I have been back in the US for 6 years and I am moving back to the UK this summer. I have been transferring money to the UK to pay bills, buy gifts, send flowers, etc. I have recently made 2 important discoveries that I must share:
To Pay my UK barclays visa account, I used to transfer money between US-UK bank acct then go online and pay it from Uk bank acct. Last week I was late on the payment so I called Barclays to whine about it to see if they would wait a couple of months til I get over there. The women said let's just try your credit card which happens to be a Bank of America visa - miracle, it worked! Yes I had to pay the 3% foreign transaction fee but it was cheaper then wiring money!
To send gifts to family in the UK - this christmas I applied for and obtained an Amazon.com visa in order to get an offer of $30 off your first purchase
Recently I have been on amazon.co.uk looking at prices for when we move back. I ordered somthing for a gift to be delivered in the UK and hooray- miracle, my US amazon.com cc info popped up and it and was accepted! I have now ordered flowers through amazon.co.uk (search on there for bunches.co.uk) for only 15.99GBP free delivery. I didn't even bother to check to see if there was a foreign transaction fee because I am sure it is so minimal complared to the 60-75 I was paying for flowers through 1800flowers and paying extra for international services!
