what's the best bank in Amman to open an account as an expat

hello,
what about Housing Bank? it has a lot of Branches

Bank of jordan isnt bad for expats......

Arab Bank is good too

Im on Housing Bank and generally im not happy at all. They dont have a dedicated card for online purchases and u need to do a prepaid card which you get charged every time u topup. Also u cannot check it online only at atm. I would suggest a more international bank such as HSBC

I thought HSBC got bought out?

It did?  I dont know

HSBC is shrinking its operations in mid east.

HSBC, Citibank and Standard and Chartered come to mind first..but they mostly deal in corporate banking.

Some national banks do offer nice deals but must shop around.

What is your experience with Citibank ?

The Citibank in Jordan is commercial banking only nowadays.

I have been dealing with housing bank. They are not bad but could be better. Improved a lot over the last year with mob app, online bill payments etc..

Well,for me Arab Bank is the Best option,they'll make things easier for you

Make things easier? Elaborate please

Be one of their customer and you could Elaborate yourself,i don't like Elaborating here..Good Luck

Jordan Kuwait Bank is the best from my point of view most specially for external transitions

HSBC was closed in Jordan

what about citibank ?

cheers stefan

Citibank is only for business not individuals.  I use Housing Bank. It's OK.

I have a Citibank account in Australia

I have Citibank in the USA as well, but the branch in Jordan is not for individual banking, only commercial.  Citibank pulled out their personal banking a few years back.

That being said, I do use my Citibank cards here all the time. Before I left USA, I set up an account that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees.

" The Arab Bank " 
Pros
1- The money transfer from other countries is the fastest comparing it with other local banks .
2- it is a regional bank . there are many branches distributed all over the middle east . there is even a branch located in England " London ". 
Cons :
you might wait for a long time sometimes . 

But if you are an expat and you wanna deal with an international bank has branches placed in your country and Jordan in the same time here is a list  of some international banks in Jordan :
1- Société Générale banque .
2- HSBC .
3-Citibank . ( Someone in this topic said it only deals with companies and not individuals.
4- For Khalijis :
A- Al-Rajhi .  ( Saudi )
B- Rafidain ( Iraqi ) .
C-National Bank of Kuwait .
D-Naitonal Bank Of Abu Dhabi  ( Lovely Emirate ) .
other Arab countries :
BLOM >>> Lebanese .   Audi Bank >> Lebanese .

Hello, I have Citibank in the USA as well, can you at least go to the bank in Jordan the Citibank and withdrawal money without a charge? Thanks for your time.

Not the Citibank, but you can use your card here at any ATM, most don't charge me.  Check with Citibank and make sure your arm card will work overseas before you leave

Etihad Bank is a friendly bank for expats .

Hello again. So you can't go to the Citibank ATM and withdrawn money?
My Citibank in America said I could and there is no fee, like if I went to another bank and used there bank to withdraw from my Citibank bank card.
Thanks for your time. ✔

There is no citibank ATM that I know of.  There are two citi branches here but they are for corporate (business) use only, unless something changed in recent months.  They stopped dealing with individual banking here when all the FATCA rules came into effect I believe.  I've almost never paid an ATM charge here, I think only place I've seen it is at the airport, no matter what debt card I use. Now you will pay fees if you take out money because your account is in dollars and you are withdrawing  JD- unless you upgrade to the citigold account. They call these "Foreign Transaction Fees". This is also true if you are using your card as a debit for a store.  Another thing I used to notice was that some stores if you have an American card, they automatically change your transaction to USD and run it. Sounds great until you notice that they charge you an extra 4% when they do this.

Another problem I used to run into was that my card would get randomly turned off if I tried to use it more than once in a day.  What happens is that their system would see my card here used and automatically lock it after the transaction so if I used it again it wouldn't go through.  It was always fine the next day.  I'm assuming someone looked at my record and noticed that I actually live here and turned it back on.

Honestly, why not just open a bank account here if you are moving here.  It's much easier.

Thanks for the advice...
I just need to take money out once every two months.
While working in the UAE, I use to use ADIB and would do a money transfers every month, no fees if done St a Citibank ATM.  If I needed more money I go to a Citibank and use their ATM to withdraw money, no fees because it was a Citibank card being used at a Citibank. The money popped out in Dirhams...lol, however they, Citibank, had no excess to my foreign account.
I used my ADIB shopping. Hope I can find a bank that can work with me and not charge me an arm and leg.
Best wishes...

Google "citibank jordan contact us" and contact the branch here directly that way you can confirm with them directly if they do personal banking or not. There are phone numbers as well as an email.  UAE has many more expats than jordan doing banking and cater to them much more.  If you are only accessing your account every two months it shouldn't be much though.  At the ATM like I said I haven't seen ATM fees much except at the airport and a couple other places for either my US card or my Jordanian one regardless of the bank, but check with citi about the FTFs. My jordanian card works fine and its pretty much all i use here now, they tell me it doesn't work outside the country, but I haven't tried. Housing bank even has an App now!  Also, other than the big malls and more expensive stores, you'll be probably be using cash more than anything as most of the places I shop for necessities don't take cards.  Although this is slowly changing and probably will depend a lot on where you are living.

I know it’s a year old post but nevertheless, I’m a Jordanian spent a lot of my time traveling so i did need a bank that would be easy to deal with and for god sake someone who can speak English.

Jordan Kwait Bank is the best, fast transactions and low fees.

But there is a bit downside: they easily get suspicious regarding American transactions and any hot zone bank.

So make sure to mention where you might receive any kind of money or your account might get investigated under Anti money laundering policies.

I can suggest Arab Bank. Also see my post about Money & Banking in Jordan to avoid some disappointment.

I only have experience with Etihad but now seriously looking for another more service oriented local bank.  Services continue to deteriorate rather than improve. It feels like you are dealing with an archaic bureaucratic institution rather than a bank. I am genuinely hoping that there is a local back with some degree of efficient and considerable services.