U.S. citizen opening a European online savings account (recommendations)

[moonrabbit]

Hello,

I just accepted a consulting job with a Berlin based company that uses Payoneer. As a U.S. citizen living in the States, I have bank accounts located in the U.S. Using Payoneer, there is a conversion fee to exchange Euro to Dollar when transferring to a U.S. bank for every paycheck.

I'm curious if anyone knows of an online savings or checking account that is located in Europe (using the appropriate European bank routing numbers) that also has a U.S. connection? In other words, I'm looking for an online European bank account that can transfer to the U.S. without transaction fees. A tall order but crossing my fingers there's an answer.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[inquisitivesoul]

@moonrabbit Unlikely any european bank would want to take you: first - compliance with FATCA is too much of a hassle, second - KYC rules, many banks want to see the client in person.

Check if they can transfer money to Interactive Brokers. It's a reputable american broker so you will have zero problems with it. They have multicurrency accounts. For incoming euro payments, their receiving bank account is in German Citibank, you just need to be able to specify a custom reference message with your brokerage account name. For currency conversion they're unbeatable.

 

[clarityaim]

@moonrabbit Another solution would be to open a Schwab one brokerage account in the US; incoming international wires are free and their exchange rate is the forex rate (best you can expect to get pretty much). Even the "interbank" exchange rate will be worse because they make it worse than the market rate to account for market fluctuations.

So what I would do is just have an account in Europe and send yourself funds by bank wire to your Schwab account.

Another great point : You can use your Schwab ATM card globally and get reimbursed for ATM fees.

Only thing I would caution against is that if you have regular transactions below 10,000, you need to talk to Schwab to make sure you won't run afoul of IRS structuring rules. If your salary is close to that number I would talk with your bank first before doing this.

 

[inquisitivesoul]

@clarityaim Schwab's FX markup is about 0.3% AFAIK. Cheaper than most banks, but not the best you can do. For reference, IB will change your currency for 0.002%

 

[clarityaim]

@inquisitivesoul Good point, I forgot about that.

 

[thuyhien]

@inquisitivesoul Are you talking about Schwab's FX markup in incoming foreign currency in their brokerage account?

If that is, I have tested it and I have been charged around .8% markup, but I have moved little money.

Officially, I have read the markup is 1% if under 100,000 USD with Schwab.

I agree IB might be the best option though, it would depend on the volume and amounts as IB charges a minimum of 2USD per FX conversion and there's a minimum of 10 USD commission per month if you have less than 100k USD in the account.

So let's say you only made 1 FX conversion in a month, and you have less than 100k USD in IB, you will pay 2 USD + 8 USD to get to 10 USD.

 

[monamie]

@moonrabbit EU Bank that will take a non-resident US Person which has a US connection and no transaction fees?

Expecting a bit much it seems.

Banks in different countries are different companies. You could transfer between certain banks in real time or close to real time at no cost but with certain status. This will still result in subprime FX rates.

Banking as a US Person anywhere but the USA will be an extremely difficult venture. Nobody wants to deal with FATCA basically. Compliance department costs are too high to cater for the amount of wealth non-res US Persons deposit. If you are wealthy enough, obviously the banks do take the risk, though the number of clients is minimal and finite.

If you do manage to open an account in the EU, forget about the SWIFT transfer and bank "connection" in the USA. You will be fine with transferwise or a similar service like currencyfair.

Now, begin the leg work, because honestly it will be very difficult for a pedestrian account.

 

[randymci]

@moonrabbit I use schwab and then transferwise to move funds. The fees are pretty low and it's much faster and easier than a wire.

 

[moonrabbit]

Thanks everyone for your input. It was very helpful. I didn't know that about Schwab and I checked with a Schwab rep and they use SWIFT numbers so it's a go!

Thanks again!

 

[edram]

@moonrabbit check transferwise bordeless account, they might charge lower fees then payoner for exchanging EUR to USD (you will get EUR and USD local accounts)