Anyone opened a Schwab International account while living here?

[rwill]

On 2/17/2024 at 1:24 PM, gargamon said:

What did you use for proof of residency? A certificate of residency from immigration? Copy of lease? Bank statement?

 

Thanks in advance 

They ended up taking my Thai Drivers license as proof of address.  Your address is on the back side of license.  Good thing about Schwab is you don't have to have anything translated for them.  They do that themselves.  If you have any utility bills in your name they will accept that too.

[rwill]

On 2/17/2024 at 2:01 PM, gargamon said:

Vanguard is the reason I'm doing this. Foreign addresses will soon cause drastic reductions in what you can do in Vanguard's funds. No moving money around between funds. Only able to withdraw.

 

So I'll move a bit from Vanguard to SI and see how it goes. Apparently you get one of those Schwab ATM cards everyone seems to covet so much too. 

When you open a Schwab One international account you don't automatically get the debit card.  There is another form to fill out to request one which also gets you checks you can use.  I don't use the debit card much to get money from an ATM but if you do there are no fees plus they immediately refund the fee charged by Thai banks.  If I remember correctly the daily withdrawal limit is $1,000 but you can only withdraw $500 at a time.  If you try and withdraw too much they lock the card and you have to contact them to get it unlocked.  I found that out the first time I used it and tried to withdraw the $1,000.

Also when I wire money to my Thai account they show a $15 transaction fee but that is immediately refunded too.  So sending money to a Thai bank is free. (Except they don't send in Thai baht so you are subject to the exchange rate the Thai bank gives you.)

[udontomi]

I opened my Schwab account in the USA before I retired here.  My "official" address is still in the US but my mailing address is in Thailand.  No problems.  I have a debt card which works here to transfer funds from the US..  Renewal cards come by UPS/FedEx.  No problem.  Love their service.  I don't see a need for an International account since my permanent address is in the US,  When I bought my truck here I called Schwab Banking and the temporarily raised my daily limit, but Bangkok Bank has a 250,000 TB per day limit (then).

 

[gargamon]

1 hour ago, rwill said:

They ended up taking my Thai Drivers license as proof of address.  Your address is on the back side of license.  Good thing about Schwab is you don't have to have anything translated for them.  They do that themselves.  If you have any utility bills in your name they will accept that too.

Easier to change address at the bank than on the DL, so I'll try that first. A copy of the lease apparently works too. 

[mamypoko]

20 hours ago, riclag said:

I don’t know. When my card was about to expire I got a new one in the states, they  sent it to the address on file .

I happen to be visiting the same time , so my daughter never had to send it

to me.

 

There was a thread a year ago with someone complaining that they canceled their account for living outside their service area, I believe.

Yes. Schwab has sent my card next day air in the past. There was a $25 fee, which they waived. 

[kimothai]

     Yes.  I (American citizen) opened a Charles Schwab International account while living in Thailand.  As part of the initial application for proof of residence (in Thailand) I used a scan of my electric bill (from electric company - Thai language) and my water bill (from condo - English language).  I did this about a year ago when I was informed by Morgan Stanley that I would need to close my account due to foreign residency (even though I did have a USA mailing address) but that's another story about how that all came about.

     After the account was approved it has to be funded with 25K USD.  I accomplished this by transferring my 2 Morgan Stanley accounts (1 brokerage and 1 Roth IRA account) to Charles Schwab International.  Each account has to be transferred separately (same process twice) but that's only if you have more than one account.  Schwab provides you with instruction for the transfer.  The whole transfer process was less than 3 weeks.  I was initially apprehensive about how difficult it would be to do the account transfer, but it turned out to be super easy.  If you use I different method to fund the account, I can't comment on that.  Note:  as a foreign resident you are not allowed to have mutual funds registered in USA so you'll probably need to convert those to something different (probably should call Schwab to determine course of action if mutual funds are involved).  I didn't have any, so it wasn't an issue.

