The World’s Best Bank Accounts for International Travelers and Nomads

Update on my experience: after receiving fairly large amount into my Revolut Premium account, and then sending some 60-65% of those in few smaller portions to my active cards, my account was frozen with a few thousand euro on it for verification of source of funds.
I have provided required documents immediately, and it took Revolut 7 working days to verify them or - as App was saying - to find the available agent.
Then I had compliance officer on help chat, who asked another couple of documents, and as I had them handy, I have send within an hour.
All those had satisfied the requirements and account was unfrozen.
Conclusion: apart of delays with verification, the process with alive agent went very smooth, and wend as easy as I would expect.

Hi All, Stumbled on your discussion looking for info on best way of transferring/withdrawing money while travelling in Europe. I’m US based and I will travel throughout Europe for 4-5 years. At this time all my bank accounts are in US. I do use Transferwise to send other people’s US pensions to Europe. My “problem”, or at least one of them: I will be constantly moving around, never more than a few months in the same country. Obviously, what I’m looking for is spend as little money on transfers, currency exchanges, and ATM fees as possible. So to all you wise people out there:

  • Transferwise has a new debit card: worth getting it?
  • Transferwise also has a borderless account
  • Capital One offers cards with no international fees: anyone knows if they offer one with no ATM fees too?
    I’ll look into the Schwab card too: sounds promising.
    Any other suggestions or links on this (credit/debit card) issue, or other issues like travelers’ insurance, driving a car Vs train travel?
    Thanks in advance

Hi Dan,

Do you opened the account outside the United States through a VPN and Mailbox in US?

( Alliant Credit Union and TIAA Bank)

Thanks

I opened both accounts while I was still in the US, but I accessed them from outside the US through a VPN exiting in the US. I kept my TravelingMailbox address.

Note, I’m philosophically disgusted by these geographic restrictions on where you are, that banks impose in order to, essentially, profit from your money. The notion of a “bank” is petty disgusting as well, but it’s a necessary evil still. I can’t wait until crypto becomes commonly enough accepted that we can get rid of these parasitic banks.

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thanks for your reply.

maybe it can be useful

Bitwala: A bank account with integrated cryptocurrency

Buy and sell cryptocurrencies and manage everyday banking from your fully licensed German online banking account.

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I contacted them because I wanted to open a brokerage account on their international branch, the agent told me they were in the process of closing non-US accounts lol…

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I’m having a bad experience with Monese. A transfer from a few thousands GBP to my Monese account is still to arrive after 3 weeks. Customer support is very slow to reply. They also have a lot of phone numbers, claiming they can speak different languages, but in fact nobody ever replied when I dialed.

Hi Thomas

I’m an Indian National, working in Dubai and a frequent traveller to many parts of the world from East to West. Have been looking for suitable bank ac for saving the fees that you mentioned in your article plus to have investments into many countries. Looking for the most easy and economic ac in Europe and US. Does N26 allow non European to hold an ac? As Charles Schwab doesnt allow non US citizen to hold an account what is the option for me for an ac in US sitting here in Dubai? Apreciate if anyone can share feedback. Many thanks.

What about Switzerland?Its part of Europe,geographically,not politically.
Can the mentioned cards be used there also?
My bank,postfinance,changed T&C while I am in India,and they are valid from 1.Sept 2020.
It allows them to block my account when I not Swiss resident,which I am not,so I need an alternative.
Any Suggestions.We plan to go sailing in the future.Atlantic ocean and pacific.

Hello Martin,

Check out Boslil Bank in St. Lucia, I don’t yet have an account with them but a broker based in England I am interested in uses them.

https://www.boslil.com/products-and-services/how-to-apply

I’m also considering TBC Bank in Georgia.

Look forward to talking about trade setups and time frames.

Cheers,

Akan

Thank you so much
will definitely do this.
Internet is so cool to get information to plan ahead of time !
I trade GBPJPY only,1min chart,which is scalping or swing depending on definition,but more tendence to scalp.
Apiary fund allows only a 2% open positions from the equity,but thats ok.
Have you heard about the beeline ?
Learning how to trade forex from scratch?

