Good American Bank?

[Arronius]

Hi all. This is kind of a follow up to my Moving Questions thread from earlier today and I decided to break it out to get more eyeballs on it. I am going on down to live in Buenos Aires relatively soon, and I would like to know what American financial institution I should stash my money in. I will be living off this account, withdrawing money in BA through Xoom or crossing to Uruguay. I am young(ish) and working, not retired, and while I would like to of course watch it grow and save some up, that is not its primary purpose. Money will be flowing (or trickling haha) in and out. I will be having money deposited into this account irregularly from my work and withdrawing it down there, as mentioned. I do not currently have an American bank account. I just closed mine because of new fees and such for using it irregularly (not having direct deposit, not doing x number of transactions per month). I was also curious about using a credit union, as those are supposed to be nice, but that may not work because I definitely want the most accessible option I can find. Any bonuses for any particular banks / credit unions? Most likely the best option for my purposes will be a national institution, but just in case it helps, I am from the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Thanks!

 

[brandon]

charles schwab
Online bank that refunds foreign atm charges, I don't think they charge any fees if you keep $1500 balance
Link it to an investment account and you can buy stocks, bonds, etc

You can take peso out from most atm's here.
Remember, you'll be getting them at the official rate.
If you had cash in had, you could theoretically exchange at the blue rate

 

[HenryNisental]

With any ATM card from an American bank you can withdraw 900 USD each day in Colonia, Uruguay.
Then come back here and exchange them little by little as you need it. That is what I do.
Good luck

 

[PhilipDT]

With any ATM card from an American bank you can withdraw 900 USD each day in Colonia, Uruguay.
Then come back here and exchange them little by little as you need it. That is what I do.
Good luck

Just an FYI: Most banks will temporarily raise that if you're a good customer and say pretty please. I've gotten $8000 out in colonia once (in 300 dollar increments, took hours).

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Hi all. This is kind of a follow up to my Moving Questions thread from earlier today and I decided to break it out to get more eyeballs on it. I am going on down to live in Buenos Aires relatively soon, and I would like to know what American financial institution I should stash my money in. I will be living off this account, withdrawing money in BA through Xoom or crossing to Uruguay. I am young(ish) and working, not retired, and while I would like to of course watch it grow and save some up, that is not its primary purpose. Money will be flowing (or trickling haha) in and out. I will be having money deposited into this account irregularly from my work and withdrawing it down there, as mentioned. I do not currently have an American bank account. I just closed mine because of new fees and such for using it irregularly (not having direct deposit, not doing x number of transactions per month). I was also curious about using a credit union, as those are supposed to be nice, but that may not work because I definitely want the most accessible option I can find. Any bonuses for any particular banks / credit unions? Most likely the best option for my purposes will be a national institution, but just in case it helps, I am from the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Thanks!

I use a credit union (Boeing Employees, inherited from my parents), and it does not charge me for overseas withdrawals). I no longer use it in Argentina, though, because I would get the official rate. In an emergency, I might do so. I have used it to withdraw dollars from Uruguayan ATMs.

 

[bobg]

You might look into USAA. It's primarily an insurance company. And for insurance you need a US military connection. But they are also a large bank and you may be able to bank there even without a US military connection. The thing is, since historically they served members of the US military, they are used to dealing with customers spread out around the globe. Great telephone support. I should add that other than ATM withdrawals here I have no experience with their non-US services.

Bob