How to handle the odd transaction in USD, despite only having a GBP bank account

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 3/11/2017 9:54 PM, Mark Robinson wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 11, 2017 at 6:47 PM, Jean-David Beyer
>
> That's so odd.
>
> I have opened a bank account at Wells Fargo in California with just a
> passport.  I've also used RBCBank (affiliated with, but distinct from
> Royal Bank) to open a US bank account without even being present in
> the US.
>
> Mark
Not so odd Mark. You DID note the reference to state?

What you experienced in CA has little to do with what somebody else 
would experience in NJ or NY. I know ex-pats who for their US account 
have that in somebody else's name << because when I need a cheque in 
pounds, for example, they will tell me to whom to send the check in 
dollars (and they send the cheque in pounds where I need it to go >>

ROFLOL --- the origins of international banking go back to the 
Renaissance when arranging transfers of this sort was what it was all 
about so that instead of moving physical gold (subject to loss and theft 
en route) they could exchange paper records of who owed whom where and 
only if severe imbalance of trade needing to move physical money.

Michael