American bank account

[Kevin Stringer]

I'm sure that I remember some of you opening American bank accounts.

With all the back and forwarding that I do to the States, I am thinking I would like to have one.

How did you go about opening an account and what are the associated charges? What do they charge for cheques?
If you do not use the account regularly, do they close it?

Thanks

Kev

 

[vernon]

Kevin, I've had an account at Bank Of America for a long time. I opened it when it was Barnett Bank in 1998. They are OK, but I've found getting somethings done from this distance difficult. I opened an account with Citibank here in London in US$ , I've found it much easier to manage the account from here and I have a US based credit card and a cheque book that deduct $s from my $ account. If I were to open just one account and I was based in the UK I'd go with Citibank.

 

[foxyfee]

We have a Citibank and Wachovia accounts. Citibank is great for receiving checks from US or sending checks over, however, for monthly direct debits you need an account in a US bank, as Citibank do not yet offer this - yet you can on the sterling part - you have a dual sterling / dollar account.

We have to pay to run the account - $10 a month, and they won't change anything, even allow us to run it on the net unless we go in in person. Next visit - time to change banks!

 

[Mike Jones]

With all the back and forwarding that I do to the States,

...listen to Henry Kissinger here! Go on, Kev, rub it in!

Mike

 

[WDWfan uk]

... oh Mike .........

With all the back and forwarding that I do to the States, I am thinking I would like to have one.

............ <b>he wishes !!!</b>

 

[Sue F UK]

We have a checking account with the Community Bank of Florida which we use for all our villa expenses (and, believe me, they are considerable!) There is no charge for having the account but they do charge $5 per month to pay bills and you have to stay in credit or else! You have to pay for your check books and these are $18 each.

Opening it was a doddle as we did it all by fax and phone with the bank - just went in and signed the forms when we were over. We were issued with a Mastercard on the account but have never used it, preferring to use our UK credit card instead.

We manage the account online through their internet banking service and rarely have to visit the branch - even though it's in our local Walmart Store!

The only problem I find is remembering to put the date the right way round when I write out checks.

 

[lisag1]

Hi Kevin,

We use www.suntrust.com, they charge $5.00 per month for sending statements. We mainly use it to receive guests checks and all our transactions are done via their online banking service. So far so good.

BTW. Mike Jones has recommended you as a bit of a Gulf Coast expert so I wondered whether I could pick your brains please?? I'll start another thread.

Cheers

Lisa