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query about cash

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:05 pm
by aspiringLDN
Hi,

thanks for spending time to go through this post

I am travelling to uk for job search

I am worried about carrying GBP currency during my travel to UK.

may i know possibility of below idea:
After opening bank account in UK, is it possible to access my India Bank Account online and transfer funds to new account with some nominal inter country transfer charges.

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:33 am
by krazydude
You will have to open a NRI banking account. Banks like Barclays (in some branches), Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank offer these services. Check their websites.

Although if you are worried about travelling with cash, get travellers cheques (GBP currency) made in India and carry those with you. These can only be encashed with your signature and you pay the commission/fee in India so banks cash them at face value. When you open your bank account here in the UK, you can then deposit these cheques and will get access to your money very quickly (Inter bank transfers between India and UK take a while)

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:25 pm
by pennylessinindia
You can make transfers from Indian to UK bank.
It may be easier to take a GGP cheque in your name and just deposit it in your new UK account, Fairly straightforward ask ICICI bank or HSBC who I know do it. Just fill out RBI form all quite straight forward and clears very quickly

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:12 pm
by mulderpf
How about drawing out money from your Indian bank account? Not sure if this is a costly option, but I got several thousands of pounds over like this - just draw £500 at a time and deposited it into my UK bank account.

Re: query about cash

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:57 pm
by ankitv
aspiringLDN wrote:Hi,

thanks for spending time to go through this post

I am travelling to uk for job search

I am worried about carrying GBP currency during my travel to UK.

may i know possibility of below idea:
After opening bank account in UK, is it possible to access my India Bank Account online and transfer funds to new account with some nominal inter country transfer charges.
You can bring in cash upto 10,000 euros (or equivalent in another currency) when travelling from outside EU. see this link http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/trave ... nibringin/

If you dont want to carry cash or are coming here long term then you can get yourself a NRE bank account opened in a bank of your choice. Punjab national bank or SBI have branches everywhere. This account can be opened from India itself but you would need to be a NRI first (i.e. more than 180 days resident) in UK. As they will ask for UK proof of address