on which UK bank is the best for a US Expat?  Currently I have a BOA account, but I know they don't operate in the UK.  I was wondering if I should transfer my account to HSBC or Citibank in the States, and then if that would make it easy for me to have an account once I got to the UK in September?

Can somebody tell me exactly how the relationship between Bank of America and Barclays works?  If I open a BOA account, do I automatically get to bank at Barclays?

Don't be silly. We couldn't possibly have ordinary bank customers benifitting from such arrangements, only the directors of the banks involved.

Can somebody tell me exactly how the relationship between Bank of America and Barclays works?  If I open a BOA account, do I automatically get to bank at Barclays?

The current relationship between these two banks is one of mutual ATM usage at lower rate in opposite countries.

Don't be silly. We couldn't possibly have ordinary bank customers benifitting from such arrangements, only the directors of the banks involved.

Each country has different banking regulations/procedures with regards to money laundering which would preclude automatic and reciprocal accounts.