US bank accounts for Europeans?
 

I need a bank account in the US to handle all my US transactions. Anybody know a good bank that offer accounts that have checks,CC and internet banking to Europeans?

bump

It is very hard to open a US bank account from abroad. You need $$$$ deposit, many documents, some US employee etc.

In fact its piss easy to open a US bank account.
We have a bunch of accounts.
and no you dont need emplyees etc as for docs you do need a notars form clear ID etc but other than its a breeze.

in which banks?

I am Canadian, and I can have a USD account in my canadian bank.. maybe you can do it in EU too !

it's different thing to open a USD account in your country from opening a USD account in states.

So do you have any contact info?

Just start an LLC in the states.... have your lawyer take care of that :thumbsup

i dont think u can do it if u are not in usa

Na, too much hassle, all I need is a bank account.

milambur:

Depends what you wish to achieve - If it is simply a US $ account, you can open one at almost any bank in Europe.

Doing that in the US is more hassle than anyone needs - it's a sperm count and the last ten years DNA samples, just in case one year is different :-)

Depending on where you ae in Europe is going to depend on how easy/hard it is to open a US business account.

I know in the UK there are several banking facilities that will be able to help you with this including CityBank and Lloyds.

Regards,

Lee

Your best bet is to make yourself a corperation in either Nevada or D.C...

European Lee:

I was wondering where milambur was :-)

Yea.. almost any high street bank in the UK offers dollars accounts, - in fact, it's almost the same all over Europe.

Tho he may have something else in mind :-)

milambur:

If you do have "something else in mind" and live in the UK - just open a $ account in Eire.

Allied Irish is very accomodating on loads of stuff :-)

:1orglaugh :glugglug

Actually thanks for reminding me...

We have to close our Eire account down they started to hit us with heavy charges in the past few months :(

Regards,

Lee

European Lee:

You mean with Allied Irish in particular?

Sounds like ya need to have a word with a Paddy and tell him to get his act together :-)

Eire is actually very good these days, depending on what you want.

I just noticed last week, an Economist survey was showing Eire was rated top in the world.

That compares with.. eg.. mainland UK at a 29th ranking, US at 20th, Finland and Sweden were in the top 5 - 10.

Sure can believe UK is 29th - one of the reasons I pissed off out of the place :winkwink:

Allied Irish.

They have been good for the past few years but recently they hiked up their charges for business accounts and to be honest we dont push a lot of funds through them and dont forsee doing so in the immediate future.

We're trying to get something sorted with St James Bank where i have one of my personal accounts but for the most part they prefer to deal with 'private' accounts as its much easier for them i guess lol

Who knows [shrug]

Regards,

Lee

European Lee:

Now that's what happens when people get high rankings - it seems to go to their heads and they assume customers might pay:glugglug

Wanna shotgun??

Nah ill settle for closing the account LOL

Regards,

Lee

I live in Sweden, and the intention with getting a bank account in the US is to lower costs, at the moment I burn alot of money paying high fees and getting shitty exchange rates. I'm thinking of getting an USD account in Europe, but in Sweden that is a real hassle. An account in the US would get lower wire fees and check cashing fees, that is really the only reason for getting an account there.

Hi

I opened an accoutn with Wells Fargo Bank all done over the internet.... They send you all the paperowkr you need to fill in and ask for a Banck Referal Statement from any 2 bancks you are/were working with...

It happened, though it took about 1+ month..

Also anohter downside is that (ate least in the begining) u cannot do online wire treanfsers or manage ur account in any ways online... except from asking and replying emails with them:P:P

Once the account opened they send you a debit card and a check book and they say the draw limit on the card is 300 USD / day (which suck!!!)

Nonethelsss, you would have an USD Bank account...

If it matters.. i am from eastern europe.. which makes it harder for us to get things done both in western europe and overseas as well...

The guy who refered them to me told me tht its very probabble that in a few months, after i feed the acoutn and show them i am a good client. i coul dget the option to do wires and stuf...

We'll see ....

PS the opening amount is 100USD which should be deposited by wire transfer (they'll tell you how to do it)


I hope this helps

Chhers

I think there was a service where you could send all your smallish checks and ask a wire when the amount is big enough...

I would be interested in such service also if it exsist..:)

Interesting :)
So you need 2 different bank references...
One is not enough? Should the bank references come from your official homecountry or will any bank do..?

Did they asked for some utility bill?:thumbsup

Interesting, but when I tried to fill in the forms, they asked for an SSN, how did you get by that?

No US bank I know allows wire transfers to be done online. So the only way to spend your moolah will be via the bank cards.

I would suggest open a Swiss postal account in USD

Well, u need to sign up as under the international.......

I signed up for a cheking account...

Here are the steps:

https://wellsfargo.com/

Under "Open account aonline" click on "apply now"

Scrol downa dn under international click on cheking account

and follow the steps from there.. tidious work.. but it works ;)

I'll check back wiht youa nd see how it goes...

Cheers

That is what I did, when I got to the passport page they ask for a Social Security Number. Since I don't have one I can't go any futher.

Appy for one, download this form and send it.

W7 form.

http://www.irs.gov/app/vita/content/.../images/w7.pdf


You need a notorized or certified passporte or 2 copies of identification be it drivers license and another id

Fly to New York or Florida and enter the first bank you see. I have plenty of accounts in the US and never had a bank in the US deny my application.

It helps a lot if you have a US mailing address (rent a mailbox and have your mail forwarded). This is needed to receive your bank card (visa or mastercard check card) as they will not ship these to foreign addresses.

If you can't travel to US, contact www.bankofamerica.com and they will give you a phone number to call.

Ok.. dunno

I'll have to check with them.... i'l get back with info...


Cheers

We have used bank of america , wells fargo to name a few.
Only probs we ever have is sending wires out from the account,
need to fax all kinds of shit over.

But other than that and with a kick ass accountant works great.
Plus all the usuall atm visa cards etc.

BTW you can also try AMERCIAN EXPRESS BANK in your country. Open a US$ account and make a deposit. You will be able to depsit US-checks into this account without charges.

bullshit.



all you need is ID