I was so tired of getting charged international fees from my US bank and a fee here at the ATM. I finally opened up a saving account with credit card from a local bank. The forms the US government makes one fill out is kind of crazy, so plan on at least one hour to complete the paperwork. No more excessive fees, for me.
You need to be a member of Boquete Ning to add comments!
Replies
Well we got the card today and as long as we pay off the charges made by the 15th of the month, we will not be charged interest. I will keep the required amount in the savings account to collect interest and this amount will determine the credit limit. There is a $3 per month fee for insurance so that the money in the savings is protected, with the interest paid it is about $1.97 / month.
Another interesting fact is there is a number we must call in English and Spanish to let the bank be aware if there are any out of country charges. This will help with credit card fraud and was necessary the last time I used my Master Card from the US.
Again may not be a great idea for those that have direct deposit in the US, but for running a business we did not have many options.
I just left the US and my local bank told me banks in Panama should accept cash credit using my credit card. from my local bank or chase. Only been here two days so haven' tried it yet.
You can use a US credit card here. Some banks like Bank America and Citibank charge an international exchange fee. Other like Chase, do not.
You can use a Chase debit card at an ATM here but Chase will charge $5 and the local bank with charge $4 more.
If you get a debit card from some US banks they will pay the fees. I use Capital 360 for a debit card and they do not reimburse the $4 but do not charge a non Capital One ATM fee.
If you get a local debit card, Clave it will work in all ATMs here but if you use an ATM not belonging to your bank the fee is $1 plus 7% tax.
We have an account with a local community bank in the US in which our Social Security is direct-deposited every month. We use our debit card from that account everywhere here and have never had any fees. Also use it for cash withdrawals and our bank refunds us the $4 ATM fee. Heard it's not easy to open an account here and that there are lots of fees involved. We did bring a letter from our US bank, but it is now a year old. We also have a secure Visa credit card from the US which we use here occasionally and have never had any fees on that either.
The local bank's VISA card plan works for me because I clear my balance every month and have never paid any interest. For me it's just a payment tool, I have no intention of financing anything with it.
My bank is Global and the card is based on a savings account. I will use it as a debit card so several fees will not apply. Yes we need a balance of $150. in the account, we need $300. in my checking. This money can be used if there is an emergency with a one time monthly fee of $20.
The hardest part for us was getting money into the account in the US to order product for our business. Western Union charged money and we had to use a family member in the states to retrieve it, Pay Pal charged money, if we used the ATM a double hit from both countries, I think it was $3 to $4 here and then $5 from Wells Fargo.
Yes there are more fees if we use it as a credit card, but much less if we maintain a $150. balance and use it as a debit card. Also the small amount of earnings on the savings account will off set the fees. We will be able to receive product much faster now that funds are not sent via Western Union, providing better service.
This may not work for everyone, but for us we are glad we took this step.
When I tried one about seven years ago, the bank insisted on keeping my card maximum in my savings account. For a $5000 credit card maximum, I had to keep $5000 in savings at the bank. On top of that was an annual fee. No thanks.
We got the same story just last week.
Rules are rules I guess. No trust at all.
Well we really need one here in the country we live as it is hard to make deposits in the US when you live here. Also the ATM fee is what gets you here. The fees are much less than we were paying in fees from Wells Fargo and the ATM here. We also make 1.4 % on the account.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next