Opening a bank account in America as a non-resident alien
April 28th, 2007
This used to be really easy: pick a big bank, check that they opened accounts for non-residents, then pop your application in the post.
Post 9/11 though the Patriot Act is with us and it imposes such stringent “know your customer” regulations on the banks that it’s no longer possible to open an account online with any American bank if you are a foreigner and don’t live in America. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t open accounts with American banks, just that you can’t do it online anymore.
So what are your options if you find yourself in need of an American bank account yet don’t actually want to visit America to open one?
There are three basic options that are known to work:
1. Form an American company and then open the account for it. This option is obviously a bit over the top if you’re only making $50 a month from your online empire although it’s probably the best way to go if you’re making a living online.
2. Try opening an account with a bank that operates both in America and your own country. The two most common options for this are HSBC and Citibank as they seem to operate in more countries than most.
3. Open a brokerage account with one of the brokers catering to non-residents.
In practice, the third option is by far the simplest for most people. Most American brokerage firms operating overseas cater exclusively for high net-worth clients (ie assets of $100,000 and more) but two offer accounts for the masses. Schwab has a minimum of $10,000, Etrade has a minimum of $1,000 although you can open it with zero cash upfront.
How come the brokers can manage to give you a bank account when nobody else seems to be able to? Simply because the brokerage outfits operate as integrated international organisations whereas the banks don’t (eg Citibank USA isn’t the same as Citibank UK).
The etrade account is free for the first 12 months. After that, it costs $40 per quarter unless you meet their requirements which are either 1) $10,000 balance or 2) $1000 in automated credits per month or 3) one share trade during the period. If you don’t have the $10k and don’t have the $1k going in, then it is cheaper to buy or sell some shares than pay the $40.
The second option isn’t quite so popular mainly because it isn’t as well known. The easiest way is if you have a premium account with either Citibank or HSBC in your own country as your relationship manager will be able to do it for you. These services are CitiGold and HSBC Premier but the downside is that the rough requirements for them is that you have $50,000 on deposit with them, or have an income of $75,000 or have a mortgage of $200,000 with them (roughly; the requirements vary depending on the country).
Next easiest (and more economical) is to phone Citibank or HSBC in America and they’ll open an ordinary account for you on presentation of the appropriate ID and, sometimes, a bank reference. Citibank seems more geared up for this: call their International Personal Banking people on 001-813-604-3000
That’s just saved you between $5 and $250 which is about the going rate to buy the relevant information as above. Swiss bank accounts are slightly more difficult but definitely not worth paying the $1000 or more that I’ve seen quoted to provide you with the information. I’ll be covering Swiss banks in a later article, but if you can’t wait, pop a comment on this post and I’ll pass the information on to you (free!), likewise for other countries.
Don’t forget though that the first question you should ask yourself is: why do I need an American bank account? Google will only make payments into an American account if you live there and Citibank offers a US$ account in the UK (and other countries) which will let you deposit US$ cheques free of charge. It’s really only Paypal that requires such an account and even then that’s only if you live in one of the countries for which they don’t support withdrawals direct to your bank account.
This is part of our series on international banking which covers how to open and use accounts in various jurisdictions around the world including France, Switzerland and various offshore banking centers such as the Channel Islands, Isle of Mann and Bermuda.
An updated version of this article is on our expat banking site which also includes access to the detailed opening instructions that many people have asked for.
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I would like to know if it is possible to open an online account in France, and what is the easiest way of dooing it.
Kind regards,
Byron.
As far as I know it’s not possible to open accounts online in France. However, most of the banks offer an online service once you have the account open.
I’ve quite a list of these in the directory at http://www.foreignperspectives.com/directory/index.php?c=40 and a run-down on French banking generally at http://www.foreignperspectives.com/livinginfrance/04banking.php which is also worth reading as their banking is quite different from the norm in several key areas.
The true internet banks in France are Ing and AxaDirect but they won’t let you open an account if you aren’t resident in France.
In practical terms, the easiest option is probably http://www.britline.com which is a phone & internet banking branch set up by Credit Agricole in Normandy. They do full service (for France) banking.
