Best Bank for US Expats

We are with Banco Santa Cruz originally in process of closing them out to bank with scotia. We could not use online banking with BSC. Five visits and many many calls to customer service and BSC could not change our phone number which they put in incorrectly when we opened our account over year ago.  As a result we could not get codes or any online banking function making them obsolete. So far Scotia has been smooth sailing.

Thanks, also good to know...I'm asking more about banks in US that make transferring money easier. Does residency require a local bank account...I assume yes?

Does residency require a local bank account...I assume yes? - @brodies2013

Yes it does ... and you may find that the requirements for opening an account vary unpredictably. It was my least favorite hurdle when starting the residency process but it got done.

There are actually a lot of posts on this topic in the archives, including some  recommendations on your intended topic (best US banks for expats). Good luck!

@brodies2013

Yes it does

@brodies2013

I use PNC bank as my USA and Banreservas as my Dominican Republic bank.  The good,  PNC has favorable international transfer rate with Banreservas and a few other banks in D.R. I can transfer $1500 USD to my Banreservas USD account for $5 USD and no fee charged by Banreservas to receive the money and anything above that amount I write a check from PNC to Banreservas clears in 7 business days. The international transfer clears overnight or next business day.  The bad Banreservas has long lines if you have physically go into bank , I can normally skip long line by going to my branch in Río San Juan around 10am and try not to go 1st week of the month. I used to bank @ Scotiabank and was very happy with them in and out in15 minutes but they closed branch in Río San Juan and Nagua is 1 hr away . Overall happy with Banreservas. Good banking app, if they ever offer deposit checks with image scan would never have to visit branch at all.

@Alfonso Ayala

Banco popular just started offering this option of deposit

@planner

Will have to check them out. Do you know if it's offered for USD accounts. Thanks Planner.

We've used Banco Santa Cruz for over 5 years with only a couple of minor issues  - biggest issue is that we have a joint account and even though we were each given a debit card when the account was opened, when Dave's card expired, they claimed that only one debit card could be issued per account. We've made it work for about 2 years by sharing a debit card!

Our US bank is Wells Fargo. We have a Premiere account and get free wire transfers and get reimbursed for ATM fees if we use an ATM here. We do use my parents' address on our account to be able to maintain it.

@Alfonso Ayala

Most DR Banks offer dollar accounts.

@CHRISTOPHER DAVID56

Yes they do, but planner said banco popular app now lets you deposit checks online like most USA banks do, my question was if it was available for USD accounts or only DOP accounts. Thanks

I just checked my APP. It will not give an option to deposit via the APP to a dollar account. It will only bring up my PESO accounts to deposit a check.

This is what I see on my account but others may have the options.

You may be able to deposit the US check directly into a dollar account at a branch.

Not sure

@CHRISTOPHER DAVID56

Yes I already do that @Banreservas. Thanks for info

I have not tried to deposit this way yet, once I do I will update!

Update our bank is Bank of America in US. We use Remitly (money transfer service) to Scotia. The transfers have gone smoothly with Scotia but sometimes  got held with Banco Santa Cruz. We found an English speaker at our branch which helps. Scotia also has ATMS that don’t charge for withdrawals at their machines and you can pay some bills locally or use their APP to pay bills. Interesting a prior post said they would only give one debit card at Scotia as we also have two. We did have that same experience with BSC where they would only give one. I thought it might have been a cultural thing about women and money.