Opening a Sun Trust Account - Info for those thinking about it

[Everything Eeyore]

We bank with HSBC so we spoke to the bank here about opening a US HSBC bank account. We did so last August for no charge, and there is no charge to transfer money between our UK and US account (or back again).

I have set up a monthly transfer between the accounts for our DVC monthly fees and plan to top the account up when the rate improves.

We get a better exchange rate than the tourist rate but not quite as good as the business rate - for example today's tourist rate is $1.3911 to £1 but our rate through the bank is $1.423 to £1

It may be worth finding out if your bank will allow you to open a US account through them

Can I ask whether there has to be a minimum amount present in the US account?

 

[susieh]

We had to put about £10 in to open it but now that it is open there is no minimum amount

 

[Everything Eeyore]

We had to put about £10 in to open it but now that it is open there is no minimum amount

Thanks. That's very useful to know

 

[dbriggsq]

Hi Lisa

We've had a Suntrust account for a couple of years now - it generally works very well.

The only issue we had was that they would send us paper statements every month and charge us $5 for it - it took a couple of tries to get them to stop sending them and just access the statements on line instead so watch for that happening with you.

 

[TinkTatoo]

We've got an account with Wachovia which we opened a few years ago - we did try and open one with Sun Trust in Celebration at the time but they wouldn't let us. The Wachovia account sounds the same as the Sun Trust one and I either transfer funds from my bank account or via Paypal. It's handy for paying DVC dues and also our spending money when we're in Florida (I either use the debit card to pay for stuff or get cash from a cashpoint)

 

[Callum]

Spoke with HBOS this morning and it's a no go with them.

They only have links with a Spanish based bank which seems to work in exactly the same way as some of the US accounts already mentioned but for those who have European timeshares. All transactions in Euros.

 

[nobodies36]

Spoke with HBOS this morning and it's a no go with them.

They only have links with a Spanish based bank which seems to work in exactly the same way as some of the US accounts already mentioned but for those who have European timeshares. All transactions in Euros.

Hmmm...I have a personal currency account with HBOS in USD. I have a pay-in book and cheque book (in USD) and just payed my annual dues by cheque with no problem. The account itself has no monthly fees and I earn a little interest. The downside is it cannot be controlled online and I know we still had to pay wire fees when we bought the DVC and sent to the money (in USD) to the broker. So not making sense to run this and a US one with the intention of moving money between the two.

But the account does exist. HTH.

 

[Callum]

Very interesting!! Thanks for the info Lisa.

The girl I spoke with nearly fell of her chair when I asked about a US account but something obviously does exist.

Is yours a personal $US account which is held at your local branch?

 

[nobodies36]

Very interesting!! Thanks for the info Lisa.

The girl I spoke with nearly fell of her chair when I asked about a US account but something obviously does exist.

Is yours a personal $US account which is held at your local branch?

It is a personal account and it was linked to my graduate account (so maybe you have to have a current account there). Yeah, everything is in USD- cheque book, statements and pay-in book (can pay in both currency). I can deposit at my local branch (even in USD at the business counter) but I think the account is actully run from HBOS International Services in Glasgow centre (that is what my cheques and statements say).

We did open it up just by walking into our branch and filling in some forms and every time we went back into our branch we had to ask for a specific person as no-one else knew how to work the account. I just looked up some of the paper work and it is called a 'Personalised Currency Account'. HTH.

 

[Ali and boyz]

Very interesting!! Thanks for the info Lisa.

The girl I spoke with nearly fell of her chair when I asked about a US account but something obviously does exist.

Is yours a personal $US account which is held at your local branch?

Callum I asked at our local HBOS and in Glasgow Monday, they do an account but like what nobodies36 has they only give you a cheque book.. I wanted a debit card but they don't do it.

I also asked at the Abbey and they looked at me as if I was daft.

 

[Everything Eeyore]

We had to put about £10 in to open it but now that it is open there is no minimum amount

Popped into a HSBC branch yesterday to enquire about opening a US account and they said there would be monthly fees involved. Not sure if they really knew what they were talking about though to be honest....

So, Susieh do you know the exact name of the HSBC US account please? I can then ask again. Thanks

 

[susieh]

Popped into a HSBC branch yesterday to enquire about opening a US account and they said there would be monthly fees involved. Not sure if they really knew what they were talking about though to be honest....

So, Susieh do you know the exact name of the HSBC US account please? I can then ask again. Thanks

Our US account is a Premier Account (we have a UK Premier account). We don't pay a monthly fee for either account but I know that HSBC does charge for UK Premier accounts unless you meet their criteria so maybe that's what she was referring to.

I have no idea about US accounts linked to other HSBC Current account types.

Good luck with your searching - we've been really pleased with the way ours has worked out. We also discovered that we get free withdrawals from ATMs - all the fees we paid when we withdrew cash in Colorado in January have been refunded on our latest bank statement.

