The Best dollar bank accounts

[iBusiness Forums]

I had a wander around some banks the other day. I went to Nat West and they said I would have to open a business and private account with them to get a dollar account. I think Barclays said they don't do them unless you have £100K or something. The queue was too long in Santander.

Anyone here actually got a dollar account and with whom?

My own bank, HSBC, suggested I would have to pay £17 for any payment out of the account. I am not sure the lady knew quite what she was talking about but it did get me a little worried. I use PayPal for my small transactions but fancied using a bank instead, if possible.

My intention is to us a FX company for paying money into the dollar account (any recommendations?). I would also like to use it to pay many of my bills that I get in dollars from companies in the USA. e.g. for hosting accounts etc. So, the transaction fees would have to be low.

 

[cheaper accountant]

I used to operate a dollar account through Citibank. The account was cleared in New York and there was no fee for operating the account.

I also used this account in conjunction with an FX company for the purchase of USD.

 

[iBusiness Forums]

With Citibank, do you have it in your personal name or the name of your business? I mean if my cheques get paid to "My business name" (I am a sole trader), would they pay those into your account if they only do personal accounts?

 

[cheaper accountant]

Held both business and personal in the past. Accounts now closed as no-longer needed.

I had to open a sterling account with Citibank and then a USD account was very easy to open afterwards.

 

[iBusiness Forums]

I just called Citibank and they said they have three types of US dollar accounts. However, they said none are for small businesses and if I tried to use one for small business, the system would pick it up.

So, I am back to the drawing board.

 

[YrHenOgledd]

Cater Allen? They have no problem with small businesses. Their exchange rates are notoriously poor, though (at least for EUR -> GBP; I speak from experience).

 

[Mister B]

We went through a similar process six months ago...Although we have a USD account with NatWest, due to the punitive transfer charges we needed a US based account so that we qualified for free domestic transfers.

We looked at all of the US banks with UK offices, (including Citibank,) but to no avail. We ended up spending a weekend in New York and opening a US account whilst we were there. A very easy process but be warned...you will need evidence of a US address at where you reside

If it helps, we ended up with the Bank of America.

Mister B

 

[eazyoffshore]

HSBC is really a professional group..that's why you received a very good service from them.

 

[andygambles]

I used HSBC. Opened a UK account then they helped me open a US account in New York branch. Costs $25 per month.

Took a couple of months to get it opened.

Prior to that I had a international US Dollar account with LloydsTSB. That was painless to open. However it had UK sort code and account numbers. I needed a US based account.

 

[blueboy]

i'm also looking at a usd account as we regularly send and receive in this currency. hsbc, lloydstsb and barclays all offer dollar accounts if you have a sterling account with them, we're with santander who unfortunately dont offer a sterling account. santander pointed me to cater allen, who don't have very good online banking facilities (eg you need to fax them to send money abroad).

so which USD currency bank account does have good online facilities for making international payments? Eg being able to store international recipient bank details, being emailed a receipt when payment is made, and cheap/fast payment.

 

[bluejeans]

We had a HSBC dollar account which was a waste of time - we paid £5 a month fee yet EVERYTIME we needed to transfer money to US we were told is was "dormant" We would email our manager a week before we were going to withdraw money to ask for confirmation that everything would be ok, he would confirm it and we couldn't move money until the account was reactivated which would take hours - this is despite payments going into the account with no problems. For all US bills, we pay with sterling credit card down the phone and get an emailed receipt.

 

[Page]

Have a look at this lot

They cannot open accounts in the Euro zone at the moment but the USA is fine

http://secure.worldfirst.com/

 

[blueboy]

We've just opened USA and Euro accounts with worldfirst, they're not full bank accounts but very limited ones which can only be used for receiving funds from limited ecommerce companies and sending back to the home account, they cannot be used for sending funds to 3rd parties. great for bringing money home but not the cheapest solution if you want to send dollars out again.

are you saying you've been able to open a full bank account through world first in the usa?

 

[FX Accounts]

Hi all,

We at World First offer USD bank accounts for the specific purpose of e-commerce on Amazon. I am not sure that is wholly ideal for the original post.

If it is, I will leave contact details at the end of this post. Otherwise, we are very good at finding currency solutions and deal with many aspects of foreign exchange. While we cannot currently open bank accounts like you are looking for, we may well be able to offer a solution that is better and cheaper than the ones you are looking at. Please give us a call, I am sure one of my colleagues will be able to listen and assist.

If you are e-commerce focussed (or want to get hold of WF) - here is a blurb:
We can open USD accounts to receive funds from Amazon.com and it is correct that we must convert the USD to your home currency and pay back to an account in your name. if you have any other questions don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on by phone at 0207 801

 

[FX Accounts]

02078011068

 

[Page]

We've just opened USA and Euro accounts with worldfirst, they're not full bank accounts but very limited ones which can only be used for receiving funds from limited ecommerce companies and sending back to the home account, they cannot be used for sending funds to 3rd parties. great for bringing money home but not the cheapest solution if you want to send dollars out again.

are you saying you've been able to open a full bank account through world first in the usa?

No I have not even used them

I rang them up and they said sorry we cannot open accounts on the Euro zone at the moment

I am having problems setting something up to go with Amazon in Es and IT

 

[FX Accounts]

Yes - it is true that we cannot open EUR accounts for Amazon IT and ES at the moment but we have been offered a solution that should be active in 2-3 months, perhaps sooner. You can log your interest with us and we can be in touch with good news, hopefully very soon.

We understand your frustrations and apologise for the current inconvenience.
World First

 

[Mister B]

No I have not even used them

I rang them up and they said sorry we cannot open accounts on the Euro zone at the moment

I am having problems setting something up to go with Amazon in Es and IT

Have you tried currencies direct? That's who Amazon have just suggested to us. That being said, they also said world first which according to the above can not help.

Mister B