What to bring (financial)

Okay, so it looks like we have a massive kink in our plans, and things are changing.  It now seems like we're going to be just sending my UK husband to England first.  We were originally going to all go on November 19, but I'm having visa issues.  So now we're looking at him flying out on Tuesday of next week.

Once he gets there, he'll need to find a job and house.  What will he need with him to be able to make a deposit on a house?  Specifically, would a traveler's cheque work?  I'm pretty uneducated in it all.  If he just took over a traveler's cheque for say, £1500, would he be able to cash it or something to use toward the deposit and rent?

We bank with Bank of America, so I know he can use Barclay's ATMs at no additional charge, but the withdrawal limit would keep him from having enough I would think, right?  Would he be able to go into a Barclay's branch and withdraw straight from our accounts with a teller in any amount?  Help!!

Hi, does your British husband actually have a bank account in the UK? If he does he can, if he wants, merely pay Traveller's Cheques into his bank account.

Those Traveller's Cheques, will they be denominated in Pounds Sterling, or in US$. If in US$, no problem, the bank would be able to exchange them into Sterling, and then credit his bank account with the sterling amount.

Also, if he does have a bank account in the UK, why not simply transfer money into that UK bank account? That is, go into your Bank of America branch, fill in a form, giving details of his UK bank account, and obviously how much you want to transfer, and let the transfer happen on a bank-to-bank basis.

Or indeed, if you have internet banking, you might be able to initiate that transfer online.

Would he be able to go into a Barclay's branch and withdraw straight from our accounts with a teller in any amount? 

Withdraw from your BofA account in the US? Certainly not.

If he just took over a traveler's cheque for say, £1500, would he be able to cash it or something to use toward the deposit and rent?

Obviously yes, but would he want to be carrying all that cash?

Finally, Western Union! Not very cheap, but it is almost instant ..... well just a few minutes. There are many "branches" of Western Union in the UK.

If there are US traveler's cheques to be deposited in a UK acocunt, they will end up paying twice...once for the commission on the cheques and once to exchange to stirling.  Seems a little bit of an expensive way to do it.

However, my guess is that there is no UK account.  In which case, if he needs the cash before he can open an account, perhaps Western Union is the best way.

Vicky

Be careful with sending large amounts via Western Union.  Some places won't have large amounts of cash without any notice.  I had to pick mine up at a small shop and they didn't have £1500 in cash to give me. 

Hi-- Vicky is right, there is no UK bank account-- we only have two Bank of America checking accounts and a BoA savings account.  The £1500 would be to cover several months' rent in case it's required for a house, as I've read that if you don't have a job/credit history/bank account, they sometimes want 3-6 months' rent upfront.

Thanks for the info about traveler's cheques, Vicky-- I'm totally clueless about those, so I think it sounds like it'd be best to avoid them.

The £1500 would be to cover several months' rent in case it's required for a house

I'd love to know where £1500 will cover several month's rent on a house! You generally have to pay a damage deposit of around 1 months rent and probably at least 1 months rent in advance as well. I think that most landlords or letting agencies will not like to handle that much cash.

Hi-- Vicky is right, there is no UK bank account-- we only have two Bank of America checking accounts and a BoA savings account.  The £1500 would be to cover several months' rent in case it's required for a house, as I've read that if you don't have a job/credit history/bank account, they sometimes want 3-6 months' rent upfront.

1500 probably won't cover several months rent.  It will probably be enough for a deposit and first month's rent but beyond that, doubtful.  Where are you looking to move to again?  I think I put about £2200 down on my flat in London in 2004.  That was first month's rent and deposit and help with moving in (hired a man with a van). 

Why not have your husband open an account when he gets to the UK and then write a cheque off your BoA account into it?

Why not have your husband open an account when he gets to the UK and then write a cheque off your BoA account into it?

Well I think, a slight variation on that. Given that a UK bank account will definitely be needed, he should open an account shortly after arriving, and then, armed with the sort code and the account number of that new account, transfer money on a bank-to-bank basis from BofA to the new account.

That will take a lot less time for funds to arrive as cleared funds in the UK account ...... a cheque drawn on an overseas bank will take a lot of time to clear.

The £1500 would be to cover several months' rent in case it's required for a house

Where in the UK do you intend to live? And how much rent do you expect to be paying per month?

I used PayPal to transfer money in my move.  It worked pretty well and relatively cheap.  Our conversion rate was three cents over the closing rate on the previous day and a service charge of £2.50 for the £1000 transfer.  The only difficulty was timing (takes up to 2 weeks for everything to clear into the UK account).  Also, since the PayPal account in the UK was new, there was an initial hold until I could verify the bank account.  Oh, that reminds me, the online banking here (or at least for Lloyds TSB) does not show pending items (it does count them against your available balance), so it took a few days for me to verify the account. 
The other option we had which worked pretty well as well is to use the ATM here on our US account.  Our US bank (USAA) does not charge for using other ATMs or even currency conversion (that part changes in December), so we used our debit card from there here for a while (most places that have a chip-and-pin device can also swipe even if they look at you funny).  When we opened our account, we withdrew £200 from our US account (it has a limit of $700 a day) and deposited that cash into our UK account (this is also how we got enough cash for our initial deposit and rent while waiting to get our UK card).
Lastly, £1500?  Our rent (and deposit) here in Glasgow was under £400 each, which was the norm for a 1-bedroom flat.  I guess it depends on where you settle, but I don't think we could have survived if rent was that much!

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that £1500 would cover several months' rent-- that's what the minimum I'd have wanted him to go over with would be to cover a typical deposit and other expenses, but we do have enough to cover up to 6 months' of rent upfront without obliterating our savings.

OK, but given that housing costs vary so much around the UK, are you able to say where, or roughly where, you will be living? If you do, people in that location might be able to give further guidance about housing costs.

Yes, definitely.  I've done extensive budgeting and house-hunting to that effect.  We're going to be in West Yorkshire, most likely around Leeds or closer to Batley.  We're looking at about £500/month.

I have just had a look at www.rightmove.co.uk and yes there appear to be properties in your price range. I was however surprised to see a back-to-back property being advertised .... click here. I did not realise that there were any back-to-back properties still in real occupation. By coincidence the local BBC TV news today had an article on some back-to-back houses in central Birmingham .... that have been restored by the National Trust .... and the public can go in and view "how we used to live"!

Maybe someone living in the Leeds area can provide you with more local knowledge, about good areas, bad areas?

Yeah, my husband told me that the back-to-back ones are pretty far from ideal.  Especially because we want some sort of yard!  I've made a couple posts (probably more than I should have, lol) about specific place recommendations, so I've got a few areas in mind-- I was just being vague since we haven't pinned down one town or village yet, but in that general area the prices are pretty much the same across the board