Wow!!! You are brave, that’s too much action on the 1min for me. GBPJPY looks good though. I do a 5min chart with 30min overview. GBPUSD or when I am feeling naughty XAUUSD. I’m 100% technical and avoid the news.

I only heard about them from you and looked them up. I have been trading for a while and can hold my own. Having said that, you have to keep learning in this game as you are up against not just skilled traders but absolute novices with enough funds in their account to make the chart defy logic.

One of my brokers is Alpari, you would like them. They have strategy manager accounts that you can manage for other traders and you set your profit sharing rates. I have a partner account with them and make $7 per trade for each standard lot from each referrals for life. Plus, every trader gets part of their spreads as a reward each week (I think the maximum payback is pegged at $200 per week). Max limit per trade is $50k (don’t know if the manager account has a limit)

Alpari was my second broker,I started around the year 2000.Apiary helped me to become consistent,as my system was not fully ok when I started with Apiary.
You get levelled up after 3 profitable months in a row.Starting with 1000$ only when the level gold 3 is reached in the beeline.I needed 2 years to be profitable,this month is the third.After 2 weeks you go up to 2500$,and then probably 5000 and so on with 60% profits.Up to 250 000$ and 85%profits to keep.There are many Indians registered because its not illegal to trade other peoples money : )
Its a 100$/month,first month is free,credit card required,after being funded,the fee is reduced to 60$.

Is the US Bank account still open to non-residents?

Hi Thomas, first of all, thanks for the article! I’ve been trying to open a bank account with Capital One 360 (have a US number and an address to fill in), however, I got stuck when it asks me for the Social Security Number (SSN)… So this means it cannot be open by someone not living in the US right? If so, I don’t think that bank should be recommended in this article (or others, as it’s very recommended for intl nomads) :sweat:

I don’t quite follow your logic. It’s recommended in the North American section, which is for residents/citizens there. If you reside (or have roots) elsewhere see the relevant section of the article.

It’s not a list of banks that you can open no matter your legal residency, but a list of banks that are good to have when traveling internationally (i.e. low international fees, etc).

If you want to open a bank in the US as a non-resident, see this article (though these are not necessarily the most travel friendly banks):

Wealthsimple Cash is another option for Canadian residents. Just like Stack it also has no FX fees, no ATM fees, and no monthly fees.

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Hello there,
I interested in N26 bank however, I live in unsupported country (Madagascar),
After reading the corresponded article here, N26 seems not require address verificaiton isn’t it?
Then, my quiestion is, “Is it possible if I will use vpn for supported countries for the delivery address, or use friends address there, and use their phone number but create an account in my names and ID?”
Thank you all

I opened up a N26 account from an unsupported country. VPN, local phone number all was quick. Obtaining a tax number helps. I have found that having a tax number is the same to fintech companies as being tax resident.

Today I’ve come across a fintech named “Utoppia” (yes, with a double ‘p’: www.utoppia.com ). They offer a US-based USD account to non-US residents (for now only in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, but they promise in 30 countries “soon”). The passport, checked online, is the only document required. No opening or maintenance fees, free ACH transfers in and out, free domestic wires in (not out), USD 30 for international wires in and 32 out. Free Mastercard debit card (plastic or virtual). There is no minimum balance, but after six months of balance below $500 they will charge $6 per month as inactivity fee.

They claim FDIC protection up to $250,000, as the actual banking services are provided by Evolve Bank (which also works with Wise) and Trust and Lineage Bank, members FDIC, but I’m not 100% sure that the $250K limit applies to each individual client account and not to a consolidated account held by Utoppia with those banks.

They also claim to handle crypto, using as underlying provider Wyre Payments, Inc.

A detailed FAQ is at https://utoppia.com/faqs.html

As usual, caveat emptor.

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