
Ask HN: Online banks where I can open account worldwide? - theodor_shi
I travel to exotic countries to live and work remotely. If suddenly my credit card is blocked or stolen, are there any online banks where I can open an account and order a card by post to anywhere in the world, confirming my identity online?<p>For example, there are several banks which allows me to open a bank account without German registration and no non-residence, being in Germany. Unfortunately, they send cards only to a limited number of European countries. Even if they are ok with my passport I have to ask somebody to receive my card and send it directly to me.
======
orf
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.

1\. [https://www.revolut.com/](https://www.revolut.com/)

~~~
joshuatalb
Whilst I recommend Revolut, be wary of the support. My card was stolen and I
noticed that there had been several transactions on it, meaning somebody had
been using it. Fortunately I have the push notifications turned on so I was
alerted almost instantly.

When I got in touch with Revolut support, they needed a paper copy of the
police report, along with several other documents from places such as
ActionFraud (an organisation set up here in the UK to exclusively tackle
fraud).

The police report took 2 hours to file, followed by a 2 week delay by Revolut
to actually verify the claim and process the refund. Now, any other “bank”
I’ve been with here will always refund you the money first and then resolve
later.

This isn’t necessarily a criticism of Revolut, as I still use them very
frequently but just a word of advice in case you’re used to the process, as I
was.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Wow, I can’t even comprehend that much hassle to report a card stolen.
American Express will deactivate my card and overnight me a new one in 5
minutes on the phone with customer service.

~~~
nodesocket
That's why you "pay" a premium for big US credit cards and banks. Trust, and
when shit hits the fan, they will/should be there.

Somebody stole my Capital One card awhile back and racked up over $2,000 in
charges. Capital One, instantly deactivated the card, sent me a new one, and
reversed all the charges.

~~~
fgonzag
Capital one didn't eat those charges, the merchants did. They are the ones
that get fucked

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jjevanoorschot
Transferwise borderless accounts
([https://transferwise.com/gb/borderless/](https://transferwise.com/gb/borderless/))
do exactly that. You can open up multiple international bank accounts that are
all linked to one debit card. It's free as well.

~~~
lubujackson
This is somewhat tangential, but does anyone have a good way to accept money
in different currencies with minimal fees? Specifically I'm making money from
different international Amazon sites and they all either send a paper check or
I need a bank account in the country of origin which is not often possible.

I've looked into Payoneer, but they are taking a cut too and only really
support a couple currencies. Any good options? I haven't looked at
Transferwise yet so they might work.

~~~
e1g
I use TransferWise Borderless to collect payments in USD/EUR/AUD/SGD. They
give you routing details for a local bank account created in your name. You
can hold cash in the original currency, centralized it to one currency, or
send it all back home. I have moved significant sums over the last two years
without a single issue. Recommended.

~~~
exidy
You got my hopes up, but the TW borderless bank doesn't give you local SG bank
account details (yet?). SGD is a supported currency of course.

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larrysalibra
Try Neat ([https://www.neat.hk/](https://www.neat.hk/)) - they offer both
personal and business accounts to people and businesses worldwide and are
based in Hong Kong.

Businesses get a virtual account number at Standard Chartered.

Funds for personal accounts are held at Bank of China Hong Kong.

Both types of accounts get debit cards that ship globally.

I've signed up for a business account and been approved all online.

I think they exclude people from some countries.

Can try here:
[https://www.neat.hk/signup/start](https://www.neat.hk/signup/start)

~~~
IWantIn
Any similar services that let you buy stocks worldwide?

~~~
Youden
I wouldn't call Interactive Brokers a "similar service" but it's one of the
few brokers that offers accounts pretty much worldwide [0] and also one of the
few that offers access to pretty much any market [1].

That said, they either cost $10/month (commission or inactivity fee) unless
you have a $100k balance with them.

[0]:
[https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=7021](https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=7021)

[1]:
[https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1562](https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1562)

~~~
IWantIn
What if you want to buy and hold as a long term investment?

~~~
Youden
Depends on your definition of "worldwide". I think IB is pretty unique in that
it offers accounts worldwide access to markets worldwide.

If you only want access to worldwide markets, you can probably do it with a
local brokerage.

