Moving Money Around

[jigsy]

This seems like a silly question, but any tips or tricks on getting my money to local accounts without spending a fortune in transfer fees? 
I set up a borderless account with Transferwise - is it practical to think I can just use this as my main account? I can order a debit card through them and everything. I guess my concern there is that there are no protections for my money, right? I don't think they are insured or whatever. 

I am thinking of maybe just keeping my US money in my US account and having the uni deposit my student loan funds into a local bank so I don't have to transfer...but then I need to set up a bank account here, which is proving to be kind of difficult without a flat. But, also kind of difficult to let a flat without a bank account. :/

[mrsukyankee]

jigsy, welcome to the idiocy of this area of the world. You may be able to get a student account with a letter from your uni and then put the money in that. Uni's are used to helping people with setting up bank accounts and may be able to suggest a bank that does it most easily.

I just used transferwise to transfer between accounts and it was the best of the bunch. I don't know about the borderless account. I'm assuming it has to have some protections if it's useable within the EU.

[katiecj6]

That is frustrating.

I just use TransferWise and paid the fee. I transfer to my husband account. I didn't realize you could get a debit card.

I actually don't have a bank account here yet, I need to do that soon. I couldn't do it before getting a CPF number, which I just got. It's weird to have to ask my husband to get cash for me. I've just been using his debit card, but I can't get cash with it.

[pittpurple]

This was easily the most irritating thing about moving overseas. There are a lot of times it will be much easier to have a UK bank account so if you'll be here long enough to want to set up a phone contract / get a part-time job / etc it is worth a bit of hassle - many places are cash-less nowadays so you'll want a chip card for sure. I'd ask at student support, I would hope there's a much easier way to do this than when I moved in 2006!

[dreamcrisp1]

I use transferwise to transfer money but I do have a local bank account. It’s too hard to do shit here without one. It was also difficult getting one but luckily we could for my job. Do they have bunq in Scotland? That’s an option that a lot of my mba friends used.

[dutchgirl678]

I am wondering if I want to use Transferwise to move money from my Dutch account to my US account, should I sign up with my Dutch address that is associated with my bank account there, or should I use my current US address?

[jigsy]

dutchgirl678, So I ended up signing up for a Transferwise Borderless account to use as the transfer agent basically. Then I signed up with a bank. Transferwise seems to have the best rates for transferring. I like that it is very transparent with what you are paying, so if it seems off, you could always look at other options as well.

I signed up using my US address...but I don't think it really matters. You will have banks in the different countries at either end.

[mrsukyankee]

dutchgirl678, I signed up with my UK address to move money to my US account. It really is quite easy.

[dutchgirl678]

Thanks, I was able to set it up with my US address. Just waiting to hear about the ID verification.