Overseas Bank Account

No contactless and Apple/G Pay are the biggest downsides to this card. If it had them it would be OP.

1 Like

Used the card today in Co-Op and had to sign for it. I am used to that as my Jersey Cards all do the same thing.

How much in GBP? Trying to work out if they used the exact exchange rate or not. :grin:

How does that work if you’re on a DIY checkout?

1 Like

I’ve experienced this at a Sainsburys. The self-checkout stops for staff to come over, they do their thing and it prints a receipt you need to sign. iirc the staff checks the signature and the signed receipt goes back in the machine in some slot.

Schwab fans - why not complete the look with a corporate bomber jacket?

4 Likes

It uses the Visa exchange rate with no additional fees.

1 Like

Anyone fancies a trip to North Korea for a bank account?

One potential route to Oz last year involved a stopover in South Korea and I was toying with a daytrip north. I think the security guy in work would be having words with me if I’d done that :grin:

1 Like

Wondering if this will work or not. Was playing around with the Santander Spain app and got to the page where I can order a debit card. It asked if I wanted another digital one or a physical card. It shows my UK address and no error message came up.

The non-resident account does say that you need an address in Spain to get the physical card but it offered one anyway … so might as well try!

1 Like

Maybe they have changed their policy recently? Let us know if you receive it, I might go ahead and open one too then.

I went to my local branch in Spain a fortnight ago as my cards never arrived at my foreign address - the manager told me the first physical debit card(s) for non-national taxpayers (I.e no TIN) are not posted out but were retained in branch instead. They send them back if not collected within six months, but there will be no notifications or letters to say they’re waiting for you.

It is, works fine.

I have a Chinese card though, (ICBC, Merchants and Bank of China).

So, what overseas accounts can I easily open?

Santander ES seems to be easy.

MeDirect I’ve been approved for, card is on the way.

What others can I do that don’t require like callbacks to open/ongoing monthly fees.

I could do HSBC HK One, but as of 1st Jan non-HKID holders have to pay a 100 HKD monthly fee if the TRB drops below 10,000 HKD. And I’m not keeping ~£950 earning 0.175% interest just to have a HSBC HK One account :confused:

They ask a lot of questions, too.

10,000HKD balance isn’t actually that much. Only like £950 or something. You can pretty easily open the Santander card, MeDirect (that you’ve already opened) and some cards abroad (in person). Everything else is pretty locked down. I asked them for a credit card at one point actually, but they rejected me. They also rejected me for the account itself. Very irritating.

Surprised no one has mentioned Bank of Georgia (but there are fees). Same with the Britline option.

The closest to NK you would have gotten from SK would probably be the DMZ.

I’ve mentioned some of the Britline process up there^. Can give more detail if anyone’s interested.

I previously mentioned in this thread that Georgia is a slowly becoming a popular option for non-resident banking but account opening usually requires an in person visit.

In terms of HSBC HK One, I didn’t even know that they implemented a monthly fee. It seems I got really lucky since I opened mine in November of last year and therefore the balance requirement doesn’t apply to me. HSBC HK also stopped issuing credit cards to non-residents a few years back.

I have personally opened MeDirect as well. I haven’t opened Santander Spain though mainly because they don’t send physical cards but if that has changed then I’ll be happy to open it.

On this note, CA have just added maps and logos to transaction information:

Anyone know anything about overseas investment accounts? Needs to cover living across EEA (France/Germany) and China. Noticed that IKBR/Charles Schwab International could work but I’d rather stay away from both.

Something European preferably!