If you only want a worldwide account, the brokers in the market you want
access to will often give you an account.

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inevrela
N26 works the best. I have tried many banks, from Revolut, Bunq to many
traditional banks (I have 7+ accounts).

N26 offers very nice desktop experience too. It's not an argument that you
need to use your mobile – with EU requirements and MFA thingy going on, there
are very few services where you are NOT required to use your phone (none in my
experience!).

Revolut couldn't accept my salary, bc it was too much money turnover for them
(due to their non-bank regulatory). N26 has super convenient customer support
(chat, very fast in my experience!), plus you can deposit money in common
stores...Flawless experience so far (1yr now, using for salary and everything
– thousands of euros in and out, not a single problem). Revolut wants to be
everything, but to me lacks of some seriousness – e.g. customer support sucks
big time (in my direct experience), all these ads for crypto and stuff...N26
is like the older brother to Revolut.

~~~
bitcoinmoney
How much is your salary ? Am curious to why a bank can’t accept it.,

~~~
inevrela
Again, Revolut is not a bank. I was told that my top-up yearly is 15k EUR –
after asking if I can use R account for my salary (all in all I would deposit
around 50-80k EUR yearly).

If I would provide documents it would maybe be possible to increase that limit
– however, no one ever got back to me, after several requests from my side.

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kbumsik
I'm not sure doing it online is particular useful in that case. As it takes at
best a couple of days to receive the card you ordered, were you willing to be
stuck at that place (or hotel) for days without the card?

As a Korean student who have studied in America and England, I found Citibank
useful enough in my case. Citibank is particular good at international
personal banking services and they have branches across pretty many countries.
When I lost my wallet in Prague 7 years ago, I could visit a Prague branch to
withdraw some money without a card immediately (called Emergency Cash or
something) , confirming my identity with my passport and calling a Korean
branch to make sure it's me. I'm not sure I could make a card in Prague
though.

~~~
niklasrde
I can't comment on the worldwide aspect, but plenty of challenger banks allow
you to add your card to your Apple Pay/Google Pay wallets immediately after
account opening; without having to wait for the physical card.

~~~
kbumsik
Oh right. I might say it from the 7 years old point of view. But you should
also consider that only a few countries support Apple Pay/Google Pay yet -
Neither of them are available in Korea for example. And withdrawing cash is
even harder with them.

~~~
culturestate
In my experience (with a few exceptions), Apple Pay will work at nearly any
merchant that accepts PayWave (obviously with a Visa card), even if Apple Pay
hasn't landed in that country yet.

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faebi
My standard swiss banks always offered me to ship the replacement cards to
anywhere in the world as long as I notify them how long I am in which country.
I see no reason except cost-saving that an online bank shouldn‘t offer it.

~~~
hocuspocus
However you need to be a resident to open an account, and at the very least
keep a permanent address in Switzerland if you travel for extended period of
times unless you're ready to pay outrageous fees as a non-resident. So this
doesn't really answer OP's question.

~~~
toweringgoat
Incorrect. You can open accounts as a non-resident. However if you're
afflicted with USA citizenship they'll generally tell you to get lost unless
you have a lot of money.

You will have to pay fees, correct, that's just the cost of compliance in
today's world though. The fees are comparable to fees at US based banks FWIW
(except the US banks will charge those even to residents in certain cases).

------
hocuspocus
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.

~~~
pushtheenvelope
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)

~~~
chmielewski
It cannot.

------
JulianWasTaken
I have Charles Schwab, use it for all my banking and it's fantastic. No fees
to take out money from any ATM in the world. Don't even know why I'd want
something else, but now that I see people talking about Revolut, N26 and
TransferWise I guess I should at least investigate whether they have anything
to offer.

~~~
toweringgoat
Schwab are great if you only want to keep USD. They're terrible otherwise,
including the fact that they charge 1% currency conversion if you send them a
non-USD wire.

And they're not a bank, meaning your cash isn't insured. (Unless you reside in
the USA, in which case you can get a proper bank account with FDIC insurance).

~~~
JulianWasTaken
Ah -- makes sense, thanks, I do live in the US, and generally what I need/want
the account for is just to be able to take _out_ my USD in other currencies,
not particularly to deposit other ones.

------
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 ?

