My daughter is going to do a study abroad in England next year. We have a bunch of questions about handling the life side of things. I tried searching here and didn’t find much about it. So if anyone’s kids have done this and can help, we’d appreciate the advice.
Health/medical issues - she has to pay for the school health insurance, so I assume that gets her access to the NHS. Is that right? She has several prescriptions that she’ll be needing refills on while she’s there. What’s the best way to handle those? Does she need to bring records or notes from her U.S. doctors?
Phone - should she get a SIM card for one of the UK carriers or just use the overseas plan from our current carrier? If she gets a UK sim card, I assume that means she has to use a UK number.
Credit card - currently she only has a Discover card, which isn’t as widely accepted overseas as visa and MC. (She does have a Visa on our account.) What is the best Visa/MC for foreign use that a college student can qualify for?
Thanks in advance.
My kid also did a semester in London. We were able to secure a waiver from our RX provider and filled the RX for 5 months instead of 90 days. This was 2005 so I don’t know if that is possible now…but I’d contact my health insurance and ask.
My kid had Bank of America…and at the time, ATM transactions were at no cost for BofA card holders. Again ask. Also see what the deal is with Capitol One.
Again…old news…but my kid just used a UK phone and SIM cards while he was in the UK.
I think there is e SIM card now. You don’t need to insert a physical SIM card into the phone.
Make sure she has a bank account that she puked take cash out while abroad. Have an Amex and a Visa card.
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I would give her one of your cards with higher limit.
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My D20 is abroad this year, she was able to get 6 months of her prescriptions through her doctor before she left. When she came home for winter break, she got another 6 months of prescriptions filled to finish out her abroad plans (she’s there until August). You should be able to get those filled in the states before your daughter goes.
D20 has a free Schwab account (checking and investing). No foreign transaction fees, all ATM fees are rebated each month, easy to use. She also has two credit cards as an authorized user on our accounts. When she uses those (hostel/flight purchases), she just transfers money from her Schwab account to ours to repay us.
I would recommend her using a Capital One credit card (no foreign transactions fees) or a Chase Sapphire Reserve/Preferred (again no foreign transaction fees). It might make sense for you to get one of those cards and just make her an authorized user. Depending on which one you choose, it could also give her access to good to great travel perks. Nerd Wallet a great place to check and see what card is the best one.
D20 got a cheap burner phone in her abroad country with that a SIM card from there which she uses for in-country stuff. She still uses her regular phone but only when she has wi-fi access (mostly What’s App).
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask - study abroad is exciting but so many unknowns to figure out. Also, her program may be an awesome resource as well, she should definitely check to see if they have more specific info they recommend.
Both of my daughters studied in the UK. Visa is the preferred CC and my kids preferred cards with the contactless feature (common in the UK but was just being rolled out in the US) because no signature is required. We added them as additional users on our card. No foreign transaction fees. We also opened a Schwab account with a debit card for cash withdrawals but they used very little cash. Also gave her an AMEX as a back up.
We kept our kids on our mobile carrier’s international plan bc it kept our communication with them very seamless but that’s not the norm. It’s easy to buy pay to go SIM cards for use in your phone and using apps such as what’s app to communicate. She will have a UK number however which is why using internet apps rather than wireless networks tend to work well for international communication. My daughter that studied in Scotland actually had US and UK SIM cards.
We purchased separate health insurance through geoblue so they were covered in both the UK and any other countries they visited while abroad. Outbound International Travelers
I don’t recall whether my year long study abroad child had access to NHS but my daughter that attended full time in Scotland did. It was a hassle IMO because her school didn’t have a student health center so health care was signing up with a GP in the area. And I don’t believe NHS covers a student beyond the UK but others might be able to comment on that more specifically.
My kids didn’t have medication but I’ve heard that dealing with ADD medication, for example, can be problematic because it’s difficult to obtain a multi month supply among other things. Hopefully other posters with first hand info can provide insight.
FYI - att caps international usage at 100/month. It’s normally 10/day. Same plan as at home. If you have unlimited data/call with hot spot then she could have the same while abroad. She would be able to keep her number.
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Yes to SIM card and local carrier.
You may want to reach out directly to the program about health coverage and prescriptions.
A visa card will be widely accepted. Make sure you choose one with no foreign transaction fees. Her bank debit card may be sufficient and will probably have a good exchange rate (provided there are no fx fees). Contact your bank here on that. You don’t will to be surprised!
