International Banking

Hi ciderjunkie and welcome to Expat.com!

Hope that you'll soon be enlightened.

Harmonie.

Every German bank can do international wire transfers to any US bank. Some even have Internet banking functions for this, and the transfers are quick and efficient.
Of course you'll have to pay a fee and lose some in exchange rates (which are always to your disfavour).
But without a receiving account in the US, where do you want to send?!?

Maybe you meant paying for things while on a visit to US?
In that case, use any credit card (issued by your German bank). Most cards can also be used to withdraw cash from ATMs abroad.
If you need a recommendation for a bank/card I have used successfully for this, send me a PM (I don't want to advertise them here).

You are in the same situation as me sort of. im going from the US to Germany. What i am doing is banking with Bank of America. They have a global alliance with other large banks worldwide which basically will let you withdraw from their ATMs and use their banks. So if you have an account with Deutsche Bank then you are all set!! And if not, set one up, they are the only bank in germany that participates with the "Global Alliance Banking". Then when you come to the US, just go to a Bank of America.

Hope i helped you out a little...

Cheers!

Thank you everyone for your replies! Hi there Harmonie

beppie: I think you misunderstood me a bit, I might have phrased it weird... What I meant is that I am now back in Germany (while in the US, I had a credit card that I used, issued from a German bank). Hubby (American) and me are trying to save money for the future, so it would basically be a savings account that we both put money in. I know about the fees, and my question was basically: Can anybody recommend a bank that cooperates well with American banks so that the fee is as low as possible, and the process is less complicated?

xekrate: Great, thank you! I used to have an account at Deutsche Bank, so I think I will just drop by there to open a new one. You did help me out quite a bit, and yes, you're right - we are sort of in the same situation

Hi Ciderjunkie,

After juggling with an US$ account here in Cambodia and my German Euro account for three months now I think I found the cheapest way of money transfer between EUR and US$, which definitely is wire transfer.

Do the conversion always with your German bank, under all circumstances. I already lost more than 100 US$ by not doing so, therefore you can avoid this mistake.

I'm with the Sparda Bank in Germany. They use the official exchange rate which you can also look up on Yahoo Finance. They charge you only a fixed fee of EUR 10 for receiving and EUR 15 for sending international wire transfers. I suggest you call your current bank and ask them which exchange rates they use. When transfering larger amounts, you can waste way more money through bad exchange rates than through fixed fees.

Also, don't use credit cards if you want to save money. The banks usually charge you around 1.5 or 2% on payments in another currency.

Best wishes,
Jan

Thank you, Jan! (I forgot to say that after I first read your reply )

Has anybody openened an account at Deutsche Bank? I emailed them about it and got a response saying you need 100,000 € and an appointment at the Frankfurt headquarters to get an account there... I'm a little bit confused.