I need one to pay my credit card bills, since payments I send tend to be late, lost, or redirected. Anyone know how I would go about doing this? I hope there is a way without going in person.

Hi gurutalon,

I have to do this often, but it was tricky to setup. You will have to have a U.S. address to open the account and you will have to be present to sign paperwork. Then you will have to do a SWIFT wire transfer from Switzerland to the U.S. bank and that takes 3 days to complete.

Here are some things to look for in a bank in the U.S. to be used in your manner.

• How much do they charge to accept wire transfers?
• Do they accept wire transfers in CHF or does the Swiss bank have to do the conversion to USD?
• Do you have to maintain a minimum balance to avoid charges on the U.S. account?
• Do they charge for online bill pay?

Once you have the account and the SWIFT information, it becomes easy.

Another option if you can't be present is to have a family member open the account and give you access to the web information. I don't know the impact of doing this because your SS# will not be on the account and you will be doing wire transfers every month to this account. It may raise a flag somewhere in our government.

I hope this helps.

Mike

Not really, seems to expensive just to pay my credit card. You would think with today's ''Modern Marvels'' one could send money overseas without fear of it getting lost, taking over 20 days, or being sent somewhere else, or just plain not added to the balance of the card! If I didn't need the card to live off I would tell Visa to jump off a bridge.

Hi Gurutalon.

I've also had problems sending money to US. If you open a bank account in the US, how can you be sure that you won't have the same problems with payments getting lost when you send money to it? Remember this is a country which still runs mostly on cheques...

Why not just get yourself a credit card here (since I presume you are using it mostly here) and you'll save yourself getting ripped off on the foreign exchange transactions, and fix the admin headache as well?

Several reasons

1. Fee don't like to pay fees for a credit card.

2. I DON'T have a job. No one here will give you credit without a job, we just recently got a real post card instead of a conto card when my wife did 2 months of temp work, lucky we did it when we did.

3. I already have 1600 U.S. dollars on my U.S. card that I need to pay off. London is REALLY expensive. I have been here 3 weeks and that is where the 1600 came from, I needed to buy a laptop for one. That was about 900. The rest is school stuff and food. I just hope I pass this CELTA course and get a job when I get back, than I can at least deal with 2 and 3.

Ok, I guess points 2 and 3 are valid - could be an issue here. Point 1 - there are free cards in Switzerland now - we discussed them in this thread.

If you are currently in London, check out Citibank. It's my understanding that Citibank in London will open a USD account for you (are you a US citizen? - that may be a prerequisite). You could talk to them and see if that would be sufficient for transferring payments to your US credit card.

We have obligations in the US and so just kept our accounts active when we left the US last year. The bank just changed our address and we have no issues. We bank with a smaller bank though with good service - they actually know who we are which is always a refreshing change from just being an "account number" at the larger US banks.

Hello,

if you bank with UBS just go and ask them and they will do it for you or at least they did for me and I have a US UBS account - which I also need for making payments and receiving funds from US companies that seem hell bent on appearing global and thinking and acting local...

When I first got here, I relied heavily on my (US) ATM card for my overseas transfers. I mailed checks to my bank for deposits, and pulled out cash here whenever I needed. There were no transfer fees, only ATM transaction costs of a couple of bucks. There is a daily limit on what you can pull out. My Wells Fargo and B of A had $500 or $300 daily limits.

A paper check from the US would take about a month to clear here. It's not an issue you can float the amount, but it is something to consider if you cannot.

I could care less about checks. I just need some way to pay student loans, which I must start paying again in December, and my credit card. Whenever I send a giro payment they get it 20 days late or don't get it at all and then I have to go through the hassle of requesting a copy of the check to send my credit card company to prove it was paid. Last time I did that it took 5 monthes to finally get paid! It is ridiculous. If anyone knows of another way without a U.S. bank account or Giro payment then please by all means let me in on the secret.