     Once your account is open and funded you can use your Thai number for OTP's.  You can get a debit card and checking account that will be mailed directly to your Thai address.  The exchange rate for the debit card is terrible so you may want to limit use to USD transactions.  

     The whole process was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  To be honest I like Schwab better than Morgan Stanley.

[newnative]

     I have a Schwab international account to trade stocks.  I don't use any of the other banking features such as debit cards, etc.  I can't remember what I used as proof of address here in Thailand.  I've been very pleased with their service. 

[NoDisplayName]

5 minutes ago, newnative said:

     I have a Schwab international account to trade stocks.  I don't use any of the other banking features such as debit cards, etc.  I can't remember what I used as proof of address here in Thailand.  I've been very pleased with their service. 

 

Does the Schwab international account offer free ACH transfers as their US-based accounts do? 

 

If so, avoid the poor conversion rates by transferring thru Wise.

[newnative]

Just now, NoDisplayName said:

 

Does the Schwab international account offer free ACH transfers as their US-based accounts do? 

 

If so, avoid the poor conversion rates by transferring thru Wise.

I don't know about ACH transfers with Schwab.  I always use Wise to transfer from my USA bank account, not Schwab.  I use Schwab strictly for my stock portfolio.

[gargamon]

1 hour ago, kimothai said:

Note:  as a foreign resident you are not allowed to have mutual funds registered in USA so you'll probably need to convert those to something different (probably should call Schwab to determine course of action if mutual funds are involved).

This is news to me. I spoke with SI directly and we discussed moving existing mutual funds from Vanguard to my new SI account where they would remain in the same fund. My big concern was avoiding the tax hit of liquidating a mutual fund with a substantial amount of taxable income. I was told no problem.

 

There is definitely a restriction on brokerage accounts not being available to exist if you have a foreign address. Vanguard closed mine years ago due to this. 

[riclag]

5 hours ago, kimothai said:

     Yes.  I (American citizen) opened a Charles Schwab International account while living in Thailand.  As part of the initial application for proof of residence (in Thailand) I used a scan of my electric bill (from electric company - Thai language) and my water bill (from condo - English language).  I did this about a year ago when I was informed by Morgan Stanley that I would need to close my account due to foreign residency (even though I did have a USA mailing address) but that's another story about how that all came about.

     After the account was approved it has to be funded with 25K USD.  I accomplished this by transferring my 2 Morgan Stanley accounts (1 brokerage and 1 Roth IRA account) to Charles Schwab International.  Each account has to be transferred separately (same process twice) but that's only if you have more than one account.  Schwab provides you with instruction for the transfer.  The whole transfer process was less than 3 weeks.  I was initially apprehensive about how difficult it would be to do the account transfer, but it turned out to be super easy.  If you use I different method to fund the account, I can't comment on that.  Note:  as a foreign resident you are not allowed to have mutual funds registered in USA so you'll probably need to convert those to something different (probably should call Schwab to determine course of action if mutual funds are involved).  I didn't have any, so it wasn't an issue.

     Once your account is open and funded you can use your Thai number for OTP's.  You can get a debit card and checking account that will be mailed directly to your Thai address.  The exchange rate for the debit card is terrible so you may want to limit use to USD transactions.  

     The whole process was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  To be honest I like Schwab better than Morgan Stanley.

Thanks for your comment.

I never used the debit card for purchases, I use it to get money from

the ATM, No fees & they reimburse the Thai bank atm fees to my account .

 

A considerable amount of savings annually.I  love my Schwab non international account.

imop

 

[ColeBOzbourne]

I'm hoping for some insight into Schwab, their accounts, and requirements. My parents had accounts and investments with Schwab that are to be passed on to me and my siblings. Recently my parents passed away, and Schwab has told us that each sibling must first open a separate Schwab account in order for them to make payments to us. 

 

I live in Thailand with no permanent address in Thailand nor in the USA. Opening an account is proving to be difficult for me, and I would really prefer not to open one at all. Does anyone have experience with this requirement by Schwab to open an account? Are they trying to pressure us into opening an account with them when we really don't have to? Thank you for any information.

