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US Expats living in : how to keep US bank s, US credit cards

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Discussion starter ·
Bevdeforges said:
There is a slightly different procedure for doing foreign direct deposits for US SS. The money goes to an FBU (Federal Benefits Unit) at the appropriate US Consulate (Paris, here in )
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Would using Wise achieve the same effect here - meaning: having the US SS deposited into a US bank and from there use Wise to transfer into the French bank ? Would it give a better a comparable exchange rate?
 
Discussion starter ·
Thanks for the helpful hint in regards to SDFCU.org - yes, that would work...

Would having the US SS go into a US bank and then using Wise to transfer to the French bank have any advantages as far as fees or exchange rates are concerned?
 
andi_sf said:
Quickly back to the VPN question when accessing US banks from abroad. Would using the VPN service provided by Norton 360 be any safer or more 'compatible'?
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As I pointed out before, if the bank is using Deep Packet Inspection, which unless they are negligent they probably are, they can detect that you are using a VPN and block the connection on that basis. That's why you need a VPS.
 
andi_sf said:
Thanks for the helpful hint in regards to SDFCU.org - yes, that would work...

Would having the US SS go into a US bank and then using Wise to transfer to the French bank have any advantages as far as fees or exchange rates are concerned?
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The exchange rate you will get from Wise is pretty good, but probably not any better than the rate the SSA gets. Then too, as Bev explained, your French bank is not going to charge a fee for the reception of the funds when the SSA sends them, but they will for a Wise transfer.
 
Chrissippus said:
your French bank is not going to charge a fee for the reception of the funds when the SSA sends them, but they will for a Wise transfer.
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The French banks I deal with have never charged a fee for reception of funds from Wise (since the whole premise of Wise is that they make all transfers from their "local" bank). I used to transfer regular withdrawals from my IRA in the US directly to the Wise US bank, and then from there to my French (which appear as transfers from the Wise Belgian bank with no reception fee). The disadvantage to running retirement payments through Wise is that you need to set up the transfer each month to your French bank when you are notified of the arrival of the funds from the US.

The FBU in Paris seems to get a very comparable rate to what Wise gets, due I expect to the large amount that they exchange at once (for all SS payments to be made in ). The one possible disadvantage is that the amount (in euros) changes every month and you don't get any sort of statement regarding what rate was used.
 
Whatever 76 said:
My income derives from a non-EU country, but not the US, and my French bank has NEVER charged a fee for Wise transfers.
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Are you sure that they would report it? I have done bank wire transfers from a US bank and Wise transfers to my CA . It never shows a charge, but they told me initially that receipt of foreign transfers would cost me 10 euros a pop.
 
I'm with Credit Agricole and they have always respected it. I previously used XE.com, that was primarily for larger transfers, and again CA did not charge fees. I don't believe any French bank charges fees for such transfers, I certainly have never heard of anyone having problems.
 
Bank transfers within the EU are, for the most part, free of charges for sending or receiving. Bank transfers from outside the EU usually are charged 10 or 20 euros for reception at your French bank, plus whatever exchange fees there might be. Wise transfers from their "local" bank (i.e. in Belgium) to your French bank (usually as a SEPA transfer) and is considered an EU compliant SEPA transaction.
 
Discussion starter ·
Chrissippus said:
There are solutions to all of the problems identified by the OP that work today, but they may no longer work at some point in the future.