What’s App works well overseas.
Check your current phone plan and see what they allow for international. Our kids just kept their own phones since we could just like turn on our plan as needed and Tmobile has a really good international one built in. Then using what’s App for almost all communication and it’s very very clear on calls etc
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Depending on the medication you should be able to get an override to fill enough before she goes. I would ask the program for specifics on the health insurance, your insurance might be primary but I don’t know.
Does the program require a local number? The sim or esim is cheap and easy and there are benefits to have a local number. I did activate the overseas plan for d20 phone before she went to use upon landing and before she got her SIM card and in case of any issues.
There are lots of credit cards with different profiles. You can add her to one of your cards or get her one of her own. We did both - she had her own card so it was separate from our accounts in case of loss or theft and then one of our cards as backup. Both had zero transaction fees. Put the cards in Apple Pay and then then keep the physical card separate. Visa and MC seemed to always be accepted, Amex most of the time but not always. Some cards will let students qualify by including parent help with expenses as part of income.
We set up the Charles Schwab account with a debit card for accessing cash (all atm fees refunded). Yes she can get cash there but it easier to have some pounds and euros (assuming travel) on hand to start.
This reminded me that while vacationing in the UK this past summer, more than once we ran into issues using local apps (parking, subway…) Not having a UK number seemed to prevent us from creating the necessary account.
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DS’ program (not UK) required a local number. It proved essential for items like this.
We did put his phone on our carrier’s international plan for the first week after his arrival (just in case!)
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We were in Ireland for a week in October and used an e-sim from Airalo. Seemed to work well for us but I don’t know about a whole year or semester.
The great thing about e-sim is that it can usually go in addition to the US sim.
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Open an account with Wise.com (formerly Transferwise), and get their debit card. You’ll be able to manage amounts in/out, in US $, using the traditional ACH process (ABA # & account number).
She can hold balances in Dollars or Pounds, and transfer between them freely, at favorable rates.
With that, the account will also have a UK sort code and account number, in case she ever needs to make payments, or receive funds/reimbursements in Pound Sterling. Finally, the account will also have an IBAN number, for payments/receipts all cross Europe (and many other places around the globe, except the U.S., which can’t get their banking system unstuck from Hamilton’s times).
The Debit card can access the Pound Sterling balance in the account, so there won’t be any foreign currency fees/conversion fees, etc.
I’ve used them for many years for business and personal transactions in Europe - and my daughter used the debit card against the Euro balance while in Italy and Paris, and against the Pounds balance while in the U.K.
As far as mobile phone use, for any long-term stays, your best best is to set up a plan with a local carrier (using their physical SIM, or simply adding their eSIM, depending on your phone). Yes, it will be a UK number - but that’s preferred because your biggest concern is her convenient access to/from UK-local resources - not the extra digits needed for you to reach her. You don’t want local providers, health services, pharmacy, etc. personnel having to try to dial a U.S. number to reach her.
Thanks for all the replies. I found out there is a fee with the student visa application that allows her to access the NHS, so that’s one thing down.
She does have a CC on our account but we would like her to have one of her own to use to keep things separate.
I figure it will make things easier for her to have UK phone number.
Thanks again!
Just a heads up to really research the medication issue ahead of time. The NHS can be a bit funny about what they prescribe. It can be really complicated to bring prescriptions over and arrange to get them refilled in a timely manner and I’ve seen a lot of issues with expats going over and getting stuck without a refill. For instance, I know an expat who was on Wellbutrin to treat depression but when she tried to refill it with a psychiatrist in the UK, she was told they only prescribe that for smoking cessation and would not give it to her, full stop. Another expat story I have heard is that someone went to the GP to refill their ADHD medication but was told they would need to be referred to mental health services first, but there was a 5 month wait for an appointment. After waiting 5 months, they received a letter saying that there were no ADHD treatments for adults in their area and they would either need to go private or use a tribunal to determine if they would allow her an out of area referral. This will all vary depending on what medication it is, but just throwing that out there to think about. If her doctor can get her a larger refill before she goes, that would be ideal and give some breathing room.
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Thanks for all the replies.
I’m trying to get her an esim from a UK carrier before she leaves and keep running into the problem where they all want a UK phone number or billing address to be able to place the order. Has anyone dealt with this>
Why do you need it to be a UK carrier? We used Airalo when we last traveled to Ireland and the UK.