opening a US bank account from Thailand

[Pib]

2 hours ago, CaptHaddock said:

 

APO mailing addresses are usually considered to be US addresses, particularly by banks whose target demographic is the military.  Expats, like the OP, are a different category.

Sometimes....depends on the bank.  Other U.S. banks/credit cards I have opened an accounts with since being in Thailand would accept the APO address for the "mailing address" but not the all important "residential address" where they required an address physically within the 50 U.S.

[anon467367354]

4 minutes ago, skatewash said:

This sounded like a good deal to me so I looked into it.  The savings account doesn't come with an ATM card so you must be referring to the money market account, which does come with an ATM card.  As an online only bank it's true that they allow you to make unlimited deposits and withdrawals, but it appears to limited to the US:

 

 

Also, it mentions a foreign transaction fee (which a withdrawal using the ATM card in Thailand would incur) of up to 1%:

 

Are you saying that currently their cross border/currency conversion transaction fee is 0%?

The information quoted above comes from:  https://www.ally.com/bank/money-market-account/

open a checking account, not a savings and not a money market account.

[curlylekan]

On 11/19/2016 at 10:37 PM, lopburi3 said:

I have done so several times but not recently.  If you have US military service give USAA a try - my account is using only my Bangkok address.

 

Many people I suspect continue to use US address for mail and have accounts.  Often family members home address.

This is something I've wondered about since I have a USAA account I'd like to keep. Have you had a job in Thailand where you get money.  How do you get paid and/or deposit the money in your account? 

[skatewash]

3 minutes ago, gr8fldanielle said:

open a checking account, not a savings and not a money market account.

 

From https://www.ally.com/bank/interest-checking-account/:

 

 

Quote

 

Cross Border/Currency Conversion Transaction

If you are in a foreign country and use an ATM or make a purchase with your debit card, you may be charged a fee of up to 1% of the transaction amount for the currency conversion and/or cross border transaction.

 

So, back to the same question:  Are you saying that they currently waive this "up to 1%" fee when you withdraw money in Thailand using your ATM card?

[craigt3365]

7 minutes ago, curlylekan said:

This is something I've wondered about since I have a USAA account I'd like to keep. Have you had a job in Thailand where you get money.  How do you get paid and/or deposit the money in your account? 

We do direct deposits to USAA and then use Bangkok Bank via New York City to get the money here.  Can do it all online.

[craigt3365]

7 minutes ago, skatewash said:

 

From https://www.ally.com/bank/interest-checking-account/:

 

 

So, back to the same question:  Are you saying that they currently waive this "up to 1%" fee when you withdraw money in Thailand using your ATM card?

Schwab has no foreign currency fees nor ATM fees.

[anon467367354]

15 minutes ago, skatewash said:

 

From https://www.ally.com/bank/interest-checking-account/:

 

 

So, back to the same question:  Are you saying that they currently waive this "up to 1%" fee when you withdraw money in Thailand using your ATM card?

I've always been reimbursed any fees using an ATM card in Thailand.

[lopburi3]

10 minutes ago, curlylekan said:

This is something I've wondered about since I have a USAA account I'd like to keep. Have you had a job in Thailand where you get money.  How do you get paid and/or deposit the money in your account? 

I have retirement directly deposited into account currently - previously I transferred from another US account that I had used for direct deposit.  Transfer here using Bangkok Bank ACH system.  If I were working in Thailand I would be using Thai banks for deposit as most funds would be needed here.

[fredge45]

On 11/20/2016 at 1:07 PM, Strange said:

Dude, Citibank. 

 

Contact Citibank either online or by phone, request the application paperwork to be mailed to your "Address" IE your daughters address, have her forward the paperwork to you in Thailand by DHL or whatever, fill it all out, mail it back to your daughter, have her mail it in to Citibank Houston, TX with whatever is needed. 

 

Wait for a reply and your Debit/Credit card. Have the daughter send your card to thailand. Use the card to open online banking. Job done. 

 

I have 2 accounts with Citibank. 1 in Houston TX and 1 in Singapore. All USD accounts. Never stepped foot in a Citibank branch and all done by post from Thailand. Have 2 Credit Cards (actual credit cards) from Citibank as well. All done online and by post. 

 

Did Citi send you some KY at the same time you open3ed the accounts?   Ripoffs extraordinaire in  my experience.

[skatewash]

11 minutes ago, gr8fldanielle said:

I've always been reimbursed any fees using an ATM card in Thailand.

