Julie C. Says:
We are planning to move overseas in the next year or so and are taking steps to get that started. Do you have any recommendations for how to handle our banking?
IL Personal Finance Expert Jeff Opdyke Says:
Hi Julie,
Thanks for the question. I will speak from experience, since I moved to Prague in 2018 and just relocated to Portugal this summer. For the entirety of that period so far, I’ve operated from foreign as well as U.S. bank accounts, since I have financial obligations on both side of the Atlantic.
I will tell you how I do it, and you can base your decisions on my experiences
- I have an account at a small, local bank in Louisiana. I use that largely for the safe deposit box I’ve had for years, and it’s close to my kids in case anything happens to me. Easy access for them. However, small banks are terrible at moving money abroad. They don’t have direct access, so that go through correspondent banks like JP Morgan and others. That adds to the cost and the time it takes for money to get to you.
- I have an account at big, national bank as well. This is my primary account. I use it to pay bills and to receive money from overseas. From this bank, I can send money to my small bank, or to my brokerage/IRA, etc. It’s also where I have set up all my auto-payment features for things like life insurance, and from which I pay my credit card bills directly.
- I use Wise.com (and their iPhone app) to move money back and forth overseas. I’ve set up wise so that my U.S. and European bank accounts are attached to it, so I can pop onto the app and move money in about 90 seconds. Depending on the accounts and the currencies I’m using that day, my transfer happens within a couple hours, a day, or maybe two days. It’s also one of the cheapest I’ve found in terms of fees.
- Finally, I use a global multi-currency debit card called Revolut. With this card, I can move money from a bank account directly onto the card (or I can actually get paid onto the card from a client, if I wish). Then when I’m traveling, I can instantly convert one currency to another, directly in the Revolut app. That then lets me access local cash at bank ATMs in whatever country I’m in. It’s a one-time, cheap conversion fee, and then I never face out of network or currency conversion fees at the local ATM.
And that’s pretty much my banking setup in a nutshell. Hope that helps.
If you want to go even further, and actually grow your money while living overseas, don’t forget to join me for my Retirement Income Masterclass, where I’ll show you the strategies I’m personally using to boost my nest egg.
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