Paying Bill with Foreign Bank Account
Jun 10, 2017, 1:56 am
#1
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Paying Bill with Foreign Bank Account
Is there any way to link a foreign bank account to a US American Express account?
My dollar/euro holdings have gotten out of proportion and I would love to be able to pay my US Personal Platinum bill with my German checking account.
Thanks for the help!
My dollar/euro holdings have gotten out of proportion and I would love to be able to pay my US Personal Platinum bill with my German checking account.
Thanks for the help!
Jun 10, 2017, 2:00 am
#2
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Canada, USA, Europe
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Posts: 31,452
I don't know about the US, but with the UK card it's not possible. I tried several ways and times over the past years and was on each occasion told belt Amex that it is not possible. I tried to explain that I wanted my foreign bank to wire funds into the account listed on my Amex statement and reference the card number but was told their systems are not set up to receive it that way.
Jun 10, 2017, 2:03 am
#3
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I don't know about the US, but with the UK card it's not possible. I tried several ways and times over the past years and was on each occasion told belt Amex that it is not possible. I tried to explain that I wanted my foreign bank to wire funds into the account listed on my Amex statement and reference the card number but was told their systems are not set up to receive it that way.
Jun 10, 2017, 2:15 am
#5
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Yes, I do. But I would have to figure out and pay all the associated fees from both banks and likely exchange rate arbitrage. I was hoping that it might be simpler done through Amex.
Jun 10, 2017, 2:28 am
#6
Join Date: Oct 2015
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Amex would also charge you an exchange rate. If the amount is large enough it makes sense to go via another account, the fees will be 1 or 2%, that's the cost of paying internationally unfortunately.
Jun 10, 2017, 2:49 am
#8
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I'm afraid I don't entirely follow the suggestion.
To clarify the situation a bit: I generally try and keep my euro accounts running low and most of my money in dollars. This usually works well but I have some very large reimbursable expenses coming up that reimburse on roughly a month basis. These can be paid with either Amex or Maestro but I don't maintain enough euros to easily cover them. The reimbursement will only come to my German bank account. Therefore if I pay with Amex and get reimbursed into my German account I will be turning way more dollars into euros than I want to. This is why paying the charges on Amex and then paying it off from my German account would be the ideal situation.
To clarify the situation a bit: I generally try and keep my euro accounts running low and most of my money in dollars. This usually works well but I have some very large reimbursable expenses coming up that reimburse on roughly a month basis. These can be paid with either Amex or Maestro but I don't maintain enough euros to easily cover them. The reimbursement will only come to my German bank account. Therefore if I pay with Amex and get reimbursed into my German account I will be turning way more dollars into euros than I want to. This is why paying the charges on Amex and then paying it off from my German account would be the ideal situation.
Jun 10, 2017, 2:52 am
#9
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There are various services that allow you to load up a debit card with EUR from, for example, a German bank account, then convert to USD. This debit card could then be used to pay off your Amex.
Jun 10, 2017, 2:54 am
#10
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Do you have any specific recommendations?
Jun 10, 2017, 3:14 am
#12
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I've never explored such services before because I've always been able to successfully juggle the funds and typically only needed to go from dollars to euros, which is easily accomplished at the interbank rate with a Capitol One 360 debit card and an ATM.
Jun 10, 2017, 3:18 am
#14
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