 

As I understand it there are two possible fees for using your ATM card in Thailand.  One is the Thai ATM fee, which is 200 Baht (about US$ 5.60), and I hear you say that you get reimbursed for that.  The website seems to indicate that such reimbursements for ATM access fees would be capped at $10 per month, so it sounds like only one ATM withdrawal per month would be fully reimbursed in Thailand.  Have you tried to do two ATM withdrawals in Thailand in a single month?

Also, there's still the question of whether they charge a foreign transaction fee (up to 1%) or whether they are currently waiving it.  From what you say it sounds like they currently waive it.  If they charged it I guess it should appear on your statement as a separate fee.  (The foreign exchange fee is charged by Visa or MasterCard, it's just a question of whether the bank pays it on your behalf or passes it on to you.)

I generally like online-only banks.  However, my experience is that they do a lot to entice new customers with very favorable terms (such as a high teaser interest rate, fees waived, etc.) and then after you open an account gradually they drop the teaser interest rate, fees stop being waived, and so on.  I would be concerned that even if they currently do not in practice charge the fee, their terms of service already mention a possible up to 1% fee so it could be imposed at any time.

Is the ATM debit card a Visa or MasterCard?  Have you ever compared the Visa or MasterCard foreign exchange rate with the rate you were charged to see if maybe they had applied the 1% foreign transaction fee to your transaction in the form of a less favorable exchange rate?

Understand I'm not doubting what you say, just that when dealing with banks one has to be on one's guard.  If there's a way for them to charge a fee or give a less favorable exchange rate, you can be sure they've thought of it ;-)

[Pib]

From my experience of living in Thailand over 8 years this time around and opening various U.S. bank/credit union/credit card company accounts during those 8 years the great majority will require a U.S. physical address (i.e., a street address in the U.S....P.O. Box not accepted), but they will also accept a separate mailing address such as international or military APO for  all/most of your correspondence to go to.

 

But some, especially those which are military and expat friendly will accept just an APO address and occasionally just an international address depending on the situation.    With my USAA bank and credit card accounts and my CapOne credit card accounts they accepted "only" my APO address....not other address provided.    With the USAA accounts setup I was able to do it all online...but with the CapOne cards it would not accept only my APO address in the online application but when I called and applied on the phone  with a human rep only the APO address was accepted.    I always try to open accounts with only my APO address whenever possible so I don't need to use a relative's U.S. physical address.  

 

And regarding the mailing of correspondence from reading many TV posts over the years most banks/credit unions/card companies will mail all your correspondence and cards to your mailing address if desired, but some will not mail cards or certain special cards.  When I still had a Bank of America bank account they would mail debit and credit cards to my APO address, but not the SafePass card used for online transfers for greater than $1,000....and I didn't have a U.S. mobile phone number to use the One Time Password method versus the SafePass card.  They would only mail the SafePass card to the relatives U.S. address.     And I have read quite a few posts where certain banks will not mail their debit/credit cards to an international address.  Depends on the financial company. 

 

And last year when trying to open an account with a certain credit union to get their no foreign transaction fee debit card which also reimbursed ATM fees, I used my relative's U.S. mailing address along with my APO mailing address....the online application was initially approved....I thought sweet...good to go.  But the next day I had an email from that credit union wanting a copy of some document like a property tax document, utility bill, etc., with my name on it for that U.S. physical address to prove I really live there.  I expect when they pulled the credit report on me which shows where a person currently and previously lived combined with where purchases/bills had been paid and they didn't see no financial activity for me around that U.S. address.    They said they need the info email/faxed with 48 hours or the application or the application would be disapproved.  I didn't have such docs so the application was disapproved.

 

And another time when applying with a major bank using the relatives U.S. address and my APO mailing address they initially approved the application and then it was suspended due to the credit report not showing any spending in the U.S. physical address area.   I called them and in this case they didn't require me to send any docs to them, they just asked me about a half dozen questions from public records to prove who I said I was....when the dust settled I was approved.  But the credit report spending pattern had created a short term dead stop kinda like how the credit report with that credit union created a permanent dead stop with them.

 

You will not find a standardized policy among U.S. financial companies  in how they implement "know your customer" laws/regulations and you will also find out they have "ways" to validate your actual living address like through pulling credit reports and no doubt info for other records/databases to determine if you meet their account opening requirements.   Sure, they all follow some general guidelines but how they implement and expand on the guidelines is up to them.