 

 

[gamb00ler]

On 2/19/2024 at 9:56 AM, kimothai said:

The exchange rate for the debit card is terrible so you may want to limit use to USD transactions.  

When did you last get a "cash advance" or do an ATM withdrawal using the Schwab debit card?

I've done it many times since 2021 and my experiences have been 100% consistent.

 

My experiences using Schwab's debit card have been different than yours.

It is VISA who sets the exchange rate, not Schwab.

 

Currently, VISA's rate is 35.76 per US$, Bangkok bank's rate is 35.70 and Wise's effective rate (after fees) is 35.57.  Since using the debit card incurs exactly 0 fees it is currently the BEST rate of those I checked just now.

 

How did you determine the exchange rate that you were given for a Schwab debit card transaction?  What was the source of the rate that  you used in comparison when you determined that the debit card rate was terrible?

 

When planning to get a "cash advance" on my Schwab debit card, I always comparison shop to Wise and Thai banks.  I get the Schwab exchange rate from the VISA company's website at :

https://www.visa.co.uk/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

When the cash advance hits my Schwab account, the exchange rate I receive is 100% in agreement with the VISA web page rate.

[gamb00ler]

On 2/19/2024 at 7:57 AM, udontomi said:

When I bought my truck here I called Schwab Banking and the temporarily raised my daily limit, but Bangkok Bank has a 250,000 TB per day limit (then).

Since 2021 I've used my Schwab debit card more than 20 times.  I used it to fund the building of our house in CM.  Several times I did a "cash advance" at a Bangkok bank teller for the max of 15K US$ (more than 500K ฿).  I always told the bank to put the ฿ into my savings account with them.  No teller ever raised any issue with any of my transactions.

[gamb00ler]

On 2/19/2024 at 3:25 PM, riclag said:

I never used the debit card for purchases, I use it to get money from

the ATM, No fees & they reimburse the Thai bank atm fees to my account .

 

A considerable amount of savings annually.I  love my Schwab non international account.

imop

The exchange rate is exactly the same for purchases, ATM withdrawals and teller cash advances.

 

Like you, I don't use the Schwab debit card for purchases or ATM withdrawals.... scanning QR codes is just so much easier and greatly reduces my need for cash from an ATM.

 

I've had no complaints in 35+ years as a Schwab customer.  Once on a 7 week long motorcycle tour, I came across a barely used 10 year old Goldwing that I had been lusting over for years.  My Schwab debit card made the purchase a breeze.

[kimothai]

On 2/22/2024 at 1:57 PM, gamb00ler said:

When did you last get a "cash advance" or do an ATM withdrawal using the Schwab debit card?

I've done it many times since 2021 and my experiences have been 100% consistent.

 

My experiences using Schwab's debit card have been different than yours.

It is VISA who sets the exchange rate, not Schwab.

 

Currently, VISA's rate is 35.76 per US$, Bangkok bank's rate is 35.70 and Wise's effective rate (after fees) is 35.57.  Since using the debit card incurs exactly 0 fees it is currently the BEST rate of those I checked just now.

 

How did you determine the exchange rate that you were given for a Schwab debit card transaction?  What was the source of the rate that  you used in comparison when you determined that the debit card rate was terrible?

 

When planning to get a "cash advance" on my Schwab debit card, I always comparison shop to Wise and Thai banks.  I get the Schwab exchange rate from the VISA company's website at :

https://www.visa.co.uk/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

When the cash advance hits my Schwab account, the exchange rate I receive is 100% in agreement with the VISA web page rate.

To answer your question about how I checked the exchange rate, I used a FX app on my phone at the moment of the transaction.  I've done this same process with my Capital One Credit Card (not debit card) and the difference was night and day.  I didn't write down all the specific numbers, but I recall the exchange rate fee of my debit card was about triple that of my credit card.  I only did this "exchange rate experiment" because a friend, who also has a Schwab account) who had heard the exchange rate with the debit card was not so good.  He was right.  Don't misunderstand my opinion of the Schwab debit card - I love my Schwab debit card, it's a perfect backup for my Capital One in case I have a problem.  I just reserve the use of the debit card to making USD purchases.  

