TheMadBrewer

It has been many years (but post 9/11/2001) but I walked into the Deutsche Bank office on Köningsalle in Düsseldorf and said I was an American who traveled often to Germany and wanted to open a bank account. They asked for my passport and I had to fill out an IRS form (SSN, etc) and took €400 in cash and I had an account with an ATM card. The account fees run about €5/month.

Some years later I inquired about a Maestro card and once they made sure I wanted a debit card, not a credit card, that too was no problem. I used it at train station kiosks for years, until my US credit card offered chip+pin.

As I said, this was years (12?) ago and things may have changed but the only issue I've had is the one time I needed help I couldn't call because customer service is a paid number and would work from the US. Luckily I kept the card of the person who set up the account. He was long gone but the number went so someone who helped.

I use the account to auto top-up my German mobile number and sometimes do transfers to landlords when renting a FeWo (in addition to ATM withdrawals)

The most unexpected use was when a friend was making an ATM withdrawal (at another bank) and he dilly-dallied and the ATM sucked back the money. It was a Friday afternoon and the bank said nothing could be done until Monday when they serviced the ATM. If the money was there we could collect it. Problem was we were leaving town on Sunday. But since I had a DB account, they could transfer it (if found) to my account, which they did and I gave my friend the US$ equivalent. There was a service fee on my part -- he paid for my beers that night

:D!

That seems like a breach of all sorts of regulations. The ATM knows that it sucked the cash back. If you had done nothing, the value of the cash withdrawal would have been automatically recredited to his account when the ATM was reconciled on Monday.

TheMadBrewer

I asked that and the lady thought not because it was an international transaction. I thought that eventually the money might work its way back to his account but their offer of a transfer to my bank account seemed a more sure thing. Neither of us were customers of that bank and I guess the form I filled out stated it was my ATM card that was used. This was a small branch (may have even been a Sparkasse, I don't remember) in a small town. Probably didn't have this happen very often.

der_saeufer

European banks' treatment of Americans post-FATCA is all over the place.

One retail bank here in Belgium will not do business with US citizens at all--not even if the USC in question is a Belgian who happened to be born on his parents' vacation in the US and has never even had an American passport.

Meanwhile, down the road at the local branch of the Dutch mega-bank ING, the only burden placed on Americans is an extra form where you provide your SSN and acknowledge that you know Uncle Sam is watching.

N26 is even easier, just a box to tick when opening your account.

It's sort of like US and Canadian press outlets' response to GDPR--some made a few changes and added a couple pop-ups while others completely block all traffic from the EU.

catandmouse

Most Swiss banks will avoid US citizens or even anyone who has any kind of relationship with the US like the plague. Blame FATCA and the blackmail that Swiss banks have been subjected to over the last decade or so. Even US citizens resident here in Switzerland have all kinds of difficulty to operate accounts in Switzerland. They're generally parked into specific areas of the bank, isolated from the rest of operations and will have high operating fees attached.
I doubt any Swiss bank is going to be interested unless you have serious amounts of money.

Counsellor

I got the strong feeling it was the latter reason.

Counsellor

That US citizen had better be making his FATCA filing reporting any accounts he does have in Belgium (or anywhere overseas) to the IRS, or they can (and have in similar cases) come after him for failure to file, and fine him severely.

There are reports of other dual citizens who got American citizenship by being born in the US, who have never used it or even applied for a passport, being hassled by the IRS for failing to report. (And then the IRS goes after them for taxes a well.)

HeidiInTheAlps

For anyone that wants to join in the #FATCA freedom fight, there is a group gathered on Twitter, there is some movement recently, with Holding introducing a bill, and Rep Don Beyer (making it bipartisan) working with Holding's office. Beyer is a great person to have on the #FATCA Freedom team, as he was the Ambassador to Swizterland when the #FATCA .... hit the fan in Switzerland. He witnessed first hand the damage he did to families with US passports. DM me if you can find the thread on Twitter...

aster

I assume you were born in the US? This would make simply showing a Hungarian passport without mentioning US residence largely irrelevant as banks tend to treat US citizens and US-born persons (citizens... or not) virtually identically. Plus there is the matter of actual residence which the bank would like to know anyway, usually in the form of a utility bill.

Do you actually want to park USD somewhere or are you going to invest in various currencies? Surely Citi is just as advanced in terms of banking features and options in the US as it is around the world, so multi-currency accounts should also be available in the US.

But if you really just want to keep funds overseas in a legit way then I'd look at other Citi options abroad, possibly in Europe. They have a presence in numerous countries and probably have more experience in dealing with US citizens than any other bank globally. I don't know whether they do retail in Hungary but in Poland for instance they have a high-street presence (usually located within major shopping malls) and Citigold status can be had with today's equivalent of $77k. You don't need to be a local resident but you will need to present all docs (incl. those concerning US residence).

You can also check other countries where Citi operates, but it'll be easiest if they actually serve the general public with a local presence than just a single, non-retail office in the nation's capital city.

aster

On a side note, has anyone tried both N26 and Revolut and is able to make a comparison between the two?