The Ultimate Guide to Banking for Estonian E-residents

When I left the banking world in Estonia to become location-independent, I would have never guessed that I’d end up writing about Estonian banks just a few months later . It’s a nice round off for me and hopefully beneficial for you.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://nomadgate.com/banking-estonian-e-residents/
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Why do people use LHV over TransferWise? Are the monthly fee’s of 20EUR worth it?
…A lot of digital nomads tend to say TW is not a real bank? Would you agree?

I use both.

In general I think it’s very risky to only have one bank account for your business.

TransferWise is great for receiving and sending all sorts of currencies.

As I use Xolo for accounting it’s only €10 extra per month for LHV.

Cash parked with LHV is insured up to €100,000.

No negative interest rates for large EUR deposits.

There’s no card spend limit with LHV.

You can invest with LHV.

My Xolo accountant can prepare tax payments in LHV and I just have to confirm when I get a push notification.

There’s way less likely that you’ll have problems with larger transactions with LHV than TransferWise (or any fintech).

LHV’s customer support is amazing. If they have any questions about transactions or anything else they’ll just call you and check, then release funds right away (rather than blocking your account, returning the payment to sender, or whatever else might happen with a fintech).

To me it’s easily worth the extra cost, but it may not be for everyone.

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Thomas gave a very good overview, why someone might consider using LHV together with Transferwise.

I would add, that LHV offers an unlimited amount of free SEPA transfers. If a company makes lots of transfers in the EU/EEA area, then part (or all) of the monthly fees will be offset due to that.

There is also a possibility to apply for business loans from LHV, which is not an option with TransferWise.

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