opening acct......pro and con

[TheAlchemist]

HI,

questions about opening an account with scotia bank

if i open an account with them, can I deposit my financial aid check in that account (I have been told its a free checking account)? what are the drawbacks of that? does that take longer to clear than just mailing it back home via Fedex and having it deposited?

how long does it take for the check to clear?

will my account be in US Dollars?

If i want to send money from that scotia bank account, can i send a scotia bank check back home to the states and will that be valid to cash or deposit, back in the states?

is there online banking with scotia bank?

is there bill pay?

can i use bill pay and transfer money from scotia bank to an account with bank of america, or HSBC, or wells fargo? is this free or is there a fee?

i have been reading that if you send ur check money home, the fedex costs like 40USD (which sucks), so i am trying to find a way to avoid paying 40 dollars twice (2 financial aid checks since u can't send more than 10k check out of the island, so 2 fedex parcels).

thanks for any info.

Alchemist

[tRmedic21]

Yes you can deposit your finaid check at Scotia if you have an account. I don't know how long it would take to clear, but my guess is a week or two. You'd be better going to P'burg, cashing it at First Caribbean (formerly Barclay's, from which AUC's local checks are drawn) and putting the cash in Scotia.

They don't do online anything. You will have no checks (as a student you're only eligible for a savings account with an ATM, not a checking account). You can draw it out in dollars, which is the currency mostly used everywhere on the island, and your passbook (which is GOLD to them, DON'T lose it!) will reflect your blanace in dollars. You can have your GEBE (water & electric) bills sent to Scotia and they will pay them for you. The only way to transfer money from there to the US is via wiring it, and it will cost much more than FedEx (cost me about $35 to wire $3300 I think, and the fees go up because they charge a percentage). They actually tried to charge me about $40 more until I pushed the issue and told them I was an account holder (which they already knew but chose to ignore, something you'll need to get used to, it takes way to much energy to keep those neurons firing in their brains apparently, so they go dormant frequently), so they dropped the additional fees.

My opinion is to bite the bullet and spend the $35 with FedEx to send your check home. I sent multiple checks through FedEx, usually for more than 10k. I don't know what the customs form does, or whether they charge you more to do it, but whatever you need to do.... I don't see any benefit from trying to keep all your money on-island, myself. They told me that US checks can take up to 30 days to clear, and even local checks can take a week or more if it's from a different bank.

[JB79]

On the subject of banks is it possible to open an account with one of the local banks and then use paypal to transfer the money to a bank back home? I've done it in undergrad but this was a US bank to a US bank, does paypal work there? If so I would think this would be the eaiset way to do it.

[levator]

the customs form is free to fill out if you send more than 10K home and U.S. customs does not charge you anything if you fill this form out. if you dont and try to mail over 10K home, they will hold your check and charge you an 800 dollar fee to get them back. on top of that, they will require you to send a letter from the school proving you are a student.... all of this is too much hassle for a med student so just fill the form out.

[levator]

as far as wiring: yes it costs more money to wire than to fedex back but if for whatever reason there is noone back home that can deposit your checks for you, then this is the way to go. i did that...i paid about 50 dollars per semester to wire the majority of my fin aid home.

[microphage]

HI,

questions about opening an account with scotia bank

if i open an account with them, can I deposit my financial aid check in that account (I have been told its a free checking account)? what are the drawbacks of that? does that take longer to clear than just mailing it back home via Fedex and having it deposited?
I think its cheaper(i.e. free) to have it deposited in a local bank as you don't have to pay for the shipping fee

how long does it take for the check to clear?
a few days, and much faster if you goto the bank that the school cuts the check out to ya... like a few minutes. "Would you like your $22,000 in 10s or 20s? "

will my account be in US Dollars?
yes

If i want to send money from that scotia bank account, can i send a scotia bank check back home to the states and will that be valid to cash or deposit, back in the states?
No idea if you can open a checking account or not but i know you can wire money back home

is there online banking with scotia bank?

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

is there bill pay?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA