What to do for money on student visa

Hi all, if you've read my previous posts you'll know there's a chance of me moving to the UK around September on a student visa. My question is: what do I do about using money in the UK? I don't seem to find much on US to UK bank transfers. I don't plan on closing my US account when I move and I was planning on opening a UK bank account only if I get a part time job there (we'll see what the course demand is like first). In the past when I've traveled to the UK I've always used my Visa TravelMoney debit card, which can store up to $10,000 and has always worked out great. So, would the the Visa TravelMoney card be my best bet? My parents will also help cover my course fees and I've read about PayPal on here for money transfers. Though I don't have experience using PayPal, that sounds like it could be the best option transferring cash from me to parents and parents to me.

Paypal is so easy for transfers but you would need a British bank account to place the funds into.

I'd say that if you don't intend to have your own bank account then go with the visa travel card. I'm assuming you'd be able to take cash out with it and stuff. Only issue I can see you having is some vendors being hesitate to use the card if it's not a chip and pin.

Bank of America lets you pull cash out of Barclay's ATMs in the UK with no ATM fee and a very good conversion rate. You shouldn't use it as a debit card, though, because their foreign transaction fees are high for anything that isn't a Barclay's ATM withdrawal. CapitalOne's credit cards, on the other hand, come with no foreign transaction fee and you could pay the balance each month from your US bank account. That's more or less the strategy I employed while abroad as a student (albeit in Spain and the Czech Republic) and it worked well.

Paypal is so easy for transfers but you would need a British bank account to place the funds into.

Ohh, okay. If I don't get my own British account, I guess the other option would be transferring it into my boyfriend's account.

The Visa card is great for ATMs and online payments. Though since it's not chip and pin, if I'm paying for something in person then I usually just use cash.

Bank of America lets you pull cash out of Barclay's ATMs in the UK with no ATM fee and a very good conversion rate.

That's very helpful! Though I'm not with Bank of America. It's a small branch local bank I use called Lorain National.

Ohh, okay. If I don't get my own British account, I guess the other option would be transferring it into my boyfriend's account.

You might find when you get here that it will be easier for you to have a UK bank account in order to pay for a lot of things - usually UK universities will have special arrangements with certain banks so that international students can easily open bank accounts.

Having said that though, I lived in the US on a student visa for a year back in 2003/04 and I didn't open a US bank account - I just used my UK Mastercard and cash/traveller's cheques that I'd taken with me to pay for things.

The Visa card is great for ATMs and online payments. Though since it's not chip and pin, if I'm paying for something in person then I usually just use cash.

Just a tip: even if UK stores say they only take chip and pin cards, they should still be able to process swipe cards, because many foreign visitors and tourists may not have chip and pin.

The cash registers should still have the facilities to process swipe cards, it's just that the employees will have been told they can only take chip and pin cards... so if you want to pay by card, it's worth checking with a member of staff or a manager to see if they will process it for you (I used to work in retail and we were still able to process swipe cards even after chip and pin came in).

I think having a UK account may make me a bit more comfortable, just so I can have something a bit more tangible than just a card. Something to consider.

And I have paid with things using my Visa card in stores, though not often. I've seen hesitation when I've paid with it before which is why I'm more apt to just use cash.

I found it to be a real disadvantage not having a chip and pin in the beginning-especially when I was in a hurry!! And talk about sticking out like a sore thumb!  I couldn't wait to get my own UK account. It was pretty simple I just needed my student visa, passport, and maybe something with my UK address? I got a UK phone so I just used the bill for that when it came through. I know different banks have different policies though.

At first I was transferring money using paypal-it took some getting used to because it can take about a week to get the money from one account to the other but if I was ever in dire straights I just pulled money directly out of my US account from an ATM. Now that I have a job I don't need to do that anymore but it's also convenient for my student loans to be deposited-not sure if you're going that route or not. Hope this helps!