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How to Open Foreign Bank Account

By HousingWatcher   Follow   Sat, 22 Dec 2012, 10:36am   1,020 views   14 comments
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So with interest rates in the U.S. pathetically low, I was wondering if there is anyway to open up a bank account in a foreign country with decent interest rates, without actually going to that country. Currently, interest rates in Australia are quite decent, paying around 4.7%, so I was wondering if anyone here has ever opened a foreign account before and, if so, how do you do it?

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1. Bigsby Follow Befriend 2,842 comments Monterey, CA

   1   10:38am Sat 22 Dec 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Be a foreigner.

2. bob2356 Follow Befriend 3 threads 2,564 comments

   2   11:34am Sat 22 Dec 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   First you need a multi national bank. I use HSBC. I know the Hong Kong branch, but not Australia so this applies to HK. Call the branch where you want to open. Explain you are a foreigner and want to open an account and will certify all your paperwork through the local (your home country) branch. They will fax or email you the documents then you have to take them to a HSBC branch in the US with international banking services and have the paperwork certified. If you live in Kansas or Montana obviously you are hosed on this part. Send the papers back and you have your foreign account. I'm not sure if all the new banking regs in the last 2-3 years has made this process invalid, you would have to ask. That being said, moving large amounts of money to another currency to try to arbitrage interest rates is a very dangerous game best played by professionals. You need to look at the net interest rate after inflation, then the currency stability. I've seen my local currency move between .55 and .89 more than once in the last 5 years. I keep money offshore for safety more than investment. Don't forget to file TDF-90-22.1, aka FBAR, by June 30 each year.

3. HousingWatcher Follow Befriend 285 threads 1,760 comments

   3   1:58pm Sat 22 Dec 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   So bob, what country do you have money in, and what interest rate are you getting?

4. bob2356 Follow Befriend 3 threads 2,564 comments

   4   6:23pm Sat 22 Dec 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   Almost no cash in banks in the US just real estate. Most cash in New Zealand at around 3%. Had some in HK but the interest rates have dropped to almost zero so I've moved most out. Don't keep much liquid cash anyway. I'm going to be in Malaysia and Indonesia in July. I will check out banking there while I'm on the ground. Forget NZ unless you are on the ground. The only banks are local yokels and oz based local yokels. The only multis at all are JP Morgan and Citi. Both only do commercial and barely at that.

5. lostand confused Follow Befriend (9) 183 threads 1,659 comments Premium

   5   6:46pm Sat 22 Dec 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   Protected   Also be careful of currency fluctuations. A few years ago, the Aussie was about 60 cents to the dollar. Now it is 1.05 to the USD-closed just under 1.04 last Friday. If you invested when it was 60+ cents great-but if an Aussie had inveted in USD-sucks to be him/her.

6. thunderlips11 Follow Befriend (13) 61 threads 2,705 comments Premium

   6   8:03am Mon 31 Dec 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Protected   Form an overseas company, and put the money in a bank account controlled by your company.

7. chimosky Follow Befriend 1 comments

   7   6:30am Fri 11 Jan 2013   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   I want to open foreign account

8. American in Japan Follow Befriend (28) 149 threads 1,398 comments

   8   5:27am Sun 13 Jan 2013   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   I opened a Citibank account in Japan. They have Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and Canadian dollar accounts (as well as US dollar and yen).

9. FortWayne Follow Befriend (13) 106 threads 3,863 comments

   9   2:51pm Tue 15 Jan 2013   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (2)   Dislike   This interests me too. If all wealthy people hide their money off shore, there has got to be a good benefit to that.

10. bob2356 Follow Befriend 3 threads 2,564 comments

    10   5:18pm Tue 15 Jan 2013   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   American in Japan says I opened a Citibank account in Japan. They have Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and Canadian dollar accounts (as well as US dollar and yen). Did you have to do it in person?

11. bob2356 Follow Befriend 3 threads 2,564 comments

    11   5:29pm Tue 15 Jan 2013   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   FortWayne says This interests me too. If all wealthy people hide their money off shore, there has got to be a good benefit to that. Pretty amazing how successful the government has been in their 1984 style brainwashing campaign. There are many very good reasons to have offshore banking accounts including perfectly legal tax avoidance ala Mitt Romney. Yet the assumption of most people have is that offshore accounts are used exclusively for hiding money and tax evasion. The end game of all this isn't tax evasion. It will cost more to administer fatca than the irs will ever recover from prosecuting tax evasion. The end game is unlimited access to snoop into every aspect of every citizens life without oversite. The whole offshore accounts/tax evasion hype is just a smokescreen.

12. errc Follow Befriend (7) 30 threads 1,267 comments 31 male Premium

    12   5:32pm Tue 15 Jan 2013   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   Protected   I don't understand what advantage you are trying to gain? Swap USD for AUD and than park the cash in aussie bank so you can earn their higher interest rate, and than swap AUD back for USD? If USD strengthens relative to AUD during your time frame, you risk having your gains erased and turned to losses,,,, Just seems like such a minimal spread on rates, and a whole lotta risk, for the possibility of not that much returns,,,, If you're chasing returns on your cash, why not get on the business end of the trade over at prosper.com or something like that?

13. Peter P Follow Befriend (4) 117 threads 17,655 comments Premium

    13   6:39pm Tue 15 Jan 2013   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Protected   Then why not a leveraged carry trade? Not investment advice.

14. thunderlips11 Follow Befriend (13) 61 threads 2,705 comments Premium

    14   4:08pm Wed 16 Jan 2013   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Protected   errc says If you're chasing returns on your cash, why not get on the business end of the trade over at prosper.com or something like that? Interesting! Will have to look into this.