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?

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/

[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.

[robin_reala]

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

[dzek69]

Revolut is not a bank (yet). It's nice to keep small amount of money there, but I wouldn't transfer all my money to them.

But yeah, they're great.

[notahacker]

One caveat about Revolut is that they do absolutely everything from topups to customer support through their mobile app. Which is great, until you want to top your card up to buy a new phone, or you have them both stolen from the same place.

[sshadmand]

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.

[kyriakos]

On top of that you can order multiple physical cards for free on the same account so if one gets stolen you take the next one out and keep going. Needless to say you can disable the stolen one without having to call anyone.

[IWantIn]

Any similar services that let you buy stocks worldwide?

[jjevanoorschot]

Transferwise borderless accounts (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.

[xchaotic]

I use them too, but note that they are not a bank, so your money is not protected, also consider Revolut

[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.

[larrysalibra]

Try Neat (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

[zhte415]

From their website it seems they don't allow bank transfers out, so money in is, well, in. Getting it out means a 2% fee. FX at 1.5% is also high.

[IWantIn]

Any similar services that let you buy stocks worldwide?

[pentae]

Do they let you send wires anywhere? Does every wire require manual review or extra documentation?

[theodor_shi]

thank you! it looks exactly what i looked for

[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.

[Cenk]

I’ve been using N26 for a couple years now, and I agree with almost everything you’ve said except the customer service part - it’ been unbearable slow for me, especially in emergencies. They don’t offer a hotline, for example, so when my credit card data was stolen and money taken from my account I spent 45 minutes in a little chat window in their app waiting for my turn. If you switch to another app, or your phone locks, or you lose your internet connection you lose your place in the queue. In the end they did do a chargeback on the money, it took about 6 weeks though and I had to get in touch with them multiple times.

[bitcoinmoney]

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

[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.

[tuananh]

> (called Emergency Cash or something)

HSBC offers something similar as well.

[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.

[huxflux]

Good for you, now we know you have a set of banks in Swiss. Care to namedrop them so others can take a look as well?

[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)

[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).

[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.

[robin_reala]

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...

[fergbrain]

What about Ally?

[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

Non-affiliate link: 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...

[dmichulke]

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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[Havoc]

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

[maremmano]

I'm using it and it's great: 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.

[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

[IWantIn]

Any similar services that let you buy stocks worldwide?

[giggles_giggles]