Has anybody had a student study in the UK? I am concerned about the mechanics and the most cost-effective way to transfer these large amounts of money without losing percentages to exchange fees and/or fees to send the money. Most of the money for the 2015 academic year is in a 529 account, which can snail mail a check to Oxford, to the student, or to the account owner. Any advice or tales you’d like to relate about your experiences, good or bad with sending money to the UK?
It’s a Bank to Bank Wire Transfer. You will need to inquire about the institution’s receiving account coordinates before going to your bank to request the wire.
If you can find a bank with same-brand affiliates in the US and UK, find out if that will allow the transfer with lower or no currency conversion surcharge.
We have opened HSBC accounts at both countries to handle the transfer of money.
My son has been in the UK for seven years. He did his BA at UCL and is working towards his PhD at Cambridge. He has an HSBC account for personal expenses and we use Xoom to transfer money from his US accounts. We have found that Xoom transfers are speedy and dependable, but cannot be used for tuition payments because you can only transfer $3,000 at a time (and only once a month). I would not use HSBC for wire transfers of large amounts, however: they use a very unfavourable exchange rate. We have used USAA Savings Bank and Bank of America, with USAA being our preference. For the wire transfer you will need information about the recipient bank which your student’s college will provide. It sounds as though you can arrange a transfer from the 529 account to the college (tuition at Oxford and Cambridge is paid to the student’s college rather than the university).
Oxford has it’s very own special bills called battels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battel
As JustOneDad said, a wire transfer is simplest- and I’m not even sure they would take a US paper check. The financial packet will have all the bank details for the transfer.
However, the window at the beginning is very short and there are some variations by college. We found that one call to the Burser just before the first term made it all much easier. Wait until mid-September to call, though, when they have turned their attention to the incoming class (right now they are sorting out the outgoing students, and they have much leaner administrations than US colleges typically do).
I can transfer large amount without wired transfer. That’s why I get both account is US and UK. as for exchange rate, I don’t know what rate I should get but I monitor the exchange rate when I do the transfer.
@DrGoogle’s approach of having accounts in both places also makes it easier for your student- no need to set up a separate bank account, just put them on your account. Also, a surprising number of online places don’t take non-UK credit cards, which can be a real nuisance when you want to order things for your student- having accounts in both places is hand for that as well.
For my son’s first year at University of Edinburgh, before he opened an account there, we paid by credit card. I made sure that the school could accept payments in two pieces, which they could. So I paid one half (then paid off my credit card bill), then the next day, paid the last half. Since that time, we just transfer the money into his Scotland account, and he pays from there.
If we could pay by credit card, that would be ideal. We have a United Airlines card with no foreign transaction fee. I still don’t know if Oxford (Worcester College) will accept credit card payments.
http://www.ox.ac.uk/students/new/recognised
I think from what I read you can pay using American Express card even.
Your D/S will get a big packet of info from the college in mid-August. If you don’t have enough info in the packet, call the Burser at Worcester directly. One thing about Oxford- and the UK in general- is that they are a lot more relaxed about getting things done- so no need to stress about it. Really!
Here is a link to a reputable international wire transfer site
http://www.usforex.com/our-services/transfer-money/europe/uk
US banks will often charge a significant fee on international wire transfers, using a site like usforex can save a lot of money, but you would need to have UK bank account set up and info to use it, or perhaps the University itself could provide info. for their bursar.
Someone I know also suggested that Barclays, which has banks in US and UK might not have huge fees, but I don’t have any details.
When my daughter spent a semester abroad at the University of St. Andrews, we paid her housing fees using our VISA card via a website provided by the university. The fee was built into the exchange rate and was reasonable and since it was processed as a US transaction, we did not have to pay a foreign transaction fee.
Since she was only abroad for a semester, she was not able to open a bank account and just used her debit card for cash and we got her a credit card with no foreign transaction fees(capitol one, bank of america, and barclays have “travel rewards” cards with no fees, probably other banks too, discover has a no fee card too).
Our son spent one semester at the University of Edinburgh in the fall of 2013 and we found that Santander Bank offered the short stay exchange students an account with minimal fees. They took our US PNC Bank check and only held access to the funds for a few days (less than a week but I don’t recall the exact number). After that we had the option of mailing a check or wiring funds to his account. Since it was just one semester we only had to send one additional payment. All of the University fees were handled through the Bursar’s office at his home university here in the states. His housing was separate but through the University and they took our US credit card for the payment. With his account there he got an ATM/Debit card and he also used his regular PNC Visa credit card when needed.
On a separate note, he was able to have his iPhone easily converted to a UK number at Three (3) and used a prepaid pay-as-you-go type of plan through the 3 service provider. http://store.three.co.uk/