MetLife won’t send my monthly annuity digitally

[tijames]

I (68F) have lived in New Zealand for over 20 years. I am from California and have had a Wells Fargo checking account for my monthly Social security, my MetLife annuity and my trust payment. My trust is with Wells Fargo. Two years ago, Wells Fargo told me that I cannot have a checking account because I don’t live in the country and it is to stop money laundering. Fast forward to now. The trust wires my money into my New Zealand bank account, Social Security transfers my monthly payment into the same account. MetLife will only send me a paper check that takes 21 working days to clear after it arrives. Usually 3 weeks after it was sent. My bank here in New Zealand informed me yesterday when I took in my MetLife check that they will no longer be accepting foreign checks after march 2024. I called MetLife (not easy because they only have 800 numbers that won’t take a foreign call). They have informed me that they will not transfer my money and that I will need to get a US bank account and they will digitally deposit it to that.

At my age, living alone, I really count on this money. Can anyone out in reddit-land give me some ideas. A Swedish corp owns/runs 25 MetLife retirement communities in New Zealand. The U.S. is so backwards sometimes. Did anyone tell me that I couldn’t get this money if I moved outside the US…NO

 

[caliber45magnum]

@tijames Look into Wise (wise.com) - you should be able to open an account and then set up a USD container and an NZD denominated container. The USD container will come with a routing number and account number you can have your annuity deposited into. Youu transfer it to the NZD denominated Wise container and from there you can send it to your NZ bank account. You will pay fees for this but they're not terrible (personal opinion).

 

[tijames]

@caliber45magnum Thank you for your knowledge and taking the time. I feel as if I am being held hostage in a way.

 

[caliber45magnum]

@tijames Gladly. I hope it works for you. It's really been made more and more difficult to exist financially as a US citizen residing outside the states.

Another thing you might want to keep as a backup is seeing if you can open a State Dept Federal Credit Union bank account. It's the only bank I'm aware of that allows foreign addresses (since they serve State Dept employees). You have to be a member of an affiliated organization but you can get a free membership online to the American Consumer Council and that is sufficient to get membership. The ACA will email you a 'certificate' of membership that SDFCU will want. You could direct deposit there and maybe wire money to an NZ bank (or transit through Wise as previously noted). Good luck!

I learned all this on Reddit to setup my own financial bridge. Thanks redditors!

 

[nilo74]

@tijames Also take a look at State Department Federal Credit Union (https://www.sdfcu.org) they are expat friendly, and could be an excellent conduit for your money. Have your US payments go to SDFCU, then use Wise.com to transfer to your local account.

 

[ray47238519]

@tijames A Wise account is the solution.

 

[eee27]

@tijames Schwab should open you an international brokerage account no problem (they do have a minimum initial deposit though). Once you have that, you can deposit paper checks via phone app.

Edit: you still would want to use Wise, OFX, or CurrencyFair to convert and transfer to NZD, so this would only be if MetLife won't transfer direct to Wise (some places won't transfer to currency exchange accounts).

 

[tijames]

@eee27 Schwab used to have my trust but it fell to 500K and they didn’t want it anymore so gave it wells fargo where is have continually gone down even when everyone else’s rallied.

 

[mfinnergab]

@tijames I recommend you try to open an account at HSBC Premier. Then, use the HSBC premier staff to help you open an account at HSBC NA. Then, have your paper checks sent to HSBC NA's deposit-by-mail program.