10
votes
Accepted
Can't use my Dutch bank account in Germany. Is SEPA a total lie?
What you have found here regarding direct debit is called IBAN discrimination and is against the law. Specifically, against article 9 of EU Regulation 260/2012:
A payer making a credit transfer ...
- 670
10
votes
Accepted
Deutsche Bank rejected Amazon's bill on my account, and now I must pay Amazon EUR 3.00 more for "Rücklastschriftentgelts"?
Some details:
Amazon charged you 189€. Your bank refused that for reasons they did not share with Amazon. If that happens (somebody trying to charge you and your bank refusing for whatever reason) ...
- 2,282
8
votes
Accepted
Canadian bank claims that a joint account requires two W-9 forms
I am really not an expert and barely understand this, but I think you need to give them the two W9's. The reason for this is that the Canadian bank uses the information in a slightly different way ...
- 1,786
7
votes
Does a U.S. citizen have to give up his credit cards and bank accounts when he moves abroad?
There is no reason to keep your move secret or to engage a lawyer. And there is no standard name for the service other than 'moving'.
I know from personal experience that American Express, ...
- 3,214
7
votes
Withdrawing money to buy a car in Japan
I am a happy user of Transferwise. I use it to transfer CHF and GBP to EUR, but they do USD to JPY too.
It is not entirely fee-free, but they use the mid-market rate for foriegn exchange, and then ...
6
votes
Open a Canadian bank account without being present in Canada?
RBC allows creating a "Non-Resident account for immigration purposes", as far as I know at no-cost, and they don't require you to apply in person in Canada. However the process is not simple and there ...
- 161
6
votes
Does a U.S. citizen have to give up his credit cards and bank accounts when he moves abroad?
I personally use my parents place as my US address. Then I go paperless and pay my accounts through a bank that I transfer money into from where I am now. Anything important is mailed to me by my ...
- 61
5
votes
Accepted
Sequence of SSN, rental, bank account, etc, in USA to satisfy dependencies
Answering, having found much of this out by trial and error... this is based on my own experience in Washington state, and YMMV.
First, apply for a SSN as early as possible. This requires an address, ...
- 191
5
votes
What are the necessary procedures (unregistering, etc) to follow when leaving Germany as an expat?
Due to the complexity of this single topic,
I will sub-devide the answer in the (hopefully) correct order.
Foreigners office (Ausländerbehörde) :
Aufenthaltsgesetz (2018) §51(7)
Regulates what ...
- 4,953
5
votes
Navigating Capital One's two factor SMS authentication from outside the United States
I want to report that I have solved my issue. Here is what I did. The following information is correct as of March 2020, except the part about T-Mobile which was current in fall 2019.
First, some ...
5
votes
I left money in my JP Bank account when I permanently departed Japan. What are my options for accessing it?
From personal experience, it is effectively impossible to access a Japanese bank account from overseas if you did not set up Internet banking or an internationally networked credit/debit card before ...
- 3,736
4
votes
Accepted
Postal address without fixed abode?
I think your best bet is a mail scanning and forwarding service. (Google it, there are many, and I haven't used one to recommend.)
Most will:
Give you a 'personal' address, intended to be ...
- 156
4
votes
Does a U.S. citizen have to give up his credit cards and bank accounts when he moves abroad?
Hiring an attorney merely to be able to continue to use a credit card would seem very expensive, you only need a post office box or something like that (USPS calls companies offering this service “...
- 17.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Can I open a bank account in the Netherlands using my workplace address?
You can do this if and only if you manage to obtain your BSN number before having a fixed address.
To open a bank account, you will be asked for a BSN number; and to get a BSN number you must ...
- 2,763
4
votes
Best way to take money from USA to Italy
It rather depends on how much money you have:
$100
Withdraw the money as Euro notes and close the account
$1,000
Transfer the money into a prepaid Euro account and close the account
$10,100 to $...
4
votes
Accepted
Withdrawing money to buy a car in Japan
Getting the money into Japan to buy a car was a very stressful experience with comparing prices and finding a method I felt comfortable entrusting a large sum of money with. The method I came up with ...
- 325
4
votes
Accepted
Why might my Charles Schwab ATM card not get fees when involved in a currency exchange?
I can confirm that there are no fees charged (8 years with CS). It may be because the Visa network uses a differential in the exchange rate to make their money. It’s not CS that does the currency ...
- 186
3
votes
How do I get a bank account without a person number?
Go to SEB
Today's walking adventure:
Went to SEB (in Tegnérgatan), told I couldn't open an account. Handelsbanken, ditto. Same again at Nordea. Turned up at the Odenplan branch of SEB and opened an ...
- 141
3
votes
Can't use my Dutch bank account in Germany. Is SEPA a total lie?
SEPA is not a lie, it's there. All national bank transfers are running on the SEPA infrastructure. So there is no technical reason for IBAN discrimination. It's just people. People just love their ...
- 31
3
votes
EU Friendly bank to use in Thailand
Actually, Bangkok Bank is the only Thai bank that can allow direct deposits from USA, UK, Switzerland, Japan, and Korea. And especially US/UK.
So BKB is reliable and relatively cheap to get funds ...
- 446
3
votes
How do bank transfer costs increase when you transfer further within the EU?
There isn't any systematic, gradual increase based on these factors. In my experience, transfers to an EUR-denominated account in the SEPA can be free. Same bank, other bank, other country in the ...
- 17.4k
3
votes
How to avoid fees when making purchases in a different country?
There are many US credit cards with no international transaction fees. You can use them while out of US and keep paying them from the US account.
See - https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-cards/no-...
- 81
3
votes
I've left the EU. Should I keep my bank account and credit card?
You might get a tax refund, as I did when I returned. And then it will be very difficult for you to get that money to you if you do not have a local bank account.
If you are sure of not getting any ...
- 31
3
votes
How to deposit US social security in Japanese bank
This webpage, not published by Social Security, contains the following q-and-a:
Q: I have looked at the Social Security website and could not find if there is a way to receive one's Social Security ...
- 2,801
3
votes
How can a US company regularly pay an overseas contractor?
Your best bet is to create a Transferwise bank account. That gives you an American routing number which your customer can wire the money to (which should be straightforward for them). You can then ...
3
votes
Accepted
Difficult to open bank accounts in EU countries?
In general, it is not that simple (among other things) due to money laundering legislation and in general to registration laws.
In Germany it is very difficult, as a non-resident, to open a bank ...
- 4,953
3
votes
Consequences of informing bank about leaving country
This is a valid question that has real-world repercussions. It bears on the requirements of the US FATCA law and what potential actions one can expect from banks in the US, as well as in Canada, in ...
- 186
3
votes
Accepted
How to find out the name of the person that an IBAN number belongs to?
No, you cannot. That would be a big breach of all kinds of privacy laws.
What you can do is give the name of the account holder when you transfer the money.
Then the bank should reject it when you put ...
- 2,282
3
votes
Declaring Foreign Joint Bank accounts Netherlands
According to the Dutch Tax authorities on joint accounts, when you share a joint account with someone who is not your tax partner, in Dutch:
Hebt u een en/of-rekening met iemand die niet uw fiscale ...
- 356
3
votes
I live in Taiwan. A major US bank wants me to close my checking account, what should I do?
@scaaahu commented on an old question of mine asking for my advice.
Background: My wife is a US citizen, I am not. We have lived in New Zealand for 15+ years. Our USA bank is Wells Fargo.
While I have ...
- 179
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