 

[leise]

Thanks for all the info in this thread. We opened a SunTrust account when we went at Easter. All ok so far, but we are trying to work out how to transfer money into it, especially as the pound is strengthening!
Our bank (Barclays) will charge us £25 a go.

Some of you mentioned using Paypal - how do you do this? We have a UK Paypal account we can use, but how do we pay into the SunTrust account?

Any advice would be very gratefully received

 

[Elise79]

Thanks for all the info in this thread. We opened a SunTrust account when we went at Easter. All ok so far, but we are trying to work out how to transfer money into it, especially as the pound is strengthening!
Our bank (Barclays) will charge us £25 a go.

Some of you mentioned using Paypal - how do you do this? We have a UK Paypal account we can use, but how do we pay into the SunTrust account?

Any advice would be very gratefully received

Hi

We opened our SunTrust account in March

We have funded it using Paypal. To do it you need to have funds in your paypal account (you can add funds by DD from your bank account but this takes ages so as me & DH have a Paypal account each DH sends me a instant transfer using the bank account as funding done as a gift so there are no paypal fees) you can then transfer them to Dollars using the manage currency option. Then you need to add your SunTrust account onto your bank account to withdraw the funds to.

In the 'Add account' option there is a drop down box where you can select a US bank account.

Be warned the rate PayPal gives is about 4 cents lower than current market rate but for transfering smaller amounts (less than about £500) it is cheaper than the bank charges.

We use if for transferring money we get from selling stuff on Ebay as that is our holiday spending money anyway.

HTH

 

[leise]

Elise, many thanks for that info - I have now managed to transfer money in via Paypal. Now to save up for more points!

 

[Brandis]

I also plan to open a Suntrust account when I'm at WDW next May.

Does anyone here have experience with cashing in checks?

As a WDC shareholder, every year I get a check for $0.73. Until now I didn't bother as cashing in the check in Switzerland would habe been much too expensive.

But with a US bank account I was wondering if there would be any charges involved if I send a check issued by Citibank Delaware to Suntrust.

 

[Elise79]

I also plan to open a Suntrust account when I'm at WDW next May.

Does anyone here have experience with cashing in checks?

As a WDC shareholder, every year I get a check for $0.73. Until now I didn't bother as cashing in the check in Switzerland would habe been much too expensive.

But with a US bank account I was wondering if there would be any charges involved if I send a check issued by Citibank Delaware to Suntrust.

I think you will be fine there are no charges as far as I can remember - check with the person that opens your account.

 

[jharrowell]

One thing about the Paypal route (which I've been using for a couple of years now) is that you need to plan ahead.

It takes 7 - 9 working days to transfer money out of your UK account into your PayPal account, then another 1 - 3 days to transfer it into Suntrust.

So you need to plan this in time to make sure you don't miss a dues payment, or for those like me who are a bit paranoid about that type of stuff, stay 1 month ahead.

Once you've got that US bank account though it leaves things open to getting all sorts of stuff where you can't use a UK account.

US Cell phone
(go PayandGo and the money stacks up for you as you do the periodic payments, there's no roaming charges, when ppl phone you from the UK it's on their dime, and it's so cool having an orlando area code!)

Getting APs at Seaworld & US on EZPay
(Hey if you're a DVC member you're probably out there enough to need one. )

There's more but I'd be here all day.

 

[Brandis]

Just looked at the Paypal website. So if I want to transfer money into my Sunbank account, I would first top up my Paypal account by paying money into Paypal's Bank of America account in Geneva, which doesn't cost me any fees when doing it online.

Then, once the funds are added to my Paypal account, I could withdraw them again by transfering to Suntrust, right?

Under fees, it says: Personal payments Send money / Receive money: Free when you use your Paypal balance.

So I just have to pay the 1% fee for cross-border personal transactions, right?

 

[Sid74]

I've just spoken on the phone to someone at HSBC International banking about a US account.

It costs £100 to open from the UK, £50 for advance account customers. I believe that the Premier account is the step up from advance so that is probably why it didn't cost anything. There is a monthly $8 fee unless you have over $2500 in the account or pay your salary in each month.

You can go into any US branch of HSBC and open the account for free, but they don't have any Orlando branches. The $8 monthly fee still applies.

It is a checking account, which gives you a check book and a debit card, and also pays direct debits.

It would definately be useful for paying dues, but as the Sun Trust accounts seem to be free, I am a bit torn.
There is the ease of just transfering money every month between HSBC accounts, rather than the hassle of juggling paypal payments, versus the fee.

I could just stick to my Citibank US account, but that means paying dues in a lump sum each January. As it is also my dollar saving account for holiday spending money, there is the danger of overspending and being short on the dues.
If I go with the HSBC account I will have 2 different US accounts. I suppose I could use one just for dues and one just for spending money.

Isn't it a good thing that the holidays are worth the extra thinking, lol.