US bank account for a UK citizen?

Can't answer most of your questions but you can certainly open a dollar account in the UK (I'd guess with any high street bank) so you can hold dollars.

This sort of assumes you're expecting the pound to fall against the dollar. You're going to feel a bit foolish if you buy 40k dollars now at

2USD/GBP and then in a year's time you could get 2.5USD/GBP. OTOH, this way you can guarantee the cost of your dollars now.

Tim.

I don't think there is any law against it, but in practice, it is pretty difficult to find one that you can open.

Yes they do. This is about the only country in the world that has "free" banking.

Possibly the easiest way to put money in US$ is an Amex travellers cheque card. There is a fee to open the account, and you don't get any interest.

Yes, they charge fees, which are usually waived if you are depositing a salary, but I guess that won't apply ...

When I lived in California I had a Wells Fargo account (as a UK citizen, resident in the USA), which they let me keep when I returned to the UK, but they certainly wouldn't have let me open it with just a UK address. (They didn't even like me to initiate wire transfers remotely, which was a tad inconvenient.)

If you opened a UK-based citibank USD account, you could withdraw money from ATMs in the US without any fees, but that's not terribly exciting really ... and there's a service charge if you don't keep enough in it. And if you do keep enough in it to avoid the service charge, you're losing out because it doesn't pay interest.

Steve.

Thanks for the comments. I've noted what you say above - I had a quick look on the Citibank website and found this:

which seems to be ideal for what I want. The only problems remaining for me to solve if I were to open an account with them, are how to buy my dollars at $2 to the 1 and get it into the account. Also since its a savings account, how would I withdraw the cash in the states?

Another thing do they allow you to withdraw anywhere else in the world fee-free (e.g., if I were to travel to SE Asia where dollars may be accepted locally)?

In message , dmx writes

Just give them a cheque in the number of pounds you want to be converted. You could also draw your UK cheque in the number of dollars you want converted but this could be more expensive.

You will have to ask the bank you choose to do business with.

Unlikely