You don’t need to go to France to open the accounts. What they will require is a photocopy of your passport and a utility bill (ie landline phone, electricity, gas). One seemingly minor question that they will ask is “why are you opening this account?”. Be careful what you say on this one as it is recorded and may be used should you subsequently want to get a mortgage in France, for example.
Hi!
I’ve read your article recently and I think its important to support this kind of topics because the knowledge its the key for success. Great work!
I’m interested in open an account in Switzerland and I would appreciate if you could send me the information you’ve mentioned in the article. If you know how to open an US account I will thank if you share that information too.
Thanks a lot
Kind Regards
The main reason I want to open bank account in America is their high interest rate on internet account like ING direct, or HSBC direct.
I’m not sure they allow foreigner who doesnt live in the US to open account though.
I live in ASIA where interest rate is meager 2% on saving
Hi,
A very revealing and comprehensive post on opening a US account as a non-resident.
Could you please furnish me with information on how to open a switzerland bank account as indicated on your post? I reside outside switzerland
Thanks
atakon2000@yahoo.com is my email address
The Swiss info is coming soon (probably during September). I’m researching it as some of what were previously the best options are no longer available.
I am a writer, a British Citizen, living in Argentina and my work will be published in the US - naturally I want to collect my pay which is in small amounts at a time (say a few hundred dollars) and not constant, but frequent enough. What are my best banking options?
Ordinarily the simplest option would be to open a Citibank US$ account in Argentina but they don’t seem to offer the type of account there that you need (the normal dollar savings accounts won’t do). It would be worthwhile asking them if they would cash a US$ cheque free as they may do but just don’t publicise it very well; they certainly appear to offer the appropriate account elsewhere in the world.
Second option would be to call Citibank/HSBC in America (see above for contacts) and open an account with them directly. Check out the charges on this though as non-resident accounts often have charges which resident accounts don’t. If they say no initially, ask if it makes a difference if you already have a Citibank/HSBC account elsewhere (it usually does).
If those don’t work and you still have an address that you can use in the UK, you could open a sterling account with Citibank in the UK, then once that’s opened, open a US$ savings account and deposit your cheques there. You can link the Citicard to the US$ savings account and thereby withdraw your cash in Argentina more or less free (you’d just need to post your cheques to the UK).
The final option would be to go for the etrade account, but watch the account charges which run to $160/year unless you meet their criteria as above.
Incidently, the UK offshore accounts (Channel Islands etc.) won’t do as the US$ accounts offered charge to deposit US$ cheques.
As it seems to be the most popular choice after an American account, I’ll be posting the relevant information for Switzerland next, probably in early September. I’m current looking into the various options for that.
Up until last year, the best option by a long was SwissPost, the Swiss Post Office. Sadly, although you’ll still see that on various websites, you can only open accounts with them if you live in Switzerland. They do say on their website that you can open accounts if you live in the surrounding countries (ie France, Germany, Luxembourg and Italy) but this is not the case as I tried it out and they simply won’t do it.
The current front runner is an account based in Switzerland that lets you hold balances in various currencies plus gives you an optional Visa debit card (there’s a, relatively small, charge for that).
As for America, the Citibank/HSBC options also exist but I gather that they are quite expensive (I’m looking into this).
High street banks are also an option but come with a charge of SF 75 (about US$60) per year if you live outside Switzerland.
I’ll be covering “numbered” accounts too… these aren’t quite what most people think they are.
Anyway, unless you’re in desperate need of an account in Switzerland right now, it’s probably best to wait ’til September instead of paying up to $1000 for the information that’ll be provided here for nothing.
i am from nigeria and i would like to open an account in the US and i would greatly appreciate it if you can help me out if i can get a us accout thanks
I am also interested in info on opening Swiss bank accounts fro non-residents
Hi how can i have an us account as non resident?
please hehp me at this.
thanks
i need a usa account but i from nigeria.
———-
Try the e-trade one. It doesn’t appear to exclude Nigerians.
