Opening a Sun Trust Account - Info for those thinking about it

[cheryl.UK]

We tried this year but they insisted on utility bills or bank statements. We had our passports, driving liscences and various recent correspondence such as our e tickets, car vouchers and insurance docs, all of which had our address on but they still wouldn't let us.

 

[Brandis]

That's really strange! I opened my account at the big branch in Downtown Disney last May. All he needed was my Passport and possibly my drivers license, although neither of them contains my home adress. That I just wrote down on a piece of paper.

I opened a free checking account with a free Visa debit card. He said the minimum initial deposit is $100, but now minimum transactions after that.

I'm planning on trying the car banking next time I'm there to get rid of the last dollars before heading to the airport.

 

[cheryl.UK]

We didn't even get past the man at the front desk. Seems like we should have tried when he wasn't on duty

 

[Brandis]

Front Desk? I walked in, went to the counter and was told to take a seat, someone would get me. Then a guy led me to his desk and I told him that I wanted to open an account as a foreigner. From there, it took about half an hour until we were done.

 

[skelfbsfb]

Its been reported on other websites that suntrust will now be charging people if the do not have $1000 in the account. Not received anything offical yet. Hope fully they dont as i only wanted it to pay my dues on a monthly basis.

 

[Brandis]

It probably depends on which type of account you have.

https://www.suntrust.com/portal/server.pt/community/chk_free_checking/442

For the "Free Checking Account" it clearly says on the suntrust website:

"No minimum balance requirement or monthly maintenance fee"

 

[skelfbsfb]

It probably depends on which type of account you have.

https://www.suntrust.com/portal/server.pt/community/chk_free_checking/442

For the "Free Checking Account" it clearly says on the suntrust website:

"No minimum balance requirement or monthly maintenance fee"

Brandis that is the account I have so hopefully we may escape the charge.

 

[Brandis]

I was just surfing around the SunTrust site for a bit and looked at the "Reorder Check" link when I found this:

https://www.deluxe-check-order.com/disney.jsp

Isn't that cool? I would choose "Mickey and Pals" but the "Villains" series would go very well together with Disney Dollars, don't you think?

Unfortunately, it seems that it's not possible to order them from outside the US :-( I'l have to check with Suntrust next time I'm there.

 

[skelfbsfb]

I was just surfing around the SunTrust site for a bit and looked at the "Reorder Check" link when I found this:

https://www.deluxe-check-order.com/disney.jsp

Isn't that cool? I would choose "Mickey and Pals" but the "Villains" series would go very well together with Disney Dollars, don't you think?

Unfortunately, it seems that it's not possible to order them from outside the US :-( I'l have to check with Suntrust next time I'm there.

It would be great to have one of these check books.

 

[wen-tom]

We returned to the UK on Friday and opened a Suntrust account on wednesday.
We had no trouble at all. went to the counter and the lady there said to take a seat. within a second of sitting down we were called over and all sorted within 30 mins!

Nothing was mentioned about fee's or minumum balances - as long as you have the free checking account you should be safe

 

[dbriggsq]

Something to be aware of.

We've had a Suntrust account for a few years and in the early days they would charge us $5 a month for sending a paper statement (we hadn't requested one). It took a few phone calls to get them to stop sending these statements and stop charging us for them.

 

[wen-tom]

the lady who opened our account told us to disable the paper statements online as soon as we had access to avoid the possibility of charges.

It's an option on the right of the page which says 'turn off paper statements'.

 

[dbriggsq]

the lady who opened our account told us to disable the paper statements online as soon as we had access to avoid the possibility of charges.

It's an option on the right of the page which says 'turn off paper statements'.

Yes - but we had to do that a couple of times before it seemed to become effective.

If you do incur any charges if you ring or email them they should refund the charge.

 

[wen-tom]

Yes - but we had to do that a couple of times before it seemed to become effective.

If you do incur any charges if you ring or email them they should refund the charge.

good to know thanks

i'll make sure we are not charged.

 

[bibbidibobbidiboo07]

Just a query but how do you put money into your sun trust accoutns from the uk? Are there any fees for doing this?

 

[skelfbsfb]

Just a query but how do you put money into your sun trust accoutns from the uk? Are there any fees for doing this?

You can transfer it from your paypal account.

 

[bibbidibobbidiboo07]

Thanks
But do you loose out on the exchange rate? And do they charge for doing this?
We have used the PO credit card in the past but was wondering of the benefit of the Sun Trust account over the PO card.

 

[Brandis]

They charge something, but it's quite reasonable.

I found another way, but you'll need an iPhone.

www.squareup.com offers a free creditcard reader which can be plugged into the iphone and together with their app you can charge creditcards.

So you could charge your own creditcard and the amount will then be paid into your US bank account.

To receive the reader, you would need an adress in the US, where the reader will be shipped to, so if you know someone in the US, you could have it sent there.

But the app also works without the reader, then you just have to type in the credit card number manually.

 

[skelfbsfb]

Thanks
But do you loose out on the exchange rate? And do they charge for doing this?
We have used the PO credit card in the past but was wondering of the benefit of the Sun Trust account over the PO card.

The exchange rate will be slightly higher than tourist rate but lower than using PO cc.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Does anybody know what credit checks are carried out if you go into the SunTrust at DTD? Are you likely to get an embarassing rejection if your credit history in UK is less than 100% perfect?