Um, the “Nomad friendly banks in Oceania” section is labeled “Nomad friendly banks in North America” in the table of contents at the top of the article. Surely I’m not the only person in over 4 years to notice that?
1 Like
HSBC Australia now lets non-residents open the Everyday Global Account mentioned in the article online, by scanning a passport and taking a selfie.
HSBC Hong Kong offers the ‘HSBC One’ account, which has no monthly maintenance fee or minimum balance, and a debit mastercard with no foreign transaction fees that lets you spend in 12 currencies. This account can also be opened online using a passport and taking a selfie. If you don’t have enough balance in a currency, the transaction will be settled in Hong Kong Dollars, using an exchange rate set by HSBC, with Jade customers given a ‘preferential’ rate. Cash withdrawals at HSBC ATMs worldwide are free, for non-HSBC ATMs you are charged 40HKD. A UnionPay ATM card is also included that lets you spend in stores with no foreign transaction fees using the UnionPay exchange rate, however, withdrawing with the UnionPay card at an HSBC ATM costs 20HKD, and at a non-HSBC ATM it costs 50HKD, so it’s best to use the Mastercard. If you are an HSBC customer in your country, you can open one remotely at a local branch.
I just opened an account with N26 remotely using their website and app. Everything went smoothly and I selected the Standard Plan per the writeup from @tkrunning as ‘best for most’ since I do not require any additional insurance.
I transferred 1 000 euros into the account and was unhappily surprised to find that my balance only showed 986,50 euros - ouch.
It turns out that they charge 12,50 euros + 0.1% ‘deposit’ fee (!)
Really N26, a hefty deposit fee? in 2024?
@tkrunning you should definitely list that as a pretty big ‘con’ in your otherwise enthusiastic review. My bad for not researching ‘deposit’ fees, but I would have expected a mention in the review.
1 Like
Was this an incoming non-SEPA transfer? Those are generally charged extra by most (all?) banks as there are associated costs for using the SWIFT network.
There are no fees to receive a standard SEPA transfer. If you’re topping up your account from a non-EU bank I recommend using Wise as an intermediary.
The transfer was from another European bank.
While digging around on the N26 website I found this mention: SWIFT * Incoming transfers of €150 and above, will be charged with a 12.50€ fee + 0.1% on the amount received. If you signed-up or upgraded your account after 07/07/2021 , the fee applies to all N26 accounts, except N26 Metal and N26 Business Metal.
I’ve not seen that type of fee before. Neither of my two other European bank accounts charge an IBAN/SWIFT deposit fee (or an outgoing one for that matter). Unhappy surprise with N26 fees, but now I know.
1 Like