International bank accounts

[Cornfed]

I imagine this issue has been gone into before, but given the nature of the forum, probably not recently, so the information will likely be obsolete.

If you are earning money non-locally overseas, where do you have your money sent?

[MrMan]

I imagine this issue has been gone into before, but given the nature of the forum, probably not recently, so the information will likely be obsolete.

If you are earning money non-locally overseas, where do you have your money sent?

I'm thinking of splitting between where I live and my home country. I've done wire transfers before. If I decide to stay overseas a long time, it makes sense to invest locally in a developing economy if I can set it up where I don't get ripped off.

What I usually do is just have bank accounts in the US, and wire money into a bank account after I've accumulated quite a bit of it. One trick I learned is to use a bank that has branches in both countries. The only two I am aware of that have retail services are HSBC and Citibank. HSBC owns some banks in upstate NY, and maybe a few branches in California. The reason for this is if you do a wire transfer using HSBC or Citi, they own banks on both ends and don't have to go through a third bank that charges you. That might be 1990's advice, though. My wife was able to get a deal at a local bank where they could tell us the exact cost on both ends. I don't know if the system has changed, or if it is just one of the systems they use, but if you send money from a bank in one country to a podunk bank in the US, some third party bank may charge you an amount not disclosed beforehand for wiring the money, for example $70. That was years ago. It could be more now.

If you have a relative you trust on the other end (e.g. a trustworthy parent) you may be able to use Moneygram or Western Union. Those services are expensive, but it might work out best for a smaller amount of money.

If you get a ticket home every year, you can probably take the money in cash. I think they leave you alone if it's less than $10k. I had a friend who took tens of thousands in from Indonesia in the early 2000's. He told them he was a construction contractor and these were his earnings in Indonesia and they were cool with it.

If you have several tens of thousands of dollars, it seems like it may be about $50K, you can have an HSBC account in certain Asian countries and in the US, and transfer money between two linked accounts without any kind of fee. I think you just move the money from one account to the other online. But then you have $50K sitting there not invested in anything that keeps up with inflation. They use your money and you just get somewhere to put it and you can transfer it for free.

I don't remember the name of the form, but if you have $10K or more in a foreign account, you are required to report it to the treasury if you are a US person.