Unfortunately paypal doens’t pay out to us here in south africa. So I think I contact citibank. I am also intrested in the swiss bank account information. Its almost october now, so hope the info is availlable. Thank you. Kind regards,
The online option of Etrade seems to have vanished as I can’t find any account whcih doesn’t have this requirement:
“Eligibility Requirements
Applicants must be 18 years of age or older
Only U.S. residents with valid Social Security numbers may apply online”
Only on the global trading account is there an option for non US residents and it limits the aplicants to Europe/Africa, Middle East, Asia/Pacific, No local continent applications (Latin America, Brazil) apparently… and a minimum $1000 for a cash account or $2000 for a margin account. It also only seems to be a trading account, no banking account associated with it…
————–
You could never apply online unless you lived in America. The references here require you to post off the application form along with a photocopy of your passport.
It might state that the minimum is $1000 but in practice they let you open it with no balance.
Most American brokerage accounts have an associated cash account ie a bank account. The account that e-trade will open for you with the form referred to here is such an account although as e-trade are a registered bank in America it’s directly via themselves which isn’t the case for all brokerage type accounts. You can use this account exactly as you would a normal American bank account because it is a normal bank account (many Americans do this), despite being referred to as a “trading account” and similar things. You can certainly register it with paypal and do credits to it and you can also get the debit card. The only downside is that because it is, as you say, primarily a trading account then there are charges for not trading with it (see the post for these).
My understanding is that you can open the account from any country in the world with the exception of, probably, Vietnam and Cuba. For the American account, there is nothing excluding South/Central America as such and indeed they offer account servicing in Spanish which certainly implies that they have quite a large Latin American client base. However, if there is a problem in Latin America, Citibank operate in most of those countries so that should be a viable alternative.
hello
i am looking for a way to
1 detailed information on how to open a u.s account as a non resident…….
2 detailed information on how to open a free swiss account as a non resident
3.as i will soon be travelling on tourism to nigeria …i want to know how comfortably i can cash my money
4 i was thinking if u can give a good list of banks that open this non-resident account in the u.s & uk
thanks
look forward to your response
david
————
I’ll be scanning in completed forms for the e-trade account later this week.
I’m just back from Switzerland so will be adding info on that in the next few weeks.
For travel money, see our holiday money article which is very comprehensive.
There are only three American banks that will definitely open accounts for non-residents: e-trade, Citibank and HSBC.
Most UK banks will open non-resident accounts. Depending on your nationality and country of residence, your best bets are generally Citibank and HSBC in that they own banks in most countries of the world. Other suitable options are Barclays, LloydsTSB, Halifax/Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland which all have offshore banking centres (I’ll be covering those soon). It is usually easier to open an account in one of the UK offshore islands (Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man and Gibraltar) than in the UK itself as banks based in those islands are more accustomed to dealing with international customers. Minimum deposit is usually £1,000 to £5,000 but some accept as low as £1 (but that one has an annual charge of £50).
Can this e-trade account do direct debits? The reason for this is because I own an Investment property in Florida and need a bank that does direct debits to pay the mortgage. Also for the Management company to pay rent into.
————–
Sadly, no, it doesn’t support direct debits although you can pay money into it by wire transfer and so on.
For direct debits, your best bet would be either the Citibank or HSBC accounts in that both let you do free international transfers to Citibank/HSBC accounts in your own country.
Im Brazilian and I had an account in TheBancorp, in Delawere. After Patriotic Act my account was closed. If I remember well I could open that account (with ATM debit card) through a company named Valis but I could not find it again Googling them on net. I read all post and comments here but does anyone knows another way to open a non-resident American bank account? I have a website and an Ebay store. Just need to transfer my money to a bank and withdrawl it at any ATM machine, thanks.
———–
You can still open accounts via Valis (they are http://www.valis.org) and many other companies. Their method involves creating a company in America (usually in Delaware) and then using that to open the bank account. However, as I implied in the original post, this is going to cost a fortune and isn’t worthwhile unless you are making a lot of money online (say $1000 or more per month) as you will need to prepare accounts for the company which in turn probably means getting an American accountant.
