SCOTIABANK WINS
Okay, S.S. recipient ex-pats: The unmentionable bank I left because they played with my money for several days before the deigned to let me have it is almost history. (It will take 30 to 60 days for the Embassy/S.S. to make the bank deposit change.)
I inquired at Banco General and it was good insofar as depositing the S.S. directly into the accounts and not "playing-with-it-for-as-long-as-possible" is concerned; the service-with-a-smile was good, but they wanted $6/mo to handle the direct-deposit wire, and were unrelenting regarding all the paperwork required to open an account.
The other unmentionable banks had bad reps for customer service, so I didn't even go there.
But I now have an account with SCOTIABANK, and it was super easy to do, they were "bendable" regarding required papers to open my account--considering how long I have lived here--there is no extra charge for the debit card that can be used online (my former bank charged me $5/mo), and they bent over backwards to help me get this done. So far, I am impressed, and I will be so glad when I can finally be rid of my former bankers.
Thanks for listening ;)
Replies
"Porter has said Scotiabank will keep its focus on Latin American markets such as Chile, Mexico, Peru and Colombia. "
Strange they do not mention Panama given its banking importance.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-04/scotiabank-cuts-1-500-jobs...
Actually, according to Global Finance, WORLD'S BEST BANKS 2014,
Emerging Markets, the best bank in Panama is: BANCO GENERAL.
https://www.gfmag.com/magazine/october-2014/worlds-best-banks-2014?...
Patrick
The criteria for selection has nothing to do with individual accounts and customer service to those individuals,much less anything to do with customer service for expats in Panama.
thanks summer,, do you have any details on how to link to paypal ? They ask for a routing # which scotia says they dont have one
I had trouble opening a PayPal when I was using my Panama home address together with the bank in Panama, even though the bank was international. I finally figured out that if I use my MBEtc address in Miami, then no problem. I later added my Panama address as a second address, and all went well.
Routing numbers are a U.S. only Federal Reserve issue, and used for U.S PayPal accounts only. PayPal has separate entities for each of over 200 countries.
Since I face the same issue, I did some research, and found the below answer on the PayPal community forum.
Each account requires a separate, unique e-mail address. If you use gmail, they don't allow multiple addresses for a single account, but there are workarounds using plus sign or dots (periods) to create secondary e-mail addresses LINK
This is useful if you want to have two PayPal accounts,one in each of two countries such as the U.S. and Panama, because each one requires a unique e-mail address and linking to a bank in each respective country.
Here's the PayPal explanation of handling different countries and multiple accounts:
We also use Scotiabank. We receive excellent customer service.
There is an annual fee to use their debit card. It does not interact with the CLAVE system. You can use their debit card to withdraw funds from any ATM but you will pay a fee in addition to the $4 charge.
We also have a USA credit union account and use it for our routine financial transactions. We did this because Scotiabank requires a 15 day waiting period for USA checks to clear.
I am thinking about doing a direct deposit of my monthly SS funds to my Scotiabank account...assuming the funds are available immediately.
We love Scotiabank and have no plans to change anytime soon.
Is this 15 day waiting period 15 business days or exactly 15 days counting Holidays & Weekends?
Patrick
It's 15 business days