 

Always best to open accounts while still living in the U.S.; don't assume you can easily open new accounts from overseas/Thailand using just an foreign address or even an APO address.  Varies from financial company to financial company.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mansell]

I believe the difficulty on opening an account from abroad is related to drug laundering issues. All banks have to answer to government controls relating to these issues. I have a Santa Monica Bank account, (opened while in the U.S.) but they know I live here because they send me mail here. As for credit cards, I have Citi American Airlines MasterCard also opened over there. If the charges here are in U.S. Dollars there isn't a currency transfer fee....but if it is in baht I am charged. I have the mileage card. Hospital charges here will be taken in dollars, but Big C etc will only do baht. I flew first class to California and back with mileage using the card and it cost me I believe 60 dollars or less......what a deal. Best long journey ever taken on JAL.

[al007]

4 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

The VPN is a big deal.  I tried to open a Schwab account online and they tagged my IP address.  I was forwarded to the international group.  So, can't trade US stocks directly now.  Sucks.  USAA is also treating us differently now that our address is Thailand.  Can't trade US stocks there either, but banking is the same.  This just started last year.

 

I opened another account using a VPN and a PO box.  Worked fine.  But can only log in with the VPN showing a US IP address.

 

I have an interactive brokers account that allows me to trade US stocks, my Thai wife is also joint on the account, this is all done with only my Thai address, all paper work done online with scanned copies only

[CaptHaddock]

For those of us who do have banking & brokerage accounts in the US, the wisest course is never to alert them that we live abroad.  While some of them may not object now, there is always the possibility that one day they may suddenly change their policies and not grandfather in existing expat clients.  Just imagine what might result from the next 911 type incident.

 

That means:

 

1.  keep the account active

2.  maintain a US phone number that rings at your home here in Thailand or on your cell phone

3.  Maintain a US mailing address.  So, renewal ATM and credit cards are only mailed to your US address, from which the mail forwarder relays it on to you in Thailand

4.  Use a VPN.  At the moment only vendors such as Netflix make the effort to determine wether a US ip address actually belongs to a commercial VPN provider, which is also trivial to do.  So far the banks haven't shown similar diligence, but one day that could change without notice.  The best solution, if you have the system skills, is to set up your own VPN server at a friend's house in the US.  If you're not up to that, then you could put a cheap laptop at the friend's house in the US, that is alway running with Teamviewer remote access software running.  Then you can connect to the laptop and access your US banks and brokerages from there.

 

The goal is always to stay under the radar as much as possible. 

[jippytum]

I recently oped another account with SCB  and although i am not from the USA the documentation i had to complete had several  questions not applicable to me but directed to US citizens . I understand the US authorities are informed of US citizens holding overseas bank accounts in Thailand .

[Pib]

Yes, even though you present a nonUS farang passport you could still be a dual citizen and also hold US citizenship & US passport. Those questions are designed for the bank to accomplish and document "due dilegince" under FATCA to identity if the person opening the account is also a US person.

[smotherb]

Yes, many US banks even have international accounts. My son opened one while he was here--they asked for a copy of his passport, a stateside address, the application form, and a deposit, of course.

[SEEDGER]

Suggest you read up on FATCA before opening a foreign account.

[Pib]

15 hours ago, SEEDGER said:

Suggest you read up on FATCA before opening a foreign account.

What is to read up on?  The whole purpose of FATCA is to ensure foreign banks and U.S. citizens report bank accounts owned by U.S. persons and interest earned (just like U.S. banks already do) so Uncle Sam's IRS can ensure he gets any tax due on that account since U.S. persons are subject to tax on a worldwide income basis (like it or not) barring a few exceptions. 

 

If it was not for people land banks hiding/not reporting such bank account/interest earned info there would be no FATCA.  And it actually been the "rich" folks who have brought this on to all of us by hiding millions of dollars in foreign accounts and not reporting them to include not reporting the interest earned....and of course some foreign banks being more than willing to open secret accounts.   And in some cases the owners were not reporting the accounts because money laundering related to illegal activities was going on to include tax not being paid.

 

So, if you are the type that does not want to report the X-thousand baht interest earned on your Thai bank account on your annual tax return then you are part of the reason FATCA exists today.  Personally, I find it easy enough to include the interest earned from my Thai bank accounts (just like from my U.S. bank accounts) on my federal return and do the one online FATCA report each year.    

[SEEDGER]

Wow, all I said was read up on FATCA. To many Americans no nothing of this  regulation that was all I was trying to say!