I’ll be adding full details of how to open the e-trade account within the next week or so (I have all the forms and will be scanning in completed versions; it can’t get any simpler). This is by far the simplest and cheapest way to go for most people.
Hi
I too would be very interested in these forms for the e-trade account.
Many thanks.
Alan
Where are the full details on the e-trade account?
Hello,
I called Citibank for an ordinary account and their monthly fee is $50 (you need to credit $25,000 each month in order to avoid this fee), and the minimum credit to open the account is $25,000. I checked Schwab site for an International account and again, minimum credit required to open the account is $25,000, but they don’t charge a transaction fee. Etrade is $0 to open, but they don’t give a debit or ATM or credit card and to activate the account, you need to credit $1,000. And you can accept payments free to this account but each out-transfer is $25. I need an account with no transaction fee, low opening limit and an ATM, debit or credit card. If anyone helps, thank much in advance.
—–
Call Citibank again. They offer accounts from as low as $1 opening balance. However, not all their customer service people are as clued up on the accounts as you would expect them to be. It may be slightly easier to open one of these accounts if you already have a Citibank in your own country.
You can get a debit card from e-trade. Once you open the account you can login and request it (unless they’ve changed the rules fairly recently - others have been able to do this even with a zero balance). Transfers out aren’t really an issue in that you could write yourself a check or just use the debit card. Transfers within America are free, international ones attract the $25 fee.
Unless you have to have an account in America or one in dollars, my personal favourite is the Pathfinder Worldwide account offered by the Co-Operative Bank in Guernsey. It is £1000 (about $2000) to open BUT you don’t need to maintain that balance. It comes with a debit card and there are no transaction fees for normal operations (as always, international transfers don’t count as “normal transactions”).
As a general point, bear in mind that holding accounts outside your own country almost always means paying more than you would do for a domestic account. Also, most people who think they need an overseas account usually don’t (a very broad generalisation!).
Thank you sc much for information on opening a u.s.bank account.I look foward to the step-by-step procedure needed to get an e-trade account.Thank you once again.
People can contact Etrade directly by phone, i personally delt with the USA customer service and then the Hongkong branch that deals with asia pacific area as i live in New Zealand.
contact us by phone at (+Dial out code for your country) then dial 1 678 624 6210.
The hong kong branch customer service guy was amazingly positive and helpfull, he sent all the forms i needed with in 3 minutes of hanging up the phone to my email.
I am all set apply for the account now so we can sell our books on Amazon and another USA based online stores etc.
Etrade seems to have many answers to issues in the finance world small business options and fits in with our company philosophy, http://www.positiveenergy.info
Great stuff and good luck to you all
Best Regards
Grant Simpson
New Zealand
Hello,
I want to opne an personal bank account in USA.I want online acces and ATM credit/debit card. I’m from Europe-Romania.Please note that i want to opne this account without travel in USA.So,please let em know how it works?Please answer at this questions:
1. I will have an Bank of America account?If not provide the banks that are availabel?
2. I will have online acces and ATM card?
3.What is the limit card on day?
4.How much take the procces?
5.I will receive all the papers including the ATM card home at the address that i will provide?
6.My account accept to link PayPal?
7.I will cal receive transfers from any USA bank account?
Please let em know how can we start.I wait your email with the steps and all instructions.
Thanks!
1. In principle you can do Bank of America but see http://www.wholeearthguide.co.uk/i-weg-zr-er101-en.htm which includes the link required to get the bank account opening kit.
2. Yes. It’s a Visa Debit card which you can use to buy things or to withdraw cash.
3. It’s a debit card so there isn’t a credit limit as such. As far as I know there is no limit on it so long as you have the funds in your account.
4. It doesn’t cost anything to open the account. Obviously you need to put some money in the account but that remains your money.
5. They post everything to you.
6. Yes, it’ll work fine with PayPal.
7. It’s a proper bank account so you can receive bank transfers from America or anywhere else in the world.
Arnold