cxbonne

HeidiInTheAlps

1) Switzerland is the most US citizen unfriendly banking country, ever. Even towards Dual Swiss/US citizens residing in Switzerland. In fact due to #FATCA they are told to renounce or they will call their mortgage due.
2) Most countries aren't going to be easy to open an account if you are a US citizen. If you were a dual citizen of any other country, it would be no problem.

US citizens trying to do any financial business outside the US carry the #FATCA burden. It's a terrible thing, it's super harmful to middle and low class US citizen families overseas. Disastrous in fact.

worldwidedreamer

Stijn Loomans

Open a N26 account

KLouis

Now, what on earth is a N26 account?

malmostoso

It's an online bank from Germany (iirc), very useful service.

pewpew

N26 is a German startup/bank. They operate in several EU countries and are expanding to the US. Notably, they're fee-free (though they have products that charge a monthly fee), and 100% online

bertles86

Monzo, Revolut, TransferWise Borderless. Lots of options. :-)

:D!

Do monzo and revolut accept US residential addresses? Revolut is not a bank and is not a suitable place to hold $50K. You might as well be buying supermarket gift cards

der_saeufer

This. I'm not sure what OP's trying to accomplish here--there are more efficient ways to speculate on currency than opening a consumer account in EUR, and occasional SEPA payments can be done easily enough through Transferwise or the like--or through a EUR account with €500 in it.

If you find a really generous bank in the Eurozone, you might--might--get 0.5% on €50k in a savings account. Depending on the country and how competitive its banks are, it's also not uncommon for current accounts to charge monthly or annual fees in addition to not paying interest.

N26 is great. If you don't need any of their premium services, you get a 100% free current account with a great app and a debit MasterCard. It's also really easy to open an account--fill in some forms online, video chat an employee who looks at your passport, receive debit card a few days later. Basically all you need is an address in a country they serve and a passport from a country on their list (which includes nearly the entire industrialized world and a fair number of middle-income countries as well).

I suspect that when they do start providing services in the US, they'll operate completely separately from their German-based Eurozone branch, though I'd love to be proven wrong.

Gigantor

Send me the money... I will open the account on your behalf

Counsellor

I had the same response from Commerzbank in Germany, which demanded I close an active account I had with them for over 50 years, just because I am a U.S citizen. They said they wouldn't do business with U.S. citizens unless they were actually residing in Germany irrespective of where they were living when they opened the account or how active the account was. They stuck to that despite my protests, even when I showed them I was reporting the account to the IRS, and said it was because of the extra paperwork the IRS demanded they provide.

Who knew the IRS could dictate to foreign banks?

UKtravelbear

Well given that your bank may also operate in the US there would be a requirement for it to follow all applicable US laws and failure to comply with any US law could lead to having their banking licence revoked or sanctions applied.

And even if that wasn't the case a US customer could be seen as putting an extra burden on the bank that they would regard as unacceptable and going above what they would have to do with a German customer.

WilcoRoger

OP is a dual US-HU citizen, therefore my advice to grab his HU passport and open an account in HU in the currency of his preference

QtownDave

Mini update: I contacted the HU lawyer who helped with the citizenship application for his advice and he said that banks there require Hungarian residence