A friend of mine is retiring in the USA and sent me the following question. I don't really know the answer. Any ideas?

I have a practical question. I am thinking of becoming a nomad for a year or two and living in various foreign countries. The problem is that I always have terrible problems with using credit cards and cash when I travel. I am thinking that the way to avoid the problem might be to open an account in a big American bank which has branches in foreign countries. Like Bank of America -- where I think you have an account. So do you think I can open a bank account at BOA, have my retirement checks deposited to the account, and then write checks and transact business in any country where they have branches?

Sorry...there is a BoA branch in Bangkok but it don't offer retail/Joe off the street accounts as its focused towards big business accounts. Besides, even when a bank in Thailand has a foreign parent, like BoA, CitiBank, etc., they operate as Thai banks as they must comply with Thai laws and Bank of Thailand regulations which means little interaction with the parent company branches in other countries which benefits customers due to the differences in laws/regulations between the countries.

Your friend's best option is open a bank account with a U.S. bank/company like Schwab which provides a "no foreign transaction fee" debit card so he could get money from ATMs...and also maybe open a credit card account with a credit card company like Capital One which provide no foreign transaction fee credit card. And he should probably get a "couple" of such debit and credit cards from different banks/companies in case one card stops working one day...just switch to the other card until he resolves the problem with the other card. And of course carry some cash. Being a nomad ain't that easy.

BofA is a non-starter for Thailand in terms of having no local branch presence here, and pretty substantial foreign currency fees when withdrawing ATM funds or using most of their credit cards abroad.

Citi Bank is one of the few with a presence both in Thailand and the U.S., but the two pretty much operate as separate entities. However, if someone is willing to park a substantial amount of funds with Citi (enough to qualify for Citi Gold or higher status), then that opens up SOME international banking conveniences with them.

Absent that, for an American, the best bet is probably to have one's retirement checks direct deposited to Bangkok Bank, and then withdraw the funds locally here. BKKBank is also expanding its presence into some other nearby Asian countries, though I'm not sure if using their card at their branches or ATMs in other Asian countries have extra fees or not.

If the person's "retirement" check is Social Security or a federal pension, I believe BKK Bank has direct deposit options available to have the funds go straight to Thailand, but they have to be picked up in branch in person for security reasons.

If it's a private pension or you don't want the in-person requirement for federal checks,, the direct deposit can be routed to BKK Bank's New York branch, which has a US ABA routing number and functions just like any U.S. bank for retirement direct deposits, and then the funds will be sent onward to a BKK Bank account in Thailand for pretty reasonable fees. Unfortunately, no other Thai bank has a comparable arrangement, AFAIK.

Outside of Thailand, the answer to the question in part depends on just what other countries the OP's friend is planning to visit/reside in. Generally speaking, the mega U.S. banks don't make it easy for Americans to bank abroad or withdraw ATM funds without substantial fees.

Another option, depending on the person's monthly check amount and budget, would be to have the funds deposited into a U.S. bank account that also reimburses foreign ATM fees and charges no foreign currency fee when its card is used outside the U.S. Examples of that include Charles Schwab, State Farm Bank, and some others. Right now in Thailand, the most you can pull from a single ATM withdrawal is 30,000 baht, so less than $1000. If the person did one or two ATM withdrawals per month and had the Thai bank ATM fees of about $5 each pull reimbursed, that would be another way of access the funds in any country.

Here's a list of the other Asian countries where BKK Bank has a presence outside Thailand -- though again, I'm not sure how they handle ATM withdrawal fees at their non-Thailand locations.

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/InternationalNetwork/InternationalBranches/Asia/Pages/Default.aspx

Edited June 10, 201412 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

Thanks to both of you for helpful and detailed advice! I appreciate it.

I have online banking with my US bank and always send them a secure message about my intended travel to different countries and they inform the credit card security dept. So far I have never had any problem to use my card anywhere

They are trying to compete with UBER which has clear fixed charges. I'm sure Grabcar will too eventually.

http://www.richardbarrow.com/2014/04/my-experience-of-using-uber-in-bangkok/

Oops. Wrong forum