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Ask HN: Online banks where I can open account worldwide?

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Re: Ask HN: Online banks where I can open account worldwide?

#61

Post by mz00 »

eerikkivistik wrote: post #21
eksemplar wrote: post #17

It’s not something I’ve looked into, but being from Denmark, one of the most digitised public sectors of Europe, I do hear about our competitors. I think you should look into Estonia, they offer digital citizenship and a range of other services. It’s not a full citizenship, but it allows you to do banking and create companies and such. Not sure how commonly accepted it is in other parts of Europe though. But I think…

The problem with Estonia is that I think you still need to travel here in person to open a bank account. The KYC laws are pretty strict. Source – I'm Estonian.

Holvi (Finnish payment processor) allows you to open corporate account for Estonian E-Residency LLC without visiting Estonia. Works well.

Re: Ask HN: Online banks where I can open account worldwide?

#64

Post by pushtheenvelope »

hocuspocus wrote: post #53

Good options have been mentioned this thread. With EU-based neo-banks, I believe that because of the KYC guidelines, you'll always need a somewhat permanent address in Europe (like friends/family) that can forward you the card, when you open your account. However if you just need a replacement card, many can send it internationally, at least for a fee.

I'm curious if the Estonian e-residency can help workaround the need for an European permanent address?

(wrote this prior to trying to google around for the info)

Re: Ask HN: Online banks where I can open account worldwide?

#65

Post by rsync »

Are any of the options listed in this comment thread available to US citizens ?

My understanding has been that US "Know Your Customer" laws make it very difficult for these banks to work with US customers and so they just choose not to. For instance, unless you have $10M or more, you cannot walk into Zurich Kantonalbank (for instance) and open up a bank account. They don't want your money.

Is that not also true of Revolut and N26 and the other options in this thread - or are those all paypal clones that work differently than actual banks ?

Re: Ask HN: Online banks where I can open account worldwide?

#66

Post by robin_reala »

rsync wrote: post #65

Are any of the options listed in this comment thread available to US citizens ? My understanding has been that US "Know Your Customer" laws make it very difficult for these banks to work with US customers and so they just choose not to. For instance, unless you have $10M or more, you cannot walk into Zurich Kantonalbank (for instance) and open up a bank account. They don't want your money. Is that not also true of Re…

Blame FATCA[1] and the bizarre US policy of taxing ex-pats on foreign earnings. No non-US bank wants to touch US citizens now because of it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance...

Re: Ask HN: Online banks where I can open account worldwide?

#67

Post by sshadmand »

orf wrote: post #12

Revolut[1] seems perfect, I cannot recommend them enough. With their premium plan you get 1% cashback on all card purchases outside the EU as well. The support is great, if your card gets cloned or something. You also can fluidly and transparently transfer between all different currencies at the interbank rate, which I find is great for travelling back home (Most of my cash is in Euros). They are really, really good.…

Love revolut. The ability to store income in multiple currencies (and transition between them easily) is great. Personal accounts are free, so it is easy to try out. It is a zero interest account for business AND they charge a fee on top of that. I think they (or someone else) could do it more intelligently (like a Robinhood) for a zero fee setup.

Re: Ask HN: Online banks where I can open account worldwide?

#68

Post by no1youknowz »

robin_reala wrote: post #54
orf wrote: post #12

Revolut[1] seems perfect, I cannot recommend them enough. With their premium plan you get 1% cashback on all card purchases outside the EU as well. The support is great, if your card gets cloned or something. You also can fluidly and transparently transfer between all different currencies at the interbank rate, which I find is great for travelling back home (Most of my cash is in Euros). They are really, really good.…

I’ve been a bit wary of Revolut after it turned out they were making potential job applicants engage in an MLM to secure an interview: https://twitter.com/mellino/status/1054473108936122368?s=12

That thread is funny, their twitter account which is probably run by a Z level employee tried to stick up for the company and was completely blasted by commentators and didn't respond back.

Credibility. Gone.

Re: Ask HN: Online banks where I can open account worldwide?

#69

Post by fyfy18 »

scrollaway wrote: post #46
dmichulke wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ex-customer here: Beware, N26 is not "mobile first", it's "mobile only". If you intend to use it without mobile phone or your mobile phone doesn't use the original Google Play services (e.g. due to LineageOS), then you can't confirm transactions and that makes it pretty useless.

Your statement about lineageos does not match my experience. I've been running lineageos and never had an issue like that. Are you confusing transactions with Google pay support? The latter doesn't support rooted phones.

Google Pay doesn't "support" rooted phones, but it's pretty easy to get it working with something that hides the fact your phone is rooted, like Magisk.

Re: Ask HN: Online banks where I can open account worldwide?

#70

Post by akvadrako »

rsync wrote: post #65

Are any of the options listed in this comment thread available to US citizens ? My understanding has been that US "Know Your Customer" laws make it very difficult for these banks to work with US customers and so they just choose not to. For instance, unless you have $10M or more, you cannot walk into Zurich Kantonalbank (for instance) and open up a bank account. They don't want your money. Is that not also true of Re…

I, solely a US person, have accounts with N26, Revolut and Transferwise. None are officially banks.

I recommend Transferwise because they support ACH transfers and US$ balances.

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