~~~
akvadrako
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.

~~~
rsync
How are these more useful/interesting/performant than paypal, which I already
use ?

Genuinely interested ...

~~~
akvadrako
If you need these, you know it. For example, if you keep balances in multiple
currencies or want to transfer money between EU and US banks or have a low-fee
multi-currency debit card. Paypal doesn't allow any of that.

------
rzvme
I love N26. I use it everyday. It is free, great conversion rate etc. it even
works with Apple Pay. I know I sound like a paid advertiser, but I swear I
just love their service

Some nice things: \- you can pay with it during a flight, not possible with
most of the online bank \- depending on the country you can apply for
overdraft \- you can get cards that include different types of insurance, free
withdrawals in any currency etc \- you can have a savings account \- you can
even open business accounts and many more

Affiliate link, we will both get €15:
[https://n26.com/r/razvana9235](https://n26.com/r/razvana9235)

Non-affiliate link: [https://n26.com](https://n26.com)

//added more info

~~~
ctas
Please don't use N26! There've been major security vulnerabilities in the past
[0]. I wouldn't trust them with my money.

[0] [https://theheureka.com/massive-security-vulnerabilities-
dete...](https://theheureka.com/massive-security-vulnerabilities-detected-in-
fintech-n26s-app-20161220)

~~~
rzvme
Thanks for that, didn't know. I am curios if you are insured and even if
someone steals your money, you get it back.

~~~
zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC
The problem isn't whether it's insured, the problem is whether anyone believes
your claim that it was stolen.

~~~
rzvme
haha you are right

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Jhsto
Revolut seems to make the most sense in this case. You could consider Curve
Card as well. In terms of traditional banks, Charles Schwab welcomes
international clients who are ready to invest $25K upfront.

------
eksemplar
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 it might be worth a look.

~~~
eerikkivistik
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.

~~~
mz00
Holvi (Finnish payment processor) allows you to open corporate account for
Estonian E-Residency LLC without visiting Estonia. Works well.

------
IdontRememberIt
I try to avoid SPOF. I carry separately 2 cards from 2 bank accounts. I use 1
for guaranty (hotels never cancel them manually which can be a problem if you
often change hotels), the other is for consumption. Also, maybe you should
change your bank. Mine is sending a card replacement whereever I am on the
planet in a few business days.

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lubujackson
Have you looked at classic investment banks like Schwab or TDAmeritrade? You
can use them solely as checking accounts and they have had pretty good
customer service when I've traveled abroad and may be able to send cards
internationally.

~~~
wyclif
Schwab is great especially if you're a US citizen working remote abroad.

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nilanp
TransferWise.com/borderless

\- Loads of account details available - US, AUS, USD, EUR \- Super cheap all
of the time (think revolut is cheaper for some amounts and routes) \- Plastic
card

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Havoc
Not a bank per se but Revolut is any option perhaps.

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maremmano
I'm using it and it's great: [https://n26.com](https://n26.com)

~~~
theodor_shi
I did not put the name in the description of my question. But I used them as
well. When I came to Germany they opened me the account without the German
apartments registration. I confirmed my identity with the web camera and my
passport and they sent me the card by post to my hotel. Easy. But I think they
can do it only within EU. If I travel with their card to another country and
will lose it, they will not send it worldwide.

~~~
tim333
Not sure with n26 but when I lost my Monzo they sent a new one to Thailand
without problems, fast too.

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colinbartlett
Check out NomadCapitalist.com or specifically his YouTube channel where he has
numerous videos about this exact topic. I know he recommends Georgia a lot for
banking, but you might still need to open in person.

[https://youtube.com/user/nomadcapitalist](https://youtube.com/user/nomadcapitalist)

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IWantIn
Any similar services that let you buy stocks worldwide?

~~~
tim333
For larger investors Interactive Brokers is good.

~~~
IWantIn
What if you want to buy and hold as a long term investment?

~~~
tim333
It ok though if <$100k they charge as below:

>We do not charge any account maintenance fee for any account that meets the
following criteria: Greater than 100,000 USD in average equity for a calendar
month or 10 USD in commissions generated in a calendar month.

------
wprapido
neat.hk

~~~
theodor_shi
cool, i will look