1. Get an with a mail forwarder located in a state without an income tax. I use and recommend sbimailservice.com located in Florida. The address you get will look like a US street address, but the bank or broker can easily determine that the address is a Commercial Mail Receiver . They seldom or never make that check however.
2. Immediately change your address of record with all your banks and brokerages to CMRA's address, before you move. That way if the address change provokes a question you can still provide a utility bill, but the institutions are not likely to raise any questions.
3. While still in the US get a (free) Google Voice using your US cell phone. Most banks are willing to send OTP messages via GV's SMS service, but some are not. It's possible to open a GV after you have moved abroad, but easier while you are still there. Change your phone number of record at your financial institutions to your new GV number.
4. Open an at State Department Federal Credit Union, sdfcu.org. They are the only bank/credit union that I know of that is willing to open an for a US citizen expat. You are not an expat yet, so it will be a little easier to open it as a US resident, but in the future you need not fear that if they discover you live abroad they will close your .
5. Forget about VPNs, they do not conceal your real location to any bank that is really interested in knowing where you are. The effective solution to simulating a digital presence in the US is to use a Virtual Private Server of your own that runs in one of the cloud services, e.g. Google Cloud Services, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or others. This will provide you with your own Windows or Linux server with a genuine US ip address. To access your bank or brokerage you to your VPS and from there open a browser and to the financial institution. With our level of usage we usually pay about $25 per month. After each use we shutdown the VPS to keep costs down. We use Google Cloud Services. There are cheaper alternatives, but I wouldn't trust them with our data.
6. If you are withdrawing money from a brokerage, for example, have the money delivered to one of your US banks and then do a Wise transfer from that bank to your foreign bank.

The only US entity that requires your physical address is the Social Security istration. Not even the IRS requires it.

You should have a few banks/credit unions and credit card providers. We have four US credit cards that don't charge foreign transaction fees or annual fees.

Since you will be logging to your financial s from your VPS located in some server farm, be sure to install a manager there to protect your s and follow best practices for use. We use and recommend 1.com.

By scrupulously using these methods to access our US banks and brokers we have been able to manage our resources from abroad without a problem for the past ten years.

Good luck.
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@Chrissippus said:
Open an at State Department Federal Credit Union, sdfcu.org. They are the only bank/credit union that I know of that is willing to open an for a US citizen expat. You are not an expat yet, so it will be a little easier to open it as a US resident, but in the future you need not fear that if they discover you live abroad they will close your .
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I checked a little bit on Google and the State Department Federal Credit Union gets quite some mixed reviews in regards to service, security and usability. Do you mind sharing how your long-term, real-world experience has been using SDFCU from abroad?
 
andi_sf said:
I checked a little bit on Google and the State Department Federal Credit Union gets quite some mixed reviews in regards to service, security and usability. Do you mind sharing how your long-term, real-world experience has been using SDFCU from abroad?
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I don't think you have grasped the essential factor here. As far as I know SDFCU is the only US bank/credit union that will knowingly open an for a US citizen expat and therefore will not close the of a US citizen who has moved abroad. Other banks/credit unions on discovering that you have gone abroad will almost certainly close your sooner or later. At that point you will be SOL. No other US bank/credit union will open an for you to replace the one that just shut you down. So, SDFCU's willingness to do business with you after you have left the country should outweigh other considerations. For a US expat who wants to maintain a US bank , SDFCU is the only game in town.

That said, I have had quite adequate service from SDFCU for my own for a number of years. My father had some CDs with them that were a headache to close out before maturity, but those problems were eventually resolved satisfactorily.
 
Discussion starter ·
Thanks for the - yes, being the only game in town makes a difference.

I also stumbled upon Schwab International which seem to offer U.S. dollar–denominated checks, a debit card and an Electronic Funds Transfer Service not sure how this compares in the real world.
 
andi_sf said:
Thanks for the - yes, being the only game in town makes a difference.

I also stumbled upon Schwab International which seem to offer U.S. dollar–denominated checks, a debit card and an Electronic Funds Transfer Service not sure how this compares in the real world.
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When I have looked into Schwab International, it didn't appear to be available in . Has that changed?
 
Unless you are transferring very large sums of money internationally, you may just want to look into Wise (formerly Transferwise) for international banking services. They don't "do" checks at all (issuing or receiving) but for international transfers and exchange they work really well - and you can get "local" bank documentation ( numbers, IBAN and ACH codes) for US$, Euros, GBP and other currencies as needed.
 
Discussion starter ·
Chrissippus said:
As I pointed out before, if the bank is using Deep Packet Inspection, which unless they are negligent they probably are, they can detect that you are using a VPN and block the connection on that basis. That's why you need a VPS.
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Sorry for another follow up - would a 'Residential Proxy' be the same/equivalent to the VPS approach you mention?
 
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Bevdeforges
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