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Bank Accounts for Travelers
08-23-2011, 06:58 PM
I was in Colombia for a month recently and got hit with some ugly charges for using my card (Chase bank) to get pesos from ATMs.
I'm hittin the road again in a few weeks, but I don't want to make the same mistake. Any advice on a good bank to use for traveling?
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Bank Accounts for Travelers
08-23-2011, 07:46 PM
Open a Charles Schwab brokerage account. it's free and you get a free checking account with it. No exchange fees, market exchange rates, no ATM fees, works with every ATM in the world.
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08-23-2011, 08:11 PM
I also vouch for the Charles Schwab account. Been using it the past 8 months and am getting exchange rates very close to spot.
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Bank Accounts for Travelers
08-23-2011, 09:19 PM
I used Bank of America last time I was abroad. Horrible horrible fees, shitty shitty phone support. Today I actually switched over to Capitol One. No international ATM fees, and I get "points" for every purchase I made on my card. I don't want to say that Capitol One is good just yet, but I've heard good things
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Bank Accounts for Travelers
08-24-2011, 02:57 AM
Ditto with Schwab. I've been using it for the past 1.5 years abroad and I've never had a SINGLE problem in the roughly 40 countries I've used it. It's amazing, they even refund the ATM withdrawal fees some foreign banks charge in countries like Panama, Malaysia, and Thailand ($5 per ATM withdrawal there). And when my card expired they even sent me a new one in some fucked up country by Fedex (which must have cost them at least $80).
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Bank Accounts for Travelers
08-24-2011, 03:09 PM
In case any of you live on the east coast, TD bank also offers amazing international exchange rate at the ATM. I'm in Europe right now and every ATM I used gave exact rates plus no ATM fees.
Problem is they are not a national bank yet so only popular in northeast and Florida: tdbank.com
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Bank Accounts for Travelers
08-24-2011, 07:07 PM
The Schwab account looks awesome however, it's only open for US citizens/residents. Now a question to my canuck brothers in here: is there a similar account for us Canadians where you wouldn't be charged international ATM fees? I'm all ears guys!
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Bank Accounts for Travelers
08-25-2011, 01:46 AM
Every traveler should have a bank account so that you can keep your money safe. You can also transfer your money before your tour. If you're traveling around then, then best option for you to go with the bank which has most branches and ATM's so that you can use their ATM without paying big fees and for using other banks ATM's.
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Bank Accounts for Travelers
08-27-2011, 03:01 AM
If you make more then that, or live somewhere else where the cost of living makes going over that wage easy then you have to deal with tons of BS, and possibly be double taxed. You'll have to fill FBARs and tax returns constantly even if you never step foot into the US again, and if you screw up even with small numbers (like forgetting about $4000 of interest over several years) the IRS can and does stack penalties in the multiples of $10'000 for very normal people, even if they had no tax liabilities. And then you have people who never lived in the US but have citizenship because they were born there, maybe lived there for a few months as a baby, maybe they were adopted by canadians or europeans, or their mother was american or whatever and find out your due 8 years of tax returns and FBAR reports for income you earned while living in another country and not realizing that you had to file a tax return to the USA, a place you never lived or had a job at.
Just look at this tax lawyers blog to see tar pit you can fall into:
hodgen dot com/phils-blog/
hodgen dot com/what-hath-god-wrought-fbar-edition/
TLDR: If your American and move out of the USA and never come back, still keep the fuck on top of your USA taxes.
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Bank Accounts for Travelers
08-30-2011, 04:23 AM
Anyone know if a Charles Schwab account can be opened from overseas? Online or by phone?
Beyond All Seas
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