US/Intl. Banks that Accept Expats?

London-based HSBC bank welcomes Expats' money.

It is the second largest bank in the world and will provide you the banking services you want.  www.expat.hsbc.com

wlae84 wrote:

I really don't want to open an account only to have it become frozen at some point, you know?

Banks don't freeze accounts unless your creditor(s) put a restraint on it, such as in a demand lawsuit.

If you get locked out of an account for being an Expat, your money must be returned to you or moved to another bank you designate, and cannot be frozen.

Your best move is to deposit your funds in a bank such as HSBC that has signaled it will put up with FATCA and other measures that are scaring some banks off the Expat customer market.

cccmedia in Quito

Wells Fargo is quite popular in the Philippines, don't know about Ecuador.

The difficulty described by the original poster -- a U.S. citizen residing in Ecuador unable to open a new account with a U.S. bank  -- is a real problem.  I had not thought of it, but I can see vividly that doing so after a relocation (not having a U.S. residence) would be a problem.  U.S. banks are simply not opening new accounts without a U.S. address (many will not accept a P.O. box either.)  It doesn't matter if you elect only electronic statements and online banking - they will expect a U.S. address too.

The HSBC bank marketing to expats won't give him/her the U.S. bank account they were looking for.  The catch there is that this particular HSBC bank (Jersey, Channel Islands) might not offer services to U.S. citizens.  I even had an existing HSBC Panama account and they would not accept me.

Good luck.

I have a US address and my mail is scanned online and I can see it. They also will forward mail to me internationally. So, I can beat around the bush to open an account. But, one of the banks straight up told me that their accounts are not for expats, even though it is technically possible for me to open one using my US address. The other bank didn't give me straight answers but basically said that the account is not for me and also suggested that it is a possibility that it might get forcefully closed in the future--but again they weren't direct about any of this I had to go back and forth constantly and try to squeeze info. out of the guy on the phone.

SawMan wrote:

The difficulty described by the original poster -- a U.S. citizen residing in Ecuador unable to open a new account with a U.S. bank  -- is a real problem.  I had not thought of it, but I can see vividly that doing so after a relocation (not having a U.S. residence) would be a problem.  U.S. banks are simply not opening new accounts without a U.S. address (many will not accept a P.O. box either.)  It doesn't matter if you elect only electronic statements and online banking - they will expect a U.S. address too.

The HSBC bank marketing to expats won't give him/her the U.S. bank account they were looking for.  The catch there is that this particular HSBC bank (Jersey, Channel Islands) might not offer services to U.S. citizens.  I even had an existing HSBC Panama account and they would not accept me.

Good luck.

I've had an account with Chase Bank for many years, and there has been no problem getting replacement Visa cards sent here or doing the rest of my banking during my almost two years living in Ecuador.

Their website appears to welcome overseas depositors:

    www.chase.com/international-banking

I have had similar experience with my other bank, Wells Fargo.  My longtime brokerage account with e*trade is being serviced without problems, as well.

If anybody is concerned about banks refusing to accept a U.S. post box address:  obtaining a U.S. address that is not a P.O. box is easy to do for a monthly fee.

cccmedia in Quito