[gargamon]

Update: My Schwab International account is now open. The only documents required were a copy of my Canadian passport and a copy of my last k-bank statement. I screwed up initially and sent the locked pdf statement from k-bank which Schwab was obviously unable to open. After they received the unlocked statement it was only a day or two until it was open.

 

A mutual fund from Vanguard is currently being transferred to fund the account. 3-4 days they say.

 

I've added a US address as the mailing address. As soon as they've updated this on the account, I'll add a cash account which will get the Schwab ATM card. 

[Yumthai]

On 3/8/2024 at 5:17 PM, gargamon said:

I've added a US address as the mailing address. As soon as they've updated this on the account, I'll add a cash account which will get the Schwab ATM card. 

Is having a US address mandatory in order to get the ATM card?

[gargamon]

15 minutes ago, Yumthai said:

Is having a US address mandatory in order to get the ATM card?

Dunno. It's much more convenient though for me on many levels. Say I change condos and forget to inform Schwab. Or I'm traveling and not here to pick up the mail. Or the Thai postal system loses it. Etc. 

[Digitalbanana]

On 3/8/2024 at 5:17 PM, gargamon said:

I've added a US address as the mailing address.

So why were you asking about an international account to start with? If you have a US address?

 

[gargamon]

29 minutes ago, Digitalbanana said:

So why were you asking about an international account to start with? If you have a US address?

 

P. O. Box. And I'm Canadian. The new rules that seem to be coming into effect may be detrimental to the handling my Vanguard accounts, so I'll go legal and get the international acct.

 

And yes. I have a social security number as I worked legally in the US for a significant amount of time. 

[higgy88]

On 2/22/2024 at 1:28 PM, ColeBOzbourne said:

I'm hoping for some insight into Schwab, their accounts, and requirements. My parents had accounts and investments with Schwab that are to be passed on to me and my siblings. Recently my parents passed away, and Schwab has told us that each sibling must first open a separate Schwab account in order for them to make payments to us. 

 

I live in Thailand with no permanent address in Thailand nor in the USA. Opening an account is proving to be difficult for me, and I would really prefer not to open one at all. Does anyone have experience with this requirement by Schwab to open an account? Are they trying to pressure us into opening an account with them when we really don't have to? Thank you for any information.

 

 

I can help you out with that.   My sister and I went through their beneficiary process a couple of years ago when our mother died.  I already had a Schwab account and have been dealing with them for the last 40 years,  about 10 as an international account, and the last couple of years as a US based Trust account,  so I kinda know how they do things.  My sister did not have an account with them, so as you say, she was forced to open separate accounts (both brokerage and IRA) which she did not want to do.  She was not happy with the way they do things, to say the least.   She closed the new accounts as soon as she could, and moved the money and what investments she could to another institution. 

[ColeBOzbourne]

On 3/11/2024 at 9:56 AM, higgy88 said:

I can help you out with that.   My sister and I went through their beneficiary process a couple of years ago when our mother died.  I already had a Schwab account and have been dealing with them for the last 40 years,  about 10 as an international account, and the last couple of years as a US based Trust account,  so I kinda know how they do things.  My sister did not have an account with them, so as you say, she was forced to open separate accounts (both brokerage and IRA) which she did not want to do.  She was not happy with the way they do things, to say the least.   She closed the new accounts as soon as she could, and moved the money and what investments she could to another institution. 

Thank you for that information. We are going on two months now and still struggling with Schwab. I did find out that Schwab will not pay-out our inheritance in cash, but in stocks and bonds instead. That's why they will not deposit money into my already existing bank account. They said we must open an account with them, and then we can choose to leave the stocks and bonds in that account, or cash them in, for which Schwab collects a nice fee. I don't know if it was originally set up this way by my parents/accountant, or